To wonder if bog-standard British Chinese takeways have secret menus?

[SherleenDionne]

I've heard that a lot of Chinese restaurants have 'secret', more authentic menus that you can order from. Is this maybe just an American thing or does your bog-standard British Chinese takeaway have this too?

A few years ago my ex worked for a company that often had Chinese customers who would be in UK for six to eight weeks at a time. Some groups would want to try different restaurants, some wouldn't. At least 4 groups designed their own menus and 3 local Chinese restaurants cooked for them. I had food that never appeared on the standard menu.
As the groups were from different parts of China the food varied a lot. Some of it was blow your head off spicy!
Most of it was better than the usual menu (apart from the tripe).

Some Dishoom restaurants cook to order too...if you know what to ask for

My best friend at school was Malaysian/ Chinese when they took me out for dinner they'd order chicken feet etc and order me sweet and sour chicken.

I've definitely been in places in Chinatown that do this. Not necessarily secretly but one to suit British tastes and then something more authentic.

Yeah, they do. Or some do, anyway. I love Sichuan and Xinjiang food and if you mention specific dishes by name at many Chinese restaurants they’ll rustle them up. Usually with a polite “You eat this before yes?” .

A restaurant near us has two menus, one western, one more authentic. It's popular with Chinese community, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays when the restaurants they work in are closed

I remember going to a Chinese restaurant. It was very basic and in a run down part of the city and adorned with Christmas decorations for some reason but it had a reputation as an excellent restaurant. We went along and were the only table of non Chinese people. We ordered and it was good but the other tables were given different menus and ate from steaming pots on their tables.

I live near to a university with a high proportion of Chinese students. Near campus is a street with multiple Chinese restaurants and takeaways. Most of them have menus in Chinese in the windows. I've visited some with Chinese friends who've been able to request a wide range of dishes. Likewise, I've visited Chinese restaurants in remote parts of cornwall and have almost always been able to order specific tofu dishes, even if there's no tofu on the menu.

Mine does...its attached to a Chinese supermarket and a lot of the other tables had Chinese people eating. I asked for the traditional menu after stalking them online for a while and got crispy roast pork and roast duck which was a half peking duck and the same size of portion of crispy pork on flat noodles for the same price as a sweet and sour chicken. Much drier than the more 'British Chinese' dishes like sweet and sour but that's what I like. They do all the chicken feet dishes etc but having tried them I am not a fan.

I thought they all had Chinese as well as English menus, certainly they all do round here.

I've experienced this at an Indian restaurant when I went with an Indian friend. It was right near my house and I ate there regularly so was really surprised to see them bringing out all sorts of dishes I'd not seen before!

My inlaws are Hong Kong chinese and they run a chinese takeaway.

When we used to go out to eat at chinese restaurants (only for special occasions) my sil would ring the restaurant in advance and tell them what she wanted. So it was totally off menu, she would order lobster, steamed whole turbot, kabocha pumpkin stuffed with belly pork, whole roasted baby pig amongst other things.

At the takeaway they don't eat any of the stuff on the menu themselves, it's all adapted for us westerners. They mostly eat steamed fish with side dishes. Things like bitter melon, stuffed tofu skins, pickled mustard greens, soy marinaded boiled eggs, steamed short ribs with black bean, egg scrambled with tomato, some random chinese veg an aunty has brought round from her own garden. There always a huge pot of soup on the go, normally with bones and ginseng.

They would consider the takeaway food to be Yit Hei...hot air, not balanced for everyday diet. Too much fat, spices and deep fried stuff.

Worked as a waitress at a Chinese restaurant for a bit as a student.

At first they cooked me one of their standard menu items for a staff meal at the end of the night. Once I started looking with interest at what they were eating they asked me if I wanted some of that instead.

When Chinese people came in to eat they were always served by one of the Chinese waiters and ordered different things.

Also shared a flat later in life with a girl whose dad had a Chinese restaurant and her sister had a takeaway. Cooked totally different food for family/friends, both at home and in their businesses.

The first part of our honeymoon in the 90's was in Hong Kong, we met up with colleagues from the Hong Kong office, we went in all chatty and laughing and talking in English.

We started to look at the menus, one of the party had been born in China, spent some time in Hong Kong and then Uni and graduate work in London, when we had all more or less decided what we wanted she offered to order for all of us.

As soon as she opened her mouth and she was clearly fluent, they whipped the menus away and brought back menus that were more or less the same but 10% cheaper.

Supply and demand. If you’re in an area with a lot of Chinese people or people of Chinese descent etc they’ll quite likely be catering for them. Hence, special menu. If you aren’t, they won’t.

I used to work in one, and yes, if you know what to ask for you can have different stuff. Also the staff never ate off the menu, it was always different 'proper stuff'.

We also have a bunch of chinese takeaways here (Southampton) catering for Chinese students. What they serve most English wouldn't recognise, but it's all displayed with photos so you can play lucky dip, or obviously ask nicely for advice.

@toffeebutterpopcorn

What’s the ‘made up’ recipe with noodles and veggies? My sister was in China and says she chased someone down the road when she saw them with a KFC bag to ask them where they got it from. Apparently chicken feet are not very pleasant...

When was this, 1991? KFC is everywhere in China now.

Yes it a few years back now you mention it.

My friend used to do deliveries for a Chinese takeaway. The meals he ate after hours with the other staff were nothing like the standard menu. He once invited a group of us to another, sit-in, restaurant, which was attached to a Chinese supermarket and had a lot of Chinese diners, apparently much more “authentic” - it was amazing and a completely different experience. Not a fan of the chicken feet though!

I have no clue about Chinese restaurants having a second menu. That doesn't surprise me - I have sometimes ordered off menu in an Italian restaurant. I'm not Italian but I've requested something simple thats not listed. But you've just reminded me of the rumours about secret menus/coded orders at some mainstream chains? Was it McDonalds, KFc or Nandos? I can't remember. Anyone?

I’ll use this opportunity to give some kudos to one of my favourite recipe websites/blogs: thewoksoflife.com/

The family who run it are Chinese-born immigrants to New York, who owned a Chinese takeout restaurant after they arrived in the US. Turns out, many Chinese people really like Westernised Chinese food and even cook it for themselves. And there are very simple things you can add in or remove from your favourite Chinese dishes, to make them more “authentic”.

I struggle to get Sichuanese dishes cooked from any of the takeaways around here as most of them are Cantonese.

There's a great restaurant in the nearest city centre that has the normal British menu and then a separate, MASSIVE Chinese menu. Always full of Chinese people. It's been over a year since I've been there and I miss it.

6 years since I lived in China and I still miss the food so much! I no longer eat meat so there'd be lots I ate then but wouldn't eat now- but I'd certainly not go hungry

My mothers local Chinese restaurant definitely does - which she only discovered when she went for a work lunch there with the (at that point new) Chinese accountant.

Apparently their Dim Sum menu is basically the same in English or in Cantonese, but the full "evening menu" are worlds apart!

Yes, this is very common in Indian restaurants.

Any recommendations of what dishes to ask for? Would like to try something new! No chicken feet though!