Quote: Eating whilst on a shopping spree can often be a terrible experience. Finding good food in shopping malls is not always easy. For example, at the epically proportioned Centre Point in Muscat in Oman, the only serious options were junk food. It was the same in countless shopping centres I visited in China and Korea, where the only options were noodles or western fast-food. There are some notable exceptions to this problem. Cevahir in Istanbul probably offers better dining options than it does shopping ones.

A few years ago, the Meadowhall Shopping Centre very much belonged to the first school of culinary options. There were lots of fast food joints and few opportunities to eat 'real food'. The closest you came was a branch of TGI Friday's. However, in recent years, this has changed. The arrival of a Spanish-style Tapas restaurant seemed to kick things off. And, since then they have snowballed. There are now Mexican, Japanese and even fusion options on offer. There are plenty of good places to eat. However, Chao Baby quickly established itself as the best.

For 13 GBP - not cheap at all in a shopping mall in Sheffield - you get an all-you-can-eat Thai buffet. Despite the imposing price, this represents great value. The food is absolutely fantastic. For starter, there is a fantastic selection of soups and Thai snacks. I simply could not get enough of the spring rolls and Satay pieces. These may not be particularly original or unusual, but they were fantastic and I could - quite literally - eaten a hundred of them.

For the main course, there was a selection of traditional Thai dishes. I started with musselman curry, whcih was good, but the sauce was not as rich as I had hoped. However, everything after that was immense. The Slow Cooked Pork was out of this world and - even though it may sound like a cliche - melted in the mouth. The chicken with cashews was also great. The highlight for me, though, was the beef with chilli, which was astoundingly good. There was also a great supply of rice and noodles to go with the main dishes.

The decor at Chao Baby was also very good. The seating was comprised of large leather chairs that were immensely comfortable. One of the walls that separated the dining from area from the larger area of the mall was made from a fish tank that contained some stunningly blue jellyfish. There was also a fanatstic glass statue of Buddha that was made from thing pains of glass stacked upon eat other to form the shape of the deity.

The food, decor and ambience at Chao Baby were fantastic - much better than you would ever expect to find in a mall. However, the one draw-back was the prize. Lunch for three cost around 50GBP, which is extremely steep for the location.

From journals A Trip to England