Dynasty

Dynasty Review

Although its name has nothing to do with the 1980s television show of the same name, this restaurant's regular clientele (showbiz types, football heroes, dangling arm candy) does sometimes resemble a casting call for a soap opera. The interior is certainly fanciful: the Art Deco starting point blurs into an Asian frenzy of rice-paper umbrellas hanging from the ceiling and a supporting chorus of golden Buddhas. In the summer, try for a table on the "dream terrace" majestically set in a Golden Age courtyard. Happily, chef K. Y. Lai's menu, which is full of Cantonese, Thai, Malaysian, and Vietnamese culinary classics, is as ambitious as the décor; his drunken prawns (jumbo shrimp marinated in an intoxicating broth of Chinese herbs and Xiaoxing wine) are reliably excellent, as are many of the other specialties here.