We have a word for food that comes from other cultures: we call it 'ethnic' food. Our relationship with these foreign cuisines is complex -- on the one hand we've inherited from the British a belief that if a foodstuff is French it must be exquisite, and, on the other hand, that if the food is Chinese or Indian then it ought to be very cheap.

Opening a restaurant is one of the few things an immigrant to a new country can do. You don't arrive in a new country and think, 'I'll open a bank' or 'I'll be brain surgeon'; those activities are not open to the newly arrived. But no-one will hinder your choice of serving food, especially if you can serve it cheaply.

Somehow, Japanese cooking never fell into this category. It has always been pitched at the upper mid-range, not only in Ireland but elsewhere in Europe. But for the first Italians, Chinese and Indians, their offerings had to be at the bottom end of the market to even get a look in.

Times change and food from other cultures is no longer an oddity. The Irish are now great travellers and their tastebuds have become cosmopolitan. This has meant that the traditional offerings of many ethnic cuisines needed to be brought up to date to meet new expectations.

Generalising about food and cultures is dangerous, but there are some truths that hold: German food can be good, but an hour after you've eaten it you find yourself hungry for power again; Italian food is perfectly delicious, but five or six days after you've eaten it you're hungry again.

So, ethnic cooking is moving upmarket. Last year saw a new level of Indian cuisine arrive at Ananda, and the long-established China Sichuan moved from the Kilmacud Road to a very plush new location in the Beacon Quarter.

I've said it before but it's worth repeating: China is a huge country with many ethnic cultures, languages and cuisines, so 'Chinese food' is about as useful a phrase as 'European food'. The China Sichuan tells you in its name what kind of cuisine to expect -- it's Szechuan cooking. I'd guess the variant in its name is to make it easier to pronounce.

A couple of weeks ago, my nephew, Hubie Davison, had his 21st. At the party, I arranged with his father, Chris de Burgh, to go to dinner at the China Sichuan. On the appointed day Chris, being the sociable beast he is, phoned me to say he'd booked for 6pm. So our table consisted of Chris and his wife Diane, Tom and Mary, Catherine and I.

I've had the impression that the Beacon Quarter isn't the easiest place to run a restaurant -- even the rather good South had to give up there. The China Sichuan has always had a large following, but I did wonder if the move would work out for them. We got there on a Thursday night before 8pm, and by 8.30pm the room was packed. Actually, I should say 'rooms', because there are two distinct dining rooms and they were both full, so clearly the move has been successful.

If there's an epithet to describe the dining room, it's 'understated'. The room has a quiet elegance, it's restrained, tasteful and relaxing. There are visual cues that say 'oriental' but, like the room itself, they are low-key and not in your face.

It takes quite a while to go through the bills of fare -- the menu is long, there's another menu just for dim sum, another of specials and the wine list is a small book. Chris is as much a wine fanatic as I am but, these days, drinking is impossible when you're out for dinner and you're driving, as we both were. Still, I enjoyed reading this 24-page wine list; it's well chosen and there are some good and unusual wines on it. It's marked up a little more than normal, but otherwise it's a very good list. Our drinks order ended up as five Tsingtao beers at €5 each, three glasses of Cousiño Macul Cabernet Sauvignon at €5 each and one glass of Pinot Gris at €8.50.

We started off with two platefuls of bon-bon chicken shreds, two plates of deep-fried wontons and some prawn toast, which we shared while we chose our meals. The final order was for one aromatic duck, scallops Kun-Po, fish fragrance pork shreds, squid in an XO sauce, two prawns with ginger and scallions, and dry-fried squid with chilli. Two mixed vegetables plates, some boiled rice and some egg-fried rice completed the order.

Apart from the new room, the thing I noticed very quickly was the level of service. They've brought that up a notch, as well as the ambience. Throughout our meal the service was friendly, professional and quick. Nothing was forgotten and many things were even anticipated, a sure sign of excellent service.

The food was very good indeed. The aromatic duck -- the one where you get the crêpes, the duck and plum sauce and you roll your own -- was different in that instead of shredded duck it came as sliced duck breast. I can see the point of this; it meant that the duck remained moist.

I had a pick of most of the dishes: I liked the dry-fried squid, but if you choose this be sure you like hot chillies, and I liked the oddly-named fish fragrance pork shreds, which tasted of many good things, but not fish in any way. But the dish that really knocked my socks off was the scallops Kun-Po. Perfectly cooked scallops with a ginger sauce so exactly balanced that it became a taste explosion. If this isn't the signature dish, it ought to be.

I'd ordered the squid XO, which looked great since the squid had been cut to look like flowers. It tasted good too, but not as good as the scallops.

We ordered only three desserts: two fresh fruit plates and one ice-cream selection, simple and acceptable. A couple of espressos, two cappuccinos, an Earl Grey tea and a fragrant saké from Nanbu-Bijin ended this excellent meal. The bill, without a service charge, came to €329.70.

The China Sichuan, The Forum, Ballymoss Road, Sandyford Industrial Estate, Dublin 18. Tel: 01-293 5100

Read Paolo at www.tasteofireland.ie

email: paolo@independent.ie

- Paolo Tullio