THE King's Castle, York's pocket-sized, city centre Chinese restaurant, has had a makeover. Gone is the all-you-can-eat buffet and the faintly shabby decor.

In its place is a smart new restaurant and takeaway, tricked out in a subtle combination of Chinese and Japanese decor, that's an ideal place for a quick bite before catching a show or after a few drinks in a city bar.

We popped in there early one Friday evening before heading off to the cinema, and having been to the Castle a couple of times in its buffet days were pleasantly surprised by the change.

There's a cool, modern look to the place. Small, square tables topped in pale wood; half-toned walls in cream and flecked brown, a deep, leather sofa in the window. The curtains are a smart Japanese design, there's a large, elegant Chinese vase in one corner and display cases holding delicate Chinese and Japanese cups and teapots on the walls.

The one slight disappointment was the menu. We expected our friendly, white-jacketed waiter to bring us proper menus. Instead, he gestured to the garishly-coloured takeaway menus already on the table. It struck a slightly false note: you'd think that, having taken such care over the decor, they could have produced a nice sit-down menu as well.

But that didn't stop us enjoying our meal. The menu, when you get over your disappointment at the way it is printed, is actually quite extensive for such a small eatery. It boasts a range of appetisers, including crispy duck with pancakes and hoi sin sauce, spare ribs, pancake rolls, crab claws and wan ton, four different soups, and a range of main courses that include various kinds of roast duck, sweet and sour dishes, chop suey, kung po, satay, black bean and green pepper dishes and, my particular favourite, hot and spicy Szechuan-syle dishes.

We chose to share a serving of crispy duck with six pancakes (£6.90) as a starter, then picked a Szechuan-style chicken (£4.20) and Char sui pork (£4.20) as main courses. Each came with boiled rice included, fried rice would have been 50p extra. We also chose a side dish of beancurd and vegetables in a sweet and sour sauce.

We had come early to make sure we had time to get to the cinema, so there was only one other couple in the restaurant when we arrived, though it began to fill up before we left.

Our crispy duck starter arrived fairly quickly, shreds of duck off the bone served with a separate dish of sliced cucumber and onion, all beautifully presented in Japanese bamboo steaming racks. There was a separate rack containing our six pancakes, and a small dish of hoi sin sauce.

The idea is to make up your own pancakes, adding duck and the sliced vegetables, dribbling a little sauce over, and then rolling the whole thing up.

The duck was hot, crispy and very tasty, perfectly complemented by the sliced cucumber and sweet sauce, though the onion was a little powerful. But it was a generous helping and a good beginning to the meal.

Then, for some reason, we had to wait for our main courses. The restaurant was still fairly quiet, and we could hear the sound of frying coming from the little kitchen behind - not to mention cheery singing - but for some reason our food still did not materialise.

Eventually, getting worried by the time, we told our waiter we had to be at the cinema in 40 minutes and could he please hurry things along. He did so.

The main courses, too, were nicely presented. The waiter laid out lovely, Japanese earthenware bowls, then brought our dishes and the rice in separate bowls. In the Chinese way, we both helped ourselves to each of the dishes, breaking open new, clean chopsticks from a supply on each table.

The Szechuan chicken was excellent, the chicken itself tender and succulent, the sliced fried onions, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts with which it came crunchy and tasty. The pale-coloured sauce was spicy and tangy, just as I like it.

The char sui pork was equally good, the meat, with its red rims, delicately flavoured and sweet. The dish included a good range of crunchy vegetables - broccoli, green peppers, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, cashew nuts and onion among them.

The main disappointment was the sweet and sour vegetables. It should have contained beancurd: but there wasn't a single piece to be seen. Worse, the sweet and sour sauce was overpoweringly sweet. We scarcely touched the dish.

Our waiter, however, when we pointed out the absence of beancurd, apologised, said there must have been a mistake over the order, and offered to knock a little off our bill, which made us feel better.

Overall, our meal was surprisingly good - tasty, filling and inexpensive. With a bottle of Tsingtao beer for me, and an orange juice for Lili, the bill came to just £22.50. Excellent value.

Just remember to let them know you're in a hurry if you're rushing to catch a show.

. Tel: 01904 633668.

Updated: 08:34 Saturday, March 09, 2002