Minh's Cantonese Restaurant, Shifnal

A Cantonese banquet hits the spot,

– but there's always one who has the steak and chips.

Aren't pandas fantastic? What with the gloomy December weather, plus the eurozone crisis and the spectre of recession dominating the news bulletins, it is very easy to feel despondent about things.

Then it's touchdown time for the FedEx Panda Express, and suddenly all feels good with the world.

Surely not even the hardest, most cynical of hearts – and believe me I can do cynical – can fail to have been touched by the sight of those two gentle giants peering through the windows of their see-through crates? A warm glow came over me as I watched them survey their new homeland, mesmerised by the crowds of assembled VIPs who had turned out to welcome them. Sweetie and Sunshine, filling a cold, damp December day with, well, sweetness and sunshine.

Indeed the feelgood factor that our furry friends bring with them is so strong that the media has a name for it – panda diplomacy.

It is predicted that the loan of Sweetie and Sunshine will lead to closer relations between the UK and China, boosting trade links.

And in that spirit I thought it was time I did a bit of panda diplomacy myself, and returning the favour by bringing a touch of the Orient to this week's Insider, by visiting Minh's of Shifnal, a popular and well-known Cantonese restaurant in the small market town between Telford and Wolverhampton.

Of course, I couldn't perform such a mission alone. You need ambassadors, special advisers, the full shebang. So for this high-level diplomatic I was joined by a select band of my esteemed colleagues from Insider Towers – in other words we had our Christmas party.

There is a tradition among Chinese restaurants of having a giant fish tank on display. Popular legend is that this is so you can see the fish you are about to eat, so that when they say fresh fish, they mean fresh fish. However more often than not, this is simply for display purposes, with fish being seen as lucky creatures. Well apart from the ones that end up on your dinner plate, presumably.

Anyway, I digress, because there wasn't a large fish tank on display at Minh's. In fact there wasn't a fish tank at all, at least not one that I could see. What there was, though, was the 21st century, hi-tech equivalent - a large-screen, plasma television, showing footage of fish swimming around in a tank.

You know what I'm thinking: panda-cam. Big Brother for black and white bears. Sweetie and Sunshine's enclosure could be filled with hidden cameras, beamed live into Minh's restaurant. The pandas could be given weekly tasks to perform, with special meals – I dunno, say a nice deep-fried crispy duck with lemon sauce - if they are successful. And just bog-standard bamboo if they fail. People would flock here to see it; it could even spawn a worldwide television franchise. I can't believe my own genius sometimes.

Anyway, in the absence of panda-cam, at least in the foreseeable future, I suppose we had better talk about how Minh's is as it stands.

Set in the heart of Shifnal town centre, it is a modern restaurant with chocolate brown fascia signs above its large plate glass windows. Its location means it is not possible to park right outside, but there is a public car park nearby.

Inside, the restaurant feels quite luxurious, with voluminous table cloths, thick napkins neatly folded in wine glasses, and glossy pine chairs. A large fan adorns the lemon and peach walls, but for me the real party piece is the revolving glass dish sat in the middle of our round table like a roulette wheel.

When arrived at 6 o'clock on Friday night it was fairly quiet, but it soon livened up, and within an hour the place was heaving, with barely a table to spare. It seems to be popular with the younger generation, with the majority of customers appearing to be in their 30s or 40s, and I would hazard a guess that many of these were also works parties.

It is an excellent place for group bookings, with a choice of six set meals catering for different sized groups, enabling people to try a variety of different dishes, while there is also an a la carte menu with 165 different choices, as well as a separate English menu for those with more conservative tastes.

The staff all seemed very knowledgeable about the food on offer, and were happy to give advice on how to get the most out of the experience.

Nine members of our group opted for option E, a set menu, for £22, while the 10th went for a spring roll starter followed by a sirloin steak and chips from the English menu.

You certainly get a lot for your money. The set menu began with giant platters of paper-wrapped spare ribs, pork yuk sung were wrapped in lettuce, and sesame prawn toasts. The pork yuk sung was so abundant that everybody was able to have at least two helpings, and it was wrapped in delightfully crisp iceberg lettuce. It was followed by aromatic crispy duck, served in a special duck sauce. The spring rolls were very good and excellent value at £3, but with half a dozen on one plate, they proved too much for one man, so in the spirit of sharing and free trade, he offered a few of them around the table, in exchange for some pancakes.

The main courses were huge, so big in fact that there was barely room on our giant roulette wheel for all the different dishes. There were sizzling king prawns in black bean sauce, beef with black pepper sauce in a bird's nest, sweet and sour chicken and sliced pork, plus stir fried vegetables, yeung chow fried rice and, in a slight departure from the Cantonese theme, a Singapore Vermicelli, a blend of rice noodles and yellow noodles mixed up with seafood.

The pork was particularly good, being soft and tender, with cashew nuts giving it a bit of extra crunch. The beef was excellent, looking fantastic in a stylish bird's nest and proving to be a tasty choice, although the sweet and sour chicken was a little on the chewy side.

Everyone in the group had a different opinion on which was the best dish, but the beauty of a set menu option is there is something for everyone, and everybody can choose the things they enjoy most. While our menu was only open to groups of six or more, there were other set meals for groups of two or four, so you don't need a large party to take advantage.

As is so often the case, the English sirloin steak was not quite up to the same standard as the Chinese food on offer; reasonable enough, but a little fatty.

The total bill for our party of 10 was £260, which included a good few glasses of Tiger beer, which helped the evening to go with a swing. In other words, it £26 a head, not bad at all for a once-a-year occasion, and we were more than happy to leave a decent tip for a fun evening.

All in all, it was a great way to mark the start of the festive season, and no doubt we will be back soon. And who knows? Next time we might be to celebrate the birth of the panda cubs. We can but hope.

ADDRESS

Minh's of Shifnal, 20 Bradford Street, Shifnal TF11 8AU

Tel: 01952 463323

Web: www.minhs.co.uk

MENU SAMPLE

STARTERS

Aromatic crispy lamb £9.50

Deep-fried oysters with sweet and sour sauce £8

Tempura mixed vegetables £5.50

Golden quail's eggs £4

Salt and pepper mushrooms £5.50

MAINS

Stir fry king prawns and straw mushrooms £9.50

Crispy duck with plum sauce £10

Stir-fry fillet steak with ginger and spring onion £11

Baked fresh lobster with ginger and spring onion or black bean sauce £18

Tofu in black bean sauce £6

Roast pork vermicelli £7.50

Assorted seafood casserole £9.50