Hampshire's Premier Oriental Restaurant
You enter through a cottage country doorway into the exotic and the oriental; a small piece of Raffles Hotel in an English country town. This is The Black Bean - not just any Chinese restaurant but a colonial Chinese Shanghai Tang with Thai influence - the first of its kind to be found outside London.
You won't find a hint of red flocked wallpaper in this smart new Stockbridge venue. Owner David Pang (Wailam), knew exactly what he wanted to create. Two years ago he went over to Thailand to bring back with him a container load of genuine oriental antiques; he then created just the kind of ambient setting that was colonial oriental living before the war.
To eat at The Black Bean is not just a pleasure - it's a whole new experience.