Happy valley in York

Very expensive for OK food. I only had fried rice, sweet and sour, and ribs. I can't speak for the rest in the menu. The meal and one drink cost me under 28. Waitress is aggressively eager to serve and to get me out. I also over heard staff rating customer as cheap or not. It was just uncomfortable.

We didn't book but were immediately invited in and a table found for us. Then the service was fast and efficient. Food was beautiful! A lovely experience overall and I would recommend to anyone visiting York and wanting a bite to eat.

Very old building good food friendly staff

Didn't know this place was here!... It's a hidden gem in York. Food is very tasty and fresh with ample to share. Keep the little places like these open as there are too many chain restaurants appearing on every corner. I have recommended to family and friends to try this when in York. It won't disappoint

Had a takeaway from here, so can’t comment on the atmosphere, but food was really tasty. Only downside was the small number of prawn crackers that came with the meal

Absolutely amazing Chinese restaurant. When I take my mum to town for the day we always go here for lunch, without fail. Highly highly recommended. Fully support them wanting to install a larger sign over their door too.

We had a nice family meal at Happy Valley in Goodramgate last week. The restaurant table seating area is located on the first floor, accessed by a steepish staircase which opens onto a cosy dining area. We had crispy aromatic duck which was very good, followed by steamed dumplings, seaweed, char siu chow mein, sizzling beef in black bean sauce, chicken with cashewnuts and vegetables. Everything was cooked well with good flavour and the service was attentive and efficient.

As I stood outside a leaving customer told me this was the best Chinese restaurant in the land...it's average. We had many generous plates of food with the £30 banquet all delivered to the table at a relentless pace. The flavourings and quality were unspectacular. It was busy so they must make a lot of profit as it is not cheap particularly the drinks which was just under £5 for a small bottle of lager and £4 for a coke which was poured from large bottles piled up on the floor.

I have been going to this restaurant for years, it's my number one go to spot for Chinese food and I always recommend it to anyone I meet. The owner and the staff are always so kind and chatty, the food is divine and not too greasy as many (Western) Chinese restaurants can be. Have just seen an article about a protest against their signage which they put up to attract more customers since their insurance bill quadrupled and I am protesting against that protest. People need to make a living. Love Happy Valley! Fully behind you, Junyue Tan.

Gorgeous food. Hot and tasty. We all loved it. One of the best meals in York.

Friendly staff and very helpful

Food and service was good but was cold inside and could do with a bit of a refurb

Pretty ropey food. Only Mr Happy on Blossom Street beats it on poor quality. Hmmm, same owner? Happy we were not.

the location is so…convenient, my friend recommended me to come, the hotpot is so amazing, I like it so much!!! especially meat and vegetables … too much. the value of the quality is higher, we also find the set menu for lunch, the price is nice, we will try next time ~

We love this cute little restaurant! Authentic!

Brilliant food, Brilliant service. Red wine should be served at a better temperature, not ice cold. Other than that lovely.

We ordered a take away through uber eats. After waiting for an hour and half after the started delivery time of 6.30pm I rang the restaurant to be told that it was nothing to do with them as the order had been collected and was out for delivery and to contact uber eats . I asked them for a contact number and they said they didn't have one . I finally managed to find a number for uber and after they looked into it they said that the restaurant themselves had cancelled the order as they couldn't fulfill it due to being busy and demand of other orders and they cancelled the order at 5.45pm. Needless to say i won't be ordering from this restaurant again.

We visited the restaurant on 29th of December. Food that is served in a restaurant is not very good, actually it is below the standard that I am ready to tolerate as a professional. When cooking noodles or rice, chef is using too much sauce and oil and there is way too much salt in the food. It was just to greasy and too salty. Furthermore, the staff that serves (waitress in paticular) was yawing the whole time we were in a restaurant. This is very unprofessional, non hygienic and unpolite. As a matter of drinks, tea cups could be washed better and when serving DO NOT TOUCH with your fingers area where one's lips would go. Coca-Cola that was served was a typical fraud. Loaded with mineral water just to fake it. I am very disappointed with the level of service in this restaurant and I would NOT recommend it.

Staying in York for a few days and gave this takeaway a try. We wasn’t left disappointed-the food was absolutely delicious and would recommend the special chow mein, it is absolutely stunning!

Food OK but it was cold in there people sat with coats on

Ate her on Monday evening . Was pleasantly busy . Lovely food , good service. Great value for money. Will definitely visit again.

Arrived here after being let down by another restaurant. We were seen to right away and the service was very attentive. The only downside is I felt like I was being watched constantly while eating. The dumpling skin was so doughy and thick. I recommend this ‘restaurant’ if you’re looking for takeaway food.

