The little bridge to China

Chinatown is where people go to in search of a romantic vision of authenticity. This usually means surly waiters, dingy surroundings and the eerie 'pleasures' of fish lips and congee.

There's no reason why authenticity should preclude beauty and comfort. And Imperial China - formerly China City, in an atmospheric courtyard off Lisle Street - boasts both. You enter via a little wooden bridge over a carp pond into a lovely, dark-wood clad space. Smiling - staff take you to your linen-covered table.

The main menu's as authentic as you like: you'll find bitter melon, eel, abalone, jellyfish, shark's fin, lily buds and even carp.

We went for dim sum, and sampled a splendid, contemporary selection. Crumbly pastries stuffed with char siu pork were fabulous, as were: glutinous rice crammed with treats like prawn and sausage, fragrant from their lotus leaf wrappers; fluffy little pork and spring onion dumplings; and steamed scallop dumplings. Less successful were the Vietnamese spring rolls - good flavour, but soggy wrapping, and a deep-fried pork dumpling that had a spookily liquid filling.

Every dim sum meal needs one venture into the unknown - ours was peanut and black sesame paste dumplings - evil and wobbly, oozing what looked like thickened squid ink and horribly sugarysweet. Still, at £2.80 a pop, you can take the risk. We'll be back.