Chef Dennis Wong is famed for his fusion of Vietnamese and French cuisine at his award winning San Francisco restaurant, Le Soleil. Its sister restaurant in the Royal Garden hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui East follows in its footsteps and serves up Vietnamese fusion delights. The hotel is a seventies throwback with several restaurants on various levels of a towering atrium. Walk through a bustling buffet then up the stairs to the upper-mezzanine where Le Soleil is a peaceful setting in itself - if you ignore the giant projection screen playing sport and the karaoke-like lounge music that drifts up from the floors below, that is.

The food is without doubt the most convincing reason to come to Le Soleil and it serves up a tasty fare of Asian fusion treats at very affordable prices. To begin, Hanoi spring rolls with pork and shrimp are crispy and moreish (HK$88). We also enjoy the cold vermicelli with soft shell crab that is perfectly deep-fried and neither too hard nor soft (HK$98). We then tried a couple of the more unusual dishes from the extensive chef’s recommendation menu. First up are sizzling pork cakes (HK$128), which are certainly sizzling and tasty and also served with cold vermicelli. All dishes up to this point are well-timed and we look forward to the piece de résistance, the house speciality of king prawn curry with lemongrass (HK$238). After quite a wait and some pestering of a confused waitress who tries to tell us we have not actually ordered it, another waitress finally assures that we have and it is on its way. It eventually arrives and the giant prawns are delicious with the light, fruity curry sauce. It is worth noting, however, that vegetarians will have a hard time finding much to order at Le Soleil.

The wine list available at Le Soleil may not look hugely extensive at first, so do make sure to ask for the hotel’s master wine list. This is a much more impressive list with a good selection of wines by the glass. The wine service, however, needs to be improved. We were not asked if we would like to try the wine before it was poured and a second (different) bottle was poured into an old glass.

While very sweet, the staff are not the most competent. It took a long time for our order to be taken; tap water was poured into the sparkling water glass and the last dish took so long to come we thought it had been forgotten.

Extremely good value with a meal for two coming to about HK$600 without wine.