Five great out-of-the-way Chinese restaurants

Golden Palace, 146-150 Station Road, Harrow, Middlesex (020 8863 2333) £30.

House soup - an exacting test - is excellent and the dim sum and list of chef's specials rival Soho's and Bayswater's Chinatowns. Why not celebrate the Michaelmas term with goose feet and shitake mushroom hotpot? The thought may make you welcome the Buddhist vegetarian dishes. Anyway, definitely worth a detour for superior food, amiably served.

Peninsula, Holiday Inn Express, Bugsby's Way, SE10 (020 8858 2028) £28.

I had one of the worst Chinese meals ever in Greenwich, featuring dumplings filled with tinned Spam (or worse). The arrival of this spacious hotel restaurant is welcome. Wistful thoughts of various friends (RIP) in nearby Limehouse - London's original Chinatown - are dispatched when you see specials flashed up on plasma screens. Fun for weekend dim sum.

Shanghai, 41 Kingsland High Street, E8 (020 7254 2878) £24.

The handsome tiled interior, once an eel-and-pie shop, is a refuge in a bleak stretch of street. Long wooden benches opposite a bar in the front room are where to sit to order dim sum during the day. The choice is made distinctive by some interesting regional specialities. At night, the back room can get raucous with parties.

Lee Fook, 76 The Broadway, Tolworth, Surbiton (020 8399 9793) £26.

The late Yan Kit So, scholar, gourmet and, for me, matchmaker, rated highly the cooking of Ringo Lo at Lee Fook in Westbourne Grove. Now located in Surbiton, Ringo remains willing to discuss a menu in advance and lay on a feast. This bit of planning extracts the most excitement from the kitchen, but dropping in works well, too.

Royal China, 3 Chelverton Road, SW15 (020 8788 0907) £34.

Once part of the eponymous chain - the black-and-gold interior gives a clue - this Putney emporium, probably the nearest south-of-the-river rival to Chinoise (see review Page 28), maintains high standards in the mostly Cantonese menu and in the daily dim sum - expect queues on Sundays. The site was once a synagogue.

Note: prices above estimate the cost of a meal with wine or sake for one.