Chinese cuisine is making a serious push to attract the city’s most discerning gastronomes this year. Now, hot on the heels of the opulent new Table 8 down at the Mulia, comes South Beauty, a top-fl ight new Chinese restaurant serving both Sichuan and Cantonese cuisine. You will fi nd South Beauty in the new and still almost completely empty Thamrin Nine building just before the huge BCA tower next to the Hotel Indonesia roundabout.

A friend of mine was recently complaining that many of the restaurant reviews that he reads in newspapers and magazines seem to spend more time discussing the decor than the actual food and I hope that I don’t fall into that trap here. However it has to be said that South Beauty is a simply sumptuous place inside. The restaurant covers a huge area of 1000 m2 and houses ten private rooms, whilst being able to seat an impressive 328 people.This is the only branch of South Beauty that exists outside of China and some serious effort has been put into its design. Inside you’ll fi nd huge dragon ceiling murals, innovative lighting effects, minimal Rothko style art, wall panels consisting of wooden railway sleepers and those ten private rooms, which are all uniquely individual and wonderfully intimate. The pearl room in particular has had no expense spared on its construction and has already received the Megawati Sukarnoputri seal of approval.

The restaurant is open every day from 11.30am until 2.30pm and again for dinner from 6pm until 10.30pm. After a small voyage of discovery checking out every nook and cranny of the restaurant, I sat down with the menu and the mind started to boggle. South Beauty’s menu is one of the largest that I’ve ever clapped eyes on. Sichuan food is one of China’s eight main cuisines and is renowned for its spiciness and thickness, however rest assured that the dishes on offer here are not excessively fi ery. South Beauty imports many of its ingredients, such as its chillies, directly from China in a bid for absolute authenticity. A meal here can clock in at a surprisingly reasonable price though, so long as you avoid those classically expensive specialist dishes such as shark’s fi n and abalone.

We tried a Rock Salad (Rp.68,000), which comes with a luscious dressing that diners are supposed to shake for good luck and prosperity. Deliciously refreshing. South Beauty features a huge seafood menu however we chose to move on to some of the restaurant’s specialist dishes. With this in mind we tucked into some Beggar Chicken (Rp.198,000) an unusual traditional dish consisting of chicken wrapped in clay with herbs that aims to emulate the Chinese legend of a beggar who once stole a chicken and baked it by hiding it in the ground. The unique blend of Chinese herbs really brought out the flavours of the chicken, kind of like a Chinese tandoori. Superb.

We also wrestled with a plate of Fried Sliced Australian Beef Tenderloin with Stones in Hot Oil (Rp.288,000 - eight is a lucky number for the Chinese you understand). For this culinary masterpiece, special stones from the Jialing River are heated to 200° Celsius before being placed in a bowl of spicy salad oil. More spices and strips of beef are then added to the mix to create a truly mouth-watering blend of subtle and yet lively fl avours that really bring out the tender, organic taste of the beef.

A review such as this can’t really can’t really make a dent in the huge menu on offer down at South Beauty and so I’d advise you all to take a trip down to Thamrin Nine, whilst it’s still reasonably empty and parking remains no problem, and treat yourself to the very best of Chinese.