Tang Li

CONVENIENTLY perched on the second floor of the new JW Marriott Hotel, Man Ho Chinese Restaurant offers a rich variety of Cantonese and Shanghai cuisines blended with Western elements.

The hotel's signature restaurant -- Man Ho is the Cantonese pronunciation of Marriott -- is casual with décor that's pleasant and eye-catching. Half dozen walls are lined with shelves displaying clay teapots of various sizes. Some are adorned with intricately carved handles and spouts evoking images of dragons, gnarled trees and wildlife. Lighting is subdued, as is the atmosphere, which is suffused with gentle music.

Outside the main dining area are a number of themed private rooms. For example, the Jade room blends light shades of green in the wallpaper, carpet and faux-jade chandelier. The Dragon and Phoenix rooms are outright opulent and quite roomy.

For a hotel that's all about "new luxury," the concept defining a consuming trend towards a feel, or an experience, of privilege and freedom, the food at Man Ho is reasonably priced, as compared to upscale Chinese restaurants around the city. The restaurant specializes in Shanghai cuisine and dim sum, devoting three pages of its menu to the latter.

Man Ho's dim sum offerings would suffice as an entire meal, with seafood, meat and vegetables galore. The steamed shrimp dumplings (four for 22 yuan) are bursting with shrimp that are amazingly fresh. The chicken feet in black bean sauce (16 yuan), a dim sum standard around the world, are huge and plentiful.

For a more conventional meal, however, begin with the crispy roasted pork appetizer (58 yuan), which comes with a yellow mustard sauce that is robust and fiery. The pork is lean and exquisitely crunchy. For a completely different texture to begin your meal, try the marinated wheat tofu in sweet sauce (38 yuan), a popular beginner in Shanghai. The tofu is soft and juicy and coarser than soy tofu.

The hot and sour soup with seafood (48 yuan) seems a meal in itself, with the spiciness hovering oh so subtly on the tongue after each spoonful.

If you're going to splurge on one item, make it the stir-fried Australian Wagyu beef with sliced garlic (168 yuan). It is Wagyu beef that Japan's famed Kobe beef comes from, but the cattle are now raised in many places around the world. Man Ho uses the Down Under version, which virtually melts in the mouth. It's a colorful dish, with green asparagus, red peppers and golden sautéed garlic.

No Chinese meal at a restaurant is complete without fish, and the baked codfish in honey sauce offers the most bang in the fewest bites. Set aside the chopsticks and pick up the fork and knife for this crispy strip of boneless cod.

Chinese desserts are modest in richness by Western standards, and the pan-fried crepe filled with red bean sauce (22 yuan) is an example of that. Light and fleetingly sweet, the crepes are a delicate notice to your taste buds that the meal is complete.