The best restaurants serving Chinese food in England

Returning home after a week of lovely food, we decided to finish off with a Chinese. We had a menu that was pushed through the letterbox and as they had a low delivery charge, we gave Woo Lot a try. Our food arrived in no time at all, perhaps a little too quick. Our Yung Chow Chow Mein, looked like bird food or fish bait. The noodles were so small and fine. The other meaty pieces were sparse and one piece was unidentifiable. Needless to say, I didn't eat it. This was by far, the worst Chinese meal, I have ever had.

Super neighbourhood Chinese restaurant. I use for takeaways and have never been disappointed with what I have received. Also as a large sit down restaurant area which seems popular - including for hotpots at lunchtime.

OK. Here we go......I bit my tongue on this one in the restaurant, as I hate to be the party pooper shaming my friends nearly 300 a head lunch. Food was well prepared, tasty, but was simply not generous enough. It felt like a light lunch despite going for the main event (and being TOLD we were having the wine flight), and although precise cookery, nothing really stood out. Mainly due to the lack of portion generosity (yes yes, I know it's Dim sum). The food came in fits and starts and we were never really party to the dishes' philosophies, inspirations or any technical explanations, other than the basic X with Y and Z and a few buzzy words you'd expect to hear in a high-end Asian eatery in London. Really quite poor service and atmosphere for this level of accolade, even if most of the service team themselves were lovely. Initially enthralling bustle of the many staff and humdrum of the kitchen (adjacent to our table) in reality made it hard to comprehend even the basic spiel of the offerings. I've done a fair few top end restaurants of late and this was scraping 1* in my view. Due mainly to the lack of pomp and ceremony amid the quite frankly average service, poor atmospherics, and lack of context (I appreciate these aren't the strict criteria). My main issues were the lack of transparency in pricing and the uninspiring wine program. Yes, we were given Dom Perignon 2013, as well as the more budget end of Schloss Johannisberg's riesling spectrum, but the wines to follow were easy to source from UK retailers, and simply mid-range gumph. We were not once offered any insight into their origins, and the rationale for how they were paired (with, admittedly, some complex less wine-friendly flavours). I'd have expected some more umami focused wines, and why feel the need to serve a red at all? The Sauternes with dessert was pleasant but it was young and easily sourced (from Majestic) for 15 a half bottle. Not exactly special or interesting. I'd have expected them to be serving something with some age, oxidation or distinct character if I'm honest, rather than the namesake 'badge of honour'. A couple of major hiccups that left us sour, a bit salty, and certainly not sweet.... 1) Asked if we fancied some Champagne before we kicked off....... it was tempting by the range on show, but luckily my friend queried the prices up front and we were simply told it's 37 per glass (I believe in reference to the Ruinart Rose. Woof). We quickly asked for alternative aperitifs and were presented with a cocktail menu at a shade less ridiculous prices. Of course, monsieur sommelier was not forthcoming with this and wanted to flog the pricey stuff. What a terrible way to build rapport with your customers at the outset. 2) The lack of pricing transparency continued to the conclusion, where we were offered a choice of 2 coffees. Little to our knowledge they were not included, and were priced eyewateringly at a respective 9.5 and 15 pound. Shameless. To boot, there was zero effort from anyone in the kitchen, or the latterly present main man, to greet or acknowledge us, and we never received the promised menus. I've corroborated my views with others' who have visited on recent occasions. The petit fours were delicious, but the plum shot will unfortunately last as a sour taint for much much longer than intended. No doubt chef and team have worked their woks off to get where they are, but I personally wouldn't venture back or recommend - maybe the 2* is a great ticket to 'single visit/ international churn', but in terms of sustaining a business and maintaining an enduring reputation, I doubt it's a very good strategy. Apologies if you're reading this and are past the pay wall of no return on your booking. My advice would be.....if you care about value for money or your wallet's contents, keep a keen eye on that pesky cheque, and certainly get your coffee round the corner.

Friendly staff , great tasty food ..

Lovely food freshly cooked. Had the unlimited buffet lots of choice and can order from the buffet menu.Staff very helpful sat in quiet area as requested and wasn’t rushed arrived at 6 and left at 9.30. Will definitely go back, thank you for a lovely evening.

food is always fantastic my go to Chinese for the family 5***** highly recommend!

I have been going to this restaurant for past 7 yrs and I never been let down so much . Inspite of giving feedback that to much oil is being added ...a simple softnoodle is given in such a state - dipped in oil/ blackbean rather than fried on a takeaway order. Looks like chef in badmood...or over worked! Not on Friday evening guys... give him some rest! This is not his/her usual dish! I have been having it for many years!

Amazing food! Ankita was lovely, service and hospitality was great!

i got wings from here and the wings were soaked in soy sauce spilling out the box andbjust some reheated wings i could get better from a frozen section and not worth £7.90 i could not stomach them and threw them away tasted like it was from those fried chicken shops that sell wings for like £2

Always ordered from here used to be great , now it’s barely average. Ordered honey ribs and got ribs in some other sauce but wasn’t honey. The special fried rice is verging on normal fried rice as there’s hardly anything “special” in it and the noodles taste rubbish compared to what they did. The sweet n sour chicken hk style was good tho.

Don’t waste your time, twice have ordered from there, the first time wrong order delivered, second time order never arrived and they don’t know where it went. Useless!

First time trying the food here. House special curry was decent but the "meat pancake roll" only had a few bits of bacon in it which just didn't taste right. Was basically a bean sprout and bacon roll.

Yet again, super delivery service in record time. Beautiful food as always. Thankyou

First and last time using this Takeaway, i was in hopes to finding a decent place to eat and this looked promising but sadly it was not, although the service at the counter was lovely and polite and served with a smile (but thats just common service) the food well i ordered a simple chicken curry just peas (simple no?) Well there was no peas and the curry was luke warm not even hot and the sauce 🤣 omg i can just says its comical it's literally chefs larder chip shop curry sauce you know the horrible, thick discusting not really curry sauce yeah imagine my belly the next not 1 but 2-3days, so if you ARE looking for decent Curry then I would suggest the one on Ipswich road near the pharmacy there curry is actual curry and is actually tasty and oh yeah hot !!!

Best Chinese I have had for years