THERE are actually two Chinese restaurants in Northern 1 Ireland sharing the name The Water Margin, one in Ballymena which caters happily in a conventional way to its clientele, and the other in Coleraine, where Tony Cheo does something different altogether to the normal run of things.
Coleraine's Water Margin sits, appropriately, hard on the banks of the River Bann, in an elevated building above rowing club. Inside the great big barn of a room - possibly ones of the largest restaurant spaces in the entire country - we find the closest equivalent in the land to a Chinese bistro.
It's a place with a terrific buzz: the waitresses don't walk, they positively scamper about their job, and with the winking lights of the old part of town glinting on the water, and the occasional oarsman getting in some late-night-training, it seems a million miles away from the lacquer, laminate and low-lighting which is the common language of Chinese restaurant design.
The food, likewise, shows what a switched-on Chinese restaurant can do. Mr Cheo likes to put on a show, so there are nifty vegetable carvings adorning most of the plates, and old favourites such as sizzling dishes are on the menu. But, there is also a page of chef's specials, and here we see the authentic side of The Water Margin. Fine roast pork with brilliant jade green broccoli is feathered with crab meat and egg white, the noodles are simple and good, salt chilli squid is splendidly subtle, the lemon chicken vividly sharp.
To be able to produce such real food alongside the popular favourites of the Chinese restaurant shows what a smart operator The Water Margin is, and the combined impact of the bustling room and the vivacious buzz is cracking fun.