Tropical fruit and street food in Chelsea

This is an upmarket Malaysian in an upmarket bit of London. The menu prices at Awana in Chelsea (or is it Kensington?) are on the upmarket side too - but rest assured you don't need to pay them most of the time. There's 50% off food with toptable.com, 50% off food for tastecard holders, Groupon special offers...I suspect the people who pay full price are mostly those who have enough money not to care.

To do the restaurant credit, those who have booked with a special offer are not treated like second-class citizens.

The restaurant is large and slick-looking, with teak and burgundy leather. An unusual touch is a couple of television screens, showing the chef's hands deftly at work making the roti.

Food is pretty good, though not mindblowing. A starter of sup kambing (spicy lamb and potato stew) was one of the highlights - somewhere between a soup and a stew, with plenty of meat, it was a hearty way to begin the meal. Spicy little deep-fried potato cakes came with a salsa which had added zing from lemongrass.  A main course of sea bass was beautifully presented, wrapped in a banana leaf. The fish was moist and flavoursome, though the seafood sauce it came with was more of a challenge. Its smell and flavour made me think of fish sauce that had been left to ferment for a long time, and I think it might be something of an acquired taste. There is a fair range of vegetarian dishes, which are perhaps not as interesting as the meaty options - my mixed vegetable stir-fry was pleasant, though.

Desserts are on the petite side but include plenty to tempt. I was intrigued by the ice-cream flavours and tried the star anise with blood orange, jackfruit with ginger and chocolate with lemongrass from a wide selection. The first of these was fantastic, the second not bad but perhaps lacking in oomph and the third certainly interesting, but perhaps too dominated by the lemongrass. A guava cheesecake was light-textured, almost more of a mousse, but with a nice guava flavour.

There is a satay bar, too, offering Malaysian "street food" in a setting about as far from the streets of Penang as you can imagine.

Awana
85 Sloane Avenue
London SW3 3DX
020 7584 8880
www.awana.co.uk