Goldfish swims against the tide

Goldfish is a curiously anachronistic new opening. In a time when upmarket Chinese restaurants are ever more intriguing - think Bar Shu or Dragon Castle - this chi-chi little number seems positively retro.

It reminded me of when the Zen group was considered cutting edge; odd, since there's a Zen right next door.

Quality is good, however, and an upmarket Chinese crowd - the chap in front's leopard-skin Cavalli T-shirt was a startler - was lapping it up.

We tried some of the dim sum - pork buns, shrimp har gau; though hardly groundbreaking, they were fresh, subtle and didn't appear mass-produced.

Main courses were fluently executed and given to designer flourishes and flouncy names: a beautifully steamed sea bass came with a mulch of minced ginger and spring onion on top and a bath of delicate soy, and Wind Shelter Bay prawns (complete with gushing description) provided little more than a poshed-up salt and pepper shrimp. Good, though. And the rice was really excellent.

It's a pretty little place, conjoined rooms in an attractive Georgian building decorated in dark wood with vivid goldfish puttering across the walls. This address has seen a number of restaurants off the premises; Goldfish may buck another trend by swimming against the tide.

Goldfish
Hampstead High Street, London, NW3 1RE