Lovely place, food is lovely, god knows why some people have given reviews they must have no taste buds! The place is small and cosy

Excellent food. Attentive service

Extremely good food and extremely excellent service

Having spent the last 4 days here in York such a lovely town all food up till tonight was great it’s likely to be the worst takeaway Chinese we have ever had and we have certainly had a few we were only staying opposite the restaurant above a shop in a flat but can not say we enjoyed 1 dish out of 9 Sad as it was our last meal of the trip .

Nice place but the food quantity is very less for the price

Just an average takeaway and a bit over priced at that with it costing £175 for a group of eleven people. As for the food it was ok spring roles filo was cooked perfectly but there was only carrot in it when its ment to have meat and the sweet and sour was mosty sour and not that sweet at all but apart from that the food was fine and the delivery was good.

Not good value for money . Family spent £179 and was shocked at portions.

Average food and expensive. It was a very large order though and there was no mistakes so can't complain too much.

Just visited this restaurant and the service was brilliant nothing was a bother to Tan and the food was delicious will definitely visit again

Food was lacking in flavour! Quite bland. Never seen green peppers in a chicken curry before. Prawn crackers in a colander/sieve. Curry sauce gloopy. Staff bit awkward lurking around whilst trying to relax and eat. Seemed a bit chaotic. Forgettable experience

While this may be the best Chinese in York, it is really quite poor. We will not return and cannot recommend

Had a great meal as a family of 6. There were a few language barriers but service overall was very good. Food was excellent, hot and tasty. Soups maybe a little too hot!! Enjoyed the meal very much

We go here every time we go to York, I would give it more than 5 stars if I could, food amazing, staff happy and smiling, I can't wait to go again

I travelled to York to do a house viewing and decided to go for a Chinese for my tea iv been to a lot of Chinese restaurants in my time but this one has to rank up their as one of the Very best the service was superb and the food was a strong 9 out of 10 I would recommend this place to any one Superb

Very different atmosphere here given that this little restaurant is within an old house build in 1316. Food was good.

I enjoyed the food here, it was certainly a reasonable price, but I won't be rushing back. The interior of the restaurant has the feel of a cheap cafe to it, the ambience is zero! With regards to the service, it was exceptionally quick, almost rushed, they brought the starter and main out together, a waiter stood by us while we were eating, I didn't like that!

Absolutely horrible. Was given prawn crackers that were on someone else’s table before🤮. The food was bland and very tasteless. Ordered salt and pepper chips but came as normal chips with a few onions on them. Don’t recommend staff are very rude and speak little English. As well as this I asked for a glass of water and was given a glass of water with floaters in it. Definitely wouldn’t recommend. Was very underwhelmed after all the nice comments on here.

Great Udon noodle soup, the food was great, staff were friendly and service was great, would eat here again

Popped into this little Chinese restaurant on the 10th of September ,went upstairs,ordered beef and mushroom curry rice and chips plus chicken and black bean sauce and mini spring rolls,all the food was excellent and piping hot and lots of it ! Great little restaurant,come back? Definitely when we come back to York !

Very nice food in a lovely restaurant.

The best Chinese in York, without exception. The food is delicious, and the quality of the food is top notch. The prawns are deveined which is a massive plus, as who wants to eat prawn excrement? The same cannot be said for 99.9% of every other Chinese in York. All the ingredients are fresh, no tinned mushrooms, or stale and chewy pork. Onto the service, the chap who does the takeaway orders is lovely, and has amazing customer service. He can have a laugh, but he also works incredibly hard to make sure all the food is prepared in a timely manner. It would be nice if they did delivery, however, I can appreciate from a business perspective why they would choose not to. The extortionate cuts Deliveroo, JustEat and UberEats would take would either lead to higher prices for us, or lower quality in order to keep the prices the same. I am perfectly happy to take a stroll in to town with an insulated bag to pickup my Chinese made fresh, and be able to have a nice chat with those working in there. Overall, 100/10.

Brilliant food, really helpful staff

Lovely meal , I have been here for few times , Udon noodles and the duck dishes are my favorites. Like to come back soon.

This is my third time I had my meal here never disappointed, If you have no idea what to eat the staffs are help. My favorite restaurant.

We had 3 different main courses. All of them were either very greasy and/or without any taste. Nobody of us finished the meal. The staff was friendly and it's a nice litte place to sit. Also everything was clean. This also made me to rate it with 2 and not only with 1. But unfortunately over all for us a very disappointing experience especially after reading quite a few good comments. We saw that the people from the neighbour tables were eating all of it so I guess it was our very personal taste which was not met, however we would not go there again.

Really disappointed, I don't often visit York but have been here many times over many years, this time however the food quality has slipped massively. We shared s&p chicken, fried rice s&s chicken, chips and spring rolls. I've had better with the supermarket meal deals aside the fried rice. The service was fine albeit the staff running round like headless chickens. Lunch on a Thursday, busy already at 12pm. All I can think is changed hands since my last visit which must be pre COVID but never previously had any issues since 2007. I wouldn't return without seeing multiple recent decent reviews, maybe I should have checked trip advisor first before this visit rather than relying on past experience. 😪

Great place food very good staff very friendly

The food was awful tasteless and over fried in very overused fat chicken slimy and tasteless satay was just onions and chicken nothing else beef curry just beef in poor curry sauce like gravy granules more than double price it used to be when it was good , guess they have to overcharge because its always empty , thankfully was very ill to get rid of shorty after but spoilt a good day out never again please be warned

December rush time, but Happy Valley is a great meal (Veg Chow Mein & Broccoli garlic dishes, delicious!) for a good value price in a great, great location. Super central, clean, and friendly service. Highly recommend!

The food was good, but a bit expensive for the quantity. The servers were very nice. It was very busy the night we ate here, and our main courses did take quite a while to arrive, but I assume that was because every table was full. I would have given a higher rating, but they need to update the menu posted outside of the restaurant. I'm not sure how old the menu is, but once you are seated upstairs and handed "a new menu" you will notice that the prices across the board are 25-30% higher than on the menu posted outside. This is a very simple fix and can be done in one day. Otherwise, this is just poor advertising for the restaurant.

Great Chinese food, nice atmosphere, attentive service.

Very impolite and unhelpful when I asked for takeaway 30 minutes before published closing time and you said you were already closed. Please don't mislead customers with your opening times as not good for your business.

My wife and I used to be here 20 years ago (Jan 2004). At that time, the food was really great. We even took a picture of their menu (small pink leaflet) and wish we would come back again. After 20 years (Aug 2023), we are so happy to see that this restaurant still open even after COVID. This time, we bring our 2 kids. Unfortunately, the food quality has dropped drastically. But the restaurant decorations are still the same. Our kids do not enjoy the food here and so are we. It's kinda disappointed. ☹️

Really under average, not worth the money really.

Very good value for money, had the lunch menu, good sized portions and service very quick, will return again when in the area

Worst Chinese I’ve ever had, beef tasted off and was slimy, chicken tasteless, chips tasted like they’d been cooked in old fat🤮

Have gotten take out a couple of times now and we thoroughly enjoyed. Great flavourful food, will come back again and again.

Both starters and main courses were really tasty and packed full of flavour. We had sweet & sour chicken, beef chow Mein & chicken and black bean sauce. Prompt service but the place lacked any atmosphere - we were there around 6 30pm.

Good Ambience Old building which was nice and very appealing Food is expensive and not upto the mark We barely could eat main course Simple fried noodles (very thin one with little veggies costed me £10) It is better I would buy from tesco or somewhere else and just toss it at home that would be much cheaper.

Definitely recommend it! Friendly staff and tasty food. I would like to go here again. It's located in the centre and I would say it's the best Chinese restaurant in York.

Disappointing after reading the other reviews. Thought the dishes were over priced and pretty tasteless. Very cramped seat area as well

Happy Valley is a little gem, very friendly and welcoming staff within a beautiful little building. between us we had Chilli chicken, Beef in blackbean and garlic sauce, fried rice and chips, all of the food was to the highest standard, will definitely visit again...

Little gem of a Chinese restaurant in York, near York Minster. Very quirky and cottage like from the outside. Inside ... a few stairs to the restaurant upstairs, ceiling had original beams and little areas to sit. Received a nice friendly welcome, even though we'd not booked. Table and drinks brought with menus promptly. Three courses £26 pp. My husband had soup starter, duck with pancakes and then chicken and cashews f.rice. I ordered BBQ spare ribs, crispy seaweed and sizzling beef in Blackbean and garlic sauce. 😋 delish. Bill £62 including 2 beers and wine. Reasonable for what we had. Flavours divine. Thank you. Would definitely return here! X

这家店的乌冬面超级好吃，我每次去约克都会吃，不管是炒乌冬还是乌冬汤面都非常棒，我超爱😍🥰再加个煎蛋，非常棒！！！！！ Very good. I like the udon noodles there very much. Everytime I vist York will come to eat.

wow so nice building~ Irregular historic building, I like the environment, and the staff is so lovely, the food is so.....so yummy, especially crispy duck and grilled dumplings, so nice!!! I will come again with my friends ~ 😊

Very very poor sweet and sour chicken,no flavour bland food cold not going to recommend or use again

The worst sweet and sour chicken I’ve ever had very poor no flavour bland best bit was the prawn crackers absolute rubbish

Great food, served in a rustic old house in the middle of York. Loved it 👍

Happy Valley is one of mine and my family favourite restaurants! Every time I come to York with my family we always go to Happy Valley because we know we won’t be disappointed! The staff are very warm and welcoming! The food is very tasty...

Chinese restaurant at a charming very old site in York. Aromatic duck was average. Place not very appealing, not tempting. Relatively expensive. Manni from Kassel

This is probably the poorist take away meal we've had. The meal was hardly warm, chips at £4 + were a disgrace, my battered prawns were soggy and the peppers and onions were over cooked. We will definitely NOT be ordering from Happy Valley again!!

Lovely meal, really nice quaint building, for £29 per person for a 4 course meal ,there was more than enough food, quality food , good service. Would recommend and definable go back , when we come up to York again

Service top notch A***** food amazing and good portion size ..very reasonable too will be back !!

Fab food, reasonable cost. Good portions. We visit twice a year as a group. Only place we would book x

Without doubt the finest Chinese meal my wife and I have had in our quite long lives !!!! Recommended by Tom from the Hamptons at the Hilton We opted for the 4 course banquet and it was absolutely completely delicious...every single mouthful !!!! We will visit York again from Lancashire and definitely eat here again please....and thank you !!!

One of the best Chinese restaurants we have visited in the UK. Portions are large and full of flavour. Service was good too.

Amazing Chinese one of the best I have ever eaten! Can’t do enough for you! The enclosed historic small buildings add to the amazing attentive staff who run passionately happy valley. Having been to york numerous years this is the first time we actually ventured here whilst it was open! A must try as a takeaway or dining in near monkbar. Picture of duck in plum sauce & a chow mein dish.

Great value, great service and great food. If you're a restaurant snob you'd better avoid this place as it is down to earth and no nonsense. We paid £60 for a soup, dim sum, curry, beef in Blackbean sauce, fried rice, noodles and a bottle...

Great meal good service friendly staff what's not to like

Ordered two days in the row, both days food great definitely recommend.

Real gem of a place, awesome food, friendly staff, quick service, highly recommended

This is by far my most favourite Chinese restaurant in York. Everything is cooked to perfection and the service is top notch.

Amazing food! I've been a few times, it's great every time

The most beautiful Chinese food fresh and perfect thank you we will be back and the staff were so kind

The food was excellent, very tasty and decent sized portion. A very very clean restaurant. Would recommend anybody's to try it at least once.

Very good as always. Staff and food both very good.

Very friendly and attentive staff, food is delicious! Lots of choice and good value for money. Would recommend the lemon chicken and beef udon in satay sauce 🙂 will definitely return when next visiting York

Very small resturant no room, food awful. Duck and pancakes dreadful I like the duck to be on bone not tiny piece chopped up and the sui Mais were like frozen supermarket ones. Chow mein had no taste what so ever. Prawn crackers where yellow...

Awesome food! Outstanding restaurant!! Recommend 100%

Best sizzling beef in black bean

Great food and great pricing. We always go at noon for the dinner set and feeds 3 of us. Would recommend to anyone.

Outstanding establishment. Steeped in rich history, the food and service was sublime. An absolute must!

We've been a few times and it's quite good. The female staff are friendly but the male - not so much. We had the mixed starter but it was very greasy - I couldn't eat it for that reason but the better half managed. The...

The taste is good. A good choice for the Asian food! Good experience!

Ordered three dishes: beef fried udong, salt peking ribs, roast duck and pork. It’s extremely good! Especially the roast and pork, which is quite delicious!

I had a chicken chow mein . It was the most bland tasteless I have ever had . The only thing I had with any taste was the glass of Coca-Cola. Will not be returning .

Good food and really fast service. Went here for lunch and we ordered quite a number of dishes and it all came in 30minutes or less from when we placed our order. Food was good and priced well. Definitely try the salt and pepper squid, beef fried rice, and crispy noodles. Their wonton soup have about 5-6 wontons too! I recommend this place for when you're in York.

Given I’m not one to complain I feel I have to warn those who are seeking a nice restaurant experience to avoid this restaurant! Firstly the service is rushed, and is not at all a relaxing experience.. Secondly the food from starter to main was...