New World Cantonese Restaurant 14 Cardiff Road, Newport Tel: 01633 252666

The spacious interior of this friendly city centre restaurant comes as something of a surprise considering its modest frontage and cosy little bar at the entrance.

They certainly seem to need the space, judging by how busy the place was when we dropped in early on a Friday evening. Booking is probably a good idea for a table later on.

We opted for a middle-range set meal - the Orchid dinner at £18.50 a head - which offered a good combination of some of our favourites and included tea or coffee at the end.

Mixed hors d'oeuvres to start may have lacked the fried seaweed we like so much, but more than made up for that with generous portions of prawn toast, ribs, spring rolls and wontons.

That generosity was a sign of things to come. After a decent interval, the main courses arrived.

Crispy shredded beef, sweet and sour chicken, king prawns with pepper and blackbean sauce, and vegetables just about fitted on the heated plate - and there was plenty of each. We had to make space on the table for the large bowl of special fried rice.

The king prawns, served sizzling on a platter, deserve special mention. For once the pile of prawns was too big to count at a glance and divide by two!

Also praiseworthy was the quantity and quality of the mixed vegetables and fried rice. In fact, just those two would have made a very good meal. It's not often we leave much food on the table but we were defeated this time. Those with healthy appetites take note. With drinks while we waited and a decent bottle of Frascati, the bill came to just over £50. Paul Traynor