It’s fair to say I ordered my takeaway from Oriental Express with a little trepidation.
Not because the food is said to be bad. In fact, quite the opposite - it has got great reviews on JustEat. It’s the owner who scared me. She hit fame last year for her savage responses to criticism from disgruntled customers.
In one brutal message to a customer who claimed their order had been 'totally ruined', Oriental Express owner Alice Cheung said: “The food was fresh and perfectly cooked. We are good but mind reading the stupid is not one of our skills.” Ouch.
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With that in mind, I mulled over the extensive menu for quite some time before placing my order online. An email told me my food would be ready to collect in 20 minutes, so I made my way to the Pudsey takeaway to pick it up.
I braced myself for a torrent of abuse as a walked through the door of the unassuming takeaway on Richardshaw Lane - but I was met with friendly, smiling faces and a carrier bag packed with my favourite dishes. So far, so good.
I live roughly 15 minutes away from Pudsey and was expecting the food to be quite cold by the time I got home. To my surprise, all the dishes were still piping hot when I opened the takeaway boxes.
The first dish to try was the grilled dumplings. Unlike other Chinese takeaways, this starter didn’t have any pools of fat sitting in the bottom of the tray. The crispy exterior on the dumplings was great and the jam-packed pork and vegetable filling was sumptuous.
I ummed and ahhed over getting the crispy duck. It is always an expensive side dish, but I’m never quite satisfied when I don’t order it, so I added it before paying - and I’m so glad I did.
There was loads of meat with barely an ounce of fat on it and the crispy skin was heavenly. