Opium - Nottingham

Spread over three floors of a listed building in Nottingham's trendy Lace Market, Opium bar and restaurant is driven by style and fashion. Drinkers congregate in the dimly lit ground-floor bar for cocktails and world beers amid swathes of Chinese silk and opium-den beds reminiscent of old Shanghai parlours.

Most of the culinary action takes place in the first-floor dining room, which is fitted out in sleek, colonial style. Customers can look forward to a lengthy menu of mostly Cantonese-inspired dishes, with a few specialities from other parts of the Far East (tempura oysters, skewered lemongrass chicken with satay sauce). Typical dishes might include wok-fried dumplings, lobster with ginger and spring onion, pork chop in Peking sauce, and chicken fillet in lemon sauce – not forgetting that perennial bestseller, aromatic crispy duck. At the very top of the building – overlooking the dining room – is the Zen lounge, which is perfect for post-prandial relaxation.