21 Bath Street, Glasgow 0141 353 0678
Food: Malaysian
Price: Around £13 for two courses
Wheelchair access: No

Above the urban threads and coffee-table tomes of the Fat Buddha store, the name Rumours hints at the low-key, indistinct ambience of this recently opened Malaysian venture. Dominated by glass windows on two sides, the decor is wholly unremarkable and yet strikingly clean and modern, an aquamarine mosaic bar the sole indication - save for the menu - that this is a restaurant rather than a cafe.

Rumours is run by the same family as the popular Asia Style. Its staff are informally perky, and though it is compact and frequently busy, not least with the Malay community, there is no real impression of squeeze; you can scrutinise your neighbour's order without feeling too intrusive. Moreover, you can sit close enough to occasionally peek into the kitchen yet, because the premises are reasonably airy, leave without your hair smelling of cooking oil. (Unless it did when you came in, of course.) Reflecting Malaysia's cross-ethnic wok of Malay, Chinese and Indian, and the influence of neighbouring cultures, the cuisine is suitably diverse, with Thai fragrance wafting over sizzling spices of the subcontinent.

Originally Taiwanese, yet now popular across Asia, bubble tea was a new experience for me and my dining partner - and an acquired taste I won't be acquiring any time soon. Available in a wide variety of flavours, such as melon, chocolate or pineapple, this iced beverage is slurped through a sizeable straw. Nestling like tadpoles in the bottom of the glass are little tapioca balls, which thwart your suction and ultimately make you feel like you're chewing on fish cheeks.

Vegetable curry parcels neither surprise nor disappoint as starters; the moist, lightly curried mixture of potato, pea and green chilli, familiar from samosas, is fried in a savoury fortune-cookie-like casing and presented with sweet chilli dip. The chicken satay is outstanding, though: the barbecued meat, affording a light crunchiness, is served with a thin peanut sauce that gleams rather than congeals on the kebab.

Peanuts are also prominent in the Malaysian-style kung-po, a typical main course with fried chillies (yet not the usual sticky gruel that so often resembles peanut-butter spread) while the Singaporean classic of spicy stir-fried crabs should appeal to those who like to seek out this fabled dish.

Beef with ginger and spring onion is suffused with too much soy sauce for my taste, but the lean meat is thinly sliced and the vegetables are just the right side of crunchy, and it arrives sizzling at the table. (This bubbling, aromatic delivery is available for an extra 50p on all dishes.) Tender sea bass arrives whole, garlic and ginger affording it a vibrant, fresh flavour, while a street-hawker-style sweet and sour chicken is superb, the crispy chunks of meat retaining their texture in a sauce that eschews syrupy stickiness.

Sadly, the dessert choice is no choice at all, consisting as it does of ice-cream and a garish, though admittedly moreish, banana, ice-cream and waffle tower.

Available from 11am to 2pm, the lunch menu is excellent value, with a significant proportion of the main courses available in slightly smaller servings as part of a three-course deal of £6.50, or £6 for takeaway. For no obvious reason, roti appears to be unavailable to a la carte diners, though main-course portions are generous enough on the whole to make this a non-issue.

The background music is nondescript Asian pop and easy listening, mostly inoffensive though occasionally so lung-screechingly cheerful that you find yourself manoeuvring your chopsticks towards your ears - or further into your brain.

These aural invasions aside, though, Rumours is a lovely and inexpensive addition to Glasgow's city-centre dining.