East meets West

The contrast is awesome. Downstairs, the Paxton's Head is a scruffy, busy, old-fashioned looking pub. Beer has been spilt, the walls are dark, the decibel level is high, and everything looks rather jaded. Gangs of cheerful tourists fight for service with teams of footballers from Hyde Park kickabouts. But, make your way to the dining room on the first floor by way of the elegant staircase, and the decor changes completely. The Pan Asian restaurant is a high-ceilinged, cool-green space with three large communal tables. The wooden furniture is elegant, the stools along the bar stand tall, the benches are wide and comfortable.

What a delightful dining room. Service is friendly and attentive, the pricing is reasonable. The menu is promising and offers sides, mains, noodles and soups, and three desserts. As 'Pan Asian' implies, the dishes range from Shanghai noodle soup to nasi goreng, yakitori, or a Thai curry, and maybe that should ring an early alarm bell. It is very hard to master one cuisine let alone a handful - they've picked three different countries for the sides, which are also treated as starters - the pork back ribs are dry, overly chewy and drenched in unimpressive hoi sin sauce, Vietnamese spring rolls are dripping oil and solid through and through, and the tempura scallops are tiny queen scallops tasting disturbingly fishy, and again with a very greasy batter.

A dodgy beginning if ever there was one. On to the mains - a dish of chilli king prawns with shallots and spring onions shares most of the faults of the fried starters. The sticky rice is excellent, however, but the red beef curry is not. Even at these reasonable prices - £6.50 - a bowl of oversweet, unsubtle sauce with a few morsels of chewy beef lurking in the depths can never represent good value. The best dish is the wok-fried Singapore vermicelli which has the in-built advantage of being cooked to order.

Beautiful place, friendly service, forgiving prices - shame about the food. Incidentally, downstairs in the bar an English menu is chalked up on a blackboard - spicy chicken wings, chicken Caesar salad, vegetarian baguette. What must those tourists think of London?

Pan Asian Restaurant, SW1 Paxton's Head, 153 Knightsbridge, SW1 (020-7589 6627) Dinner for two with beer £40 No rating