Jasmine, 1-2 Monkgate, York

11:35am Saturday 29th March 2008

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CHINA is famous for its street food. And of all the wondrous delicacies you can get at a stall by the side of the road, fried dumplings are among the finest.

Chinese dumplings - known as jiaozi in Mandarin - are small, soft, pastry parcels hand-stuffed with a variety of fillings.

These thumb-sized parcels are steamed or boiled for a few minutes, before being eaten straight from the pan with a tasty dipping sauce.

They're delicious - but they are even better if, instead of eating them out of the pan, you fry them lightly for a couple of minutes to brown and crisp the skin.

These fried dumplings are known as gautier jiaozi - at least in the part of China in which I lived - and are heavenly.

Well, joy of joys, we discovered fried dumplings on the menu at the new Jasmine restaurant on Goodramgate (actually it's on Monkgate, but that bit of Monkgate stuck on the end of Goodramgate beyond the Bar). We got ten for £4.50 as a starter, and they were the real deal: crisp, fresh, hot, moist and wonderfully satisfying when dipped in the accompanying soy sauce and vinegar dips.

The Jasmine opened only recently, having taken over the space once occupied by The Spice Club. Its main remit seems to be to cash in on the passion for Chinese all-you-can-eat' buffets. For £5.50 (£8.00 after 6.30pm) you can eat until you burst from the normal range of buffet-style dishes. This option is clearly proving popular, because when we arrived at just after 7.30pm on a Monday evening the restaurant was already busy, with plenty of Chinese as well as local people tucking in.

The restaurant also has a proper, sit-down, menu and we opted to try this.

As with so many Chinese restaurants, there are two menus. If you are not Chinese, you will be offered the standard English-language menu. It is worth asking for the Chinese-language version, however - the names of the dishes are translated - because it offers much more authentic fare. Stir-fried pig's intestines, chicken gizzard and braised pork belly with wild mushrooms are just a few of the exotic examples on offer.

The way to eat Chinese food is to share several dishes. Eat out at a Chinese restaurant as a couple, therefore, and you're at a bit of a disadvantage - the number of dishes you'll be able to order, and hence sample, will necessarily be less than if there is a big, noisy group of you.

We did our best, however, ordering a feast consisting of chicken gizzard (Lili) and lamb (me) on a skewer (£1 each) as appetisers, that starter of ten fried dumplings for £4.50, and then, as shared mains dishes, duck curry (£8) from the English' menu and, all from the Chinese' menu, bean curd and minced pork balls (£6.50), stir-fried pig's maw (it was actually pig's belly - £7.50) and braised aubergine (£6.50).

We added a generous serving of minced pork and bean curd fried rice (£6.50), which was plenty for two.

Our kebab-style starters were good, my lamb tender and with an authentic grilled-outdoors flavour. I didn't dare try Lili's chicken gizzard, but she assured me it was tasty. The fried dumplings were wonderful - and then came our main courses.

The table was literally groaning with food, but we tackled it with gusto. The bean curd and minced pork balls were delicious: hot, light, tasty and very satisfying. The aubergine was also excellent: slightly spicy, the aubergine cooked until it was meltingly tender and with a rich, slightly sticky texture, just as it should have.

I didn't try the stir-fried pig's maw, but Lili devoured it with relish. And the rice was just right: hot, filling, and not too dry.

Which leaves only the duck curry. This was the only dish we ordered from the standard, English', menu: and it was the only one that disappointed. The duck - plenty of thick, tender slices of good quality meat - was very good: it just didn't go with the rather bland curry.

The moral, we felt, was obvious: if you're here for a proper restaurant meal instead of just the buffet, ask for the Chinese menu.

Our whole mighty meal - including a pint of lager for me, an orange juice for Lili and a pot of Jasmine tea - came to just under £48. Not the cheapest of meals - but then, we had ordered more than we could possibly eat in the interest of research, and ended up taking much of it home with us (our cheerful, funny waitress, after getting over her surprise that I could speak Chinese, was happy to pack up the leftovers).

The Jasmine is not the best Chinese restaurant in town. But it is a cheerful, authentically Chinese addition to the city's dining scene.

factfile

Food:Good
Service:Cheerful
Value:Reasonable
Ambience:Modern
Disabled loos:YES Jasmine, 1-2 Monkgate, York. Tel: 01904 622181Stephen visited on Monday, March 17, 2008