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The look is LA or Sydney, the food is Brazilian. The well balanced menu includes good- value set lunches and dinners that change with the availability of fresh ingredients but great steaks are standard (see Alameda).

Sambal, a sauce made with chillies, features on the menu at this stylish Malay restaurant, along with other Southeast Asian specialties. The food is complemented by a beautiful courtyard-house setting (see Cafe Sambal).

Hatsune has a dedicated following for its beautiful sushi rolls, prepared with fresh fish flown from Japan. It also looks gorgeous and has superlative service. On top of which, it is also a lot cheaper than you might imagine (see Hatsune).

Contemporary Western cuisine that combines top-quality ingredients with impressive cooking skills. A multi-course option with wine pairings provides a tour of an inventive but never pretentious Asian-French fusion menu that’s pure pleasure (see Aria).

The location (facing the east gate of the Forbidden City) vies with the food (international fusion) for top honors. For the best views ask for a window table; if they are taken, instead enjoy the striking contemporary art on the walls (see CourtYard).

With its vast empty spaces and furniture so over-designed that the chairs and tables are scarcely recognizable as such, Green T. House seems more gallery than restaurant. The strangeness extends to the menu: from roast lamb with oolong and fennel, to green tea wasabi prawns, everything contains tea (see Green T. House).

The setting is a two-story wooden mansion on the banks of Qian Hai, overlooking the lake. The Vietnamese food is variable but as a romantic night-time dining spot this takes some beating (see Nuage).

A beautiful modernist restaurant dominated by a vast gleaming open kitchen. Watching a team of white-hatted chefs searing, caramelizing, and flash- frying is a sure way to build up an appetite, and the wine list is exemplary (see Jing).

An ultra-stylish diner offering contemporary fusion food built around a sushi bar. Attached bar, Icehouse, doubles as a blues club, and is intriguing for its setting in a former imperial cold storage room (see RBL).

One of the oldest Western restaurants in town is this homely spot serving simple, high quality Belgian fare. As an accompaniment to the food, the list of Belgian beers is second to none (see Morel’s).