TAKEAWAY TEST: Red Chinese Takeaway, 11 Retford Road, Worksop S80 2PT. Call: 01909 481741

THERE’S something about a Chinese takeaway.

Back when fish and chips still came in newspaper, Chinese takeaways arrived in foil boxes, plastic trays and little carrier bags to make the experience, well, exotic.

A trip to the chippy, glorious though that remains, is more an enduring institution than a takeaway.

Now of course we can indulge in rich food from every nation on earth by the click of a mouse or a call from a mobile.

But a Chinese remains special. The ordering, anticipation, delivery, the opening up of the individual packages, is like a culinary Christmas in every brown bag.

Or it should be.

There are few things better than good Chinese food, and nothing worse than when it’s bad.

This one was good.

From a less-than-enticing little shop on Retford Road in Worksop, the Red Chinese takeaway came up with a more than acceptable assortment of dishes.

For £25 we had salt and pepper chicken with satay sauce, crispy seaweed, crispy chilli beef, sweet and sour chicken, two portions of chips, vegetable chow mein, prawn toast and prawn crackers.

There was plenty of each. The salt and pepper chicken was flavourful and well cooked. The seaweed came crispy and not too sweet or greasy and the crispy beef came with a tangy chilli sauce and the meat managed to be crisp and still tender.

The vegetable chow mein was packed with nicely cooked vegetables and had a good flavour, and the prawn toast and crackers were excellent and plentiful.

The batter on the sweet and sour chicken could have been thinner and more crisp, the chips were only average and the satay sauce, despite it’s good flavour, was a little watery.

Over all though, an eight out of ten takeaway, delivered free in 40 minutes on a Saturday night and still a treat.

Takeaway Facts

Venue: Red Chinese Takeaway, 11 Retford Road, Worksop S80 2PT

Call: 01909 481741

Opening hours: 5pm to midnight, seven days a week.

Parking: Two spaces outside, otherwise tricky.

Delivery: Yes, on orders over £15.

Verdict: Very good and lots of it.

Related topics: