It's that time of year….however organised I try to be, the few weeks running up to deadline for my Guide to London Restaurants are invariably something of a scamper. There are so many new restaurants to be looked over and possibly squeezed into the 2008 edition - due to be published on September 5th - and any moment now my pleas to add "just one more restaurant" will be refused by the patient folk labouring over the artwork and indexes. This edition will include over 400 restaurants making it the biggest ever and the decisions doesn't get any easier.

The "new places" imperative means that I don't get as many leisurely and comfortable dinners as I would wish, but recently there was one honourable exception when we went to Fung Shing on Lisle Street, a long-term favourite of mine.

I first went to the Fung Shing in the mid-1970's when it was a small, scruffy place that specialised in late opening (4am!) and fish cookery. Today it is an altogether bigger, bolder, brassier and more prosperous establishment. In the early days there was a management buyout by the front of house team but over the years those guys have retired and handed things over to the second generation who dish out the same warm welcome.

As with all venerable restaurants there are sometimes rumours that standards are slipping but I can report that all is well. On the evidence of a very good meal - the salt and pepper spare-ribs were large and meaty; the mixed meat in lettuce leaves very savoury; the double cooked pork with yam in hotpot was gloopily rich; sizzling prawns large and crunchy; stir fried beef with lime leaves from the "specials" delivered plenty of flavour; and the Singapore noodle was magnificent, (satisfactorily chilli hot rather than being spiked with cheap curry powder as is the trend although the portion may have got a bit smaller) - standards are as high as ever. And if you discount an implausibly large amount of Tsing Tao beer from the final bill it was pretty good value. Sometimes it is a pleasure to get off the treadmill of new openings and re-visit an old-friend.

Charles Campion

Fung Shing, 15 Lisle Street, WC2 (020 7437 1539)