To think the standard of Chinese takeaways has dropped significantly?!

I think this is true for almost all takeaways and pub and restaurant food in the last few years.

The anticipation is always so much greater than the experience. It takes progressively longer for the bad memory to fade so I order less frequently. Down to less than one a year now, and I may even have given up for good.

Totally agree. Chinese is greasy, full of msg, the batter often be soggy. It's a sweet sticky mess of goo. The meat is cheap and boiled. A total waste of cash and cals.

And have you seen the consistency of the sweet and sour sauce the next day ?!!! SOLIDIFIED AND GROSS

There was one here that contained no msg ..

it was lovely didn’t feel sluggish next morning or wake up in the night thirsty . That got sold and now is the same as the rest

Used to love 'Chinese' food. But out of the half a dozen places we've tried in the last 3 years they've all been pretty much inedible! Synthetic, sweet, nasty tasting gunk!

Yanbu. I yearn for the hot, crisp, tasty spring rolls, stuffed full of fat crunchy fresh beansprouts and other veg! What is that soggy paste they put in them now?

We don’t have them anymore, we moved in 2023, we had one near us at our previous house that was adequate, we tried two when we moved here and both were dreadful. Plus for health reasons I have to watch carbs and sugar.

We occasionally have fish and chips which is good from a small family run shop, but I can’t eat gluten and they only do gluten free once a week. DH and I also find the portions so large that we share a large cod and chips between us these days.

I'm still gutted the local Chinese I've ordered from for nearly 30 years closed down last year due to increased costs. Cannot find a replacement locally that is anywhere near as good.

People are obviously referring to what we in the UK call 'Chinese food' - even if it isn't the same as you would get in China - and it's clearly very popular.

I'm sure it isn't anybody on here's intention, but making a sweeping generalisation about all Chinese food establishments - which are obviously mainly run by Chinese people (or those with Chinese heritage), with accusations of basically diddling customers and being lazy and uncaring about their businesses, is sounding a little bit xenophobic, if not verging on the racist.

We have other takeaways in our town too - chip shops, pizza places, Indian, Greek, Turkish etc. - and we don't even live in a particularly big town. Some are excellent; some are terrible; the majority are perfectly fine. There's no correlation between the quality and running of the establishments with the nationality of the proprietors.

Somebody upthread expressed horror/displeasure/surprise at a non-Chinese person running a Chinese takeaway - does that unease also extend to Chinese people in the UK who don't work in Chinese takeaways or restaurants? I would very much hope not.

The standard of food, generally, has dropped significantly.

It's all msg, additives and low quality ingredients.

There's two Chinese takeaways near us and they are always empty so I'm not going there last one we had ages ago from one of them wasn't that nice, but near us we have an Indian takeaway that does great food so we get ours from them

Aldi have frozen balls which are really good, sweet and sour sauce is just ketchup, vinegar, pineapple juice, soy sauce and cornflour cooked until thickened.

what? Where did the meat come from before “brexit” ?

(which isn’t the brexit that was voted for)

I've not had a Chinese takeaway for over 25 years.... but I'm an ex food safety EHO... say no more

I think its takeaways in general to be fair. A lot of them also get taken over by people not of that heritage.....then they just can't make it the same. I've just had the worst fish and chips tonight. So bad. Overcooked, greasy, rubbery cod and chips that looked like they'd come out of the bin.

Grim.

Well yeah. If you're intolerant to MSG you shouldn't eat it..

My locals are REALLY good. But the prices have shot up

Same here.. It has to be the monosodium glutamate. Stopped buying takeaways a long time ago..simply not worth the expense.

There is one near us that's very good, don't use msg, takeaways are a side business and they mainly are a sit down restaurant BUT it's twice as expensive as everywhere else.

Otherwise it's dubious gloop.

Also, cheaper meat from different sources, post-Brexit
.

I saw somewhere the other day that Chinese food is the UK's favourite takeaway. I couldn't believe it, it's grim.
As pp bears no relation to proper Chinese food.
I am not that keen on any takeaway - can be good but often disappointing - but Chinese is one of the worst.

Waitrose do takeaway “bags” of Chinese or Indian food that replicates a takeaway and they are reasonably good!

It sounds like we're truly the privileged ones! We have several local Chinese takeaways - all of them use good quality ingredients and are at least very nice; and a couple of them are really excellent.

Prices are all reasonable compared with similar non-Chinese establishments; we often spend a lot, but that's because we're having a treat, so we have a blowout and deliberately make sure we can still have plenty left for the next day too!

I've been sick the last couple of times I had Chinese, I think it's the MSG. Next time kids want one I'll have poached egg and enjoy it more!

Yanbu. Reason we not done takeaway for I don't know how long now... The supermarket ones are better although never understood why they put horrible sweet and sour on the box. We don't buy them now for that reason