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

[Orangelight23]

So after a very very long day we got the kids to bed, opened a bottle of wine and eagerly awaited our Chinese takeaway.

It was woeful! £40 that we could have just thrown away, we should have learnt our lesson last month when we had an equally awful one from somewhere else. Is it just out area or has the standard dropped?

You really don't see a problem with people saying/strongly implying that virtually all Chinese-owned/run food businesses are run by people who can't cook, lie about their ingredients and/or otherwise seek to deceive or rip off their customers?

Ablondiebutagoody didn't make a blanket statement about another culture, though.

Easily

Mixed starter for 2 £10
King prawn and fried noodle meal - £13
Chicken and fried rice meal £12
Oh I fancy some seaweed £4
Maybe we should get prawn crackers £2

£41 and that's NW prices

Check out deanedwardschef on Instagram, he shares takeaway recipes and the chilli beef looks so good !

@faithbuffy I see. I don't order half the menu, so I think that's why ours is generally around the £20 mark or lower.

We've used the same one for over 30 years. The quality is still the same.

’Half the menu’ for two main courses, a shared starter and a side? OK.

We get around the local area, by which I mean a two hour radius, a fair bit, and could name a couple of reliable takeaways which can feed two fairly greedy fussy adults for under £20. Other than those, it can be a bit hit and miss, either overly salty or bland. I don't think saltiness is down to MSG though. I use it myself and it's perfectly fine in moderation. I made a couple of Chinese style dishes at home this evening using MSG, and nobody has been necking water all evening.

Never been mad about Chinese take away..we make pigs of ourselves over Indian or Mexican, slightly pricier but it's so good

I enjoyed Chinese takeaway before Xmas

It was delicious & hot in temperature

So I disagree

Gressingham duck do a nice crispy duck and pancakes. We had that from Tesco for the princely sum of £6

Some gyoza and cucumber and skiing onions, some katsu bites and a bottle of wine all under £20 and it was better than the local to be fair

Spring onions
The onions were not skiing.... I'd expect to pay more to see my onions on a piste.. 😆

@Aintnobodygottime ’Half the menu’ for two main courses, a shared starter and a side? OK.

Well no, it's two main courses, a starter, and two sides.

Given that Chinese portions are massive, one main course is almost enough to feed two people. So when I get a Chinese for two people, it generally consists of one main and one side.

Exactly. You just have to chuckle really at the woke ridiculousness of it all... Meanwhile, on planet earth I do love a nice salt and pepper king prawn

Feeling very lucky, we’ve got a really good one near us that deliver.
Think we probably spend around £70 for the 3 of us, it’s always too much but I will have my chow mein the next day because all the other bits we order excite me more and fill me up too much to have more than a few bites 😂
we order…
prawn toast
2 x salt and chilli squid
half a crispy duck
beef chowmein
dh goes a bit off piste and changes his mind each time for his main
chips (ds pretty much eats the squid, prawn toast, duck and chips!)
prawn crackers
ive forgotten something else!
I think the duck alone costs around the £20 mark.
is it authentic? Probably not, I’ve never been to China so can’t say for sure. But it’s bloody lovely and it’s been there for years and years as a handed down family business and they are so friendly when I walk past, I often just call out a cheery hello!

I've given up on Chinese food.
I used to love a Chinese until our local one which was great closed down.

@SpanThatWorld that is exactly what happened in my family. My Dad ran a Restaurant and take away. My siblings are engineers, pharmacists, medical researchers and staff.

The one I occasionally use is very good, I’m friends with the owner, she will do me stuff off menu.

Take away food is nothing like the Chinese food I make at home, nor the stuff my Dad made. He had been a financial officer back in HK. He ate mainly steamed fish. My Dad never added MSG to the food he ate, I don’t either.

My favourites include minced chilli pork with tofu and Pak Choi. Braised belly pork, char siu buns, steamed sea bass stuffed with ginger and spring onion, fish head stew, chicken porridge.

The cost of food has seen a drop in standards or amounts in many places. There is a nice pub not too far from us, people tie up their horses in the beer garden. Before covid the food was excellent, we had dinner after Covid, you could tell it was not freshly cooked anymore and was just pre made and heated up. We haven’t been back.

I had an amazing Chinese Take away in a Little village on holiday in Wales last year, can’t remember the village name unfortunately.

Maybe they're just massive at your local. A main here would be say a beef curry. Side of fried rice. Potentially at least one person is not going to feel full on sharing a meal. Having a mixed starter for 2 to also share is hardly half a menu. I'm not even a big eater so very rarely finish mine, but I don't try to put people down just because you have massive portions at your local Chinese or you both have small appetites that means you are full after sharing a meal meant for one.

Good point! I had never thought of that. Traditional Chinese takeaways were run by the Hong Kong Cantonese whereas now most are run by people from China or first gen immigrants. The same in London Chinatown.

How can the standard of Chinese takeaways have gone down in the whole UK?

Genuine question btw, I'm not in the UK and they seem just the same as usual here.

I agree. My local ones are awful. Luckiky in my city, we have some amazing Chinese restaurants and they taste fresh and lovely.

I agree, im always disappointed after one these days.

I like to make my own but am always underwhelmed by my egg fried rice - anyone use any good recipes?

Our favourite one has gone downhill since the son took over. We had two orders and both were dire. The chicken was cheaper chicken where the fibres are all wrong.

We are now buying up Goldfish Chinese curry sauce, which is wonderful, and Lucky Boat noodles and making a lot ourselves. Saves money and is cheaper.

We have a lovely Chinese neighbour who cooks us Chinese food - it is incredible. So aromatic and flavourful and healthy too! It's made me really not like the greasy, flavourless carb fest that is a Chinese take away. And it's expensive now too, when our neighbour grows a lot of the stuff she uses in the garden (in warmer months) and uses really basic ingredients. Chinese take away does actual Chinese food prepared with love a disservice!

Chinese takeaway food doesn't tend to agree with my stomach so I don't eat it, but I expect it's like everywhere else - increasing costs leading to price rises and/or buying lower quality ingredients.