Chinese restaurant Gold Coast was recommended to me by a friend from Singapore.

As someone who lived in China for a couple of years, I can never resist the prospect of good Oriental cuisine within a mile or two of home.

Gold Coast is in a great location on Thorpe Bay seafront with a fine view out over the Thames Estuary. In side, it is light and spacious with fairly modern decor.

We arrived on a late-summer evening, when the restaurant was fairly busy considering it was mid-week.

The restaurant serves both Hong Kong and Malaysian Chinese dishes familiar to most Brits.

Because my friend from Singapore was accompanying us, I thought we would try a couple of dishes from the Chinese-language menu, which is usually off-limits to Western customers.

To begin with however, from the English menu we chose the mixed platter for four and Kung Po chicken.

The platter, including juicy chicken satay, succulent pork spare ribs and tasty prawn crackers, was very good.

The Kung Po chicken was perfectly fine and, though very different to the spicy Sichuan dish served in mainland China, was similar to what you would get in most UK Chinese restaurants. Batter-coated chicken swam in a sweet red sauce along with stir-fried vegetables. Much more interesting was the fish-flavoured egg plant from the Chinese menu. It is a little-known dish here, but in China it is very popular. It was served boiling hot in a pot with minced pork.

The sweet eggplant worked well with the soft meat and the thick, glutinous sauce that had a fish-like flavour.

Even better was the eggplant and tofu stuffed with prawns, chosen by my Singaporean friend who said it was a Malay Chinese favourite. Covered in black bean sauce, the crunchy tofu and egg plant surprisingly complemented the similar texture of the prawns which were cooked inside them.

This is a great restaurant for diners who like UK Chinese grub but and are interested in the options loved by the Chinese themselves.

What we ate House hors d’ouvres £6 Vegetable spring rolls, prawn crackers, chicken satay, pork spare ribs, seaweed Eggplant with minced pork £10 Tofu stuffed with prawns £12 Kung po chicken £6.30 Egg fried rice (x2) £7

Our verdict (out of five) Atmosphere 4 Food 4 Decor 4 Value 4 Service 3 Disabled access Yes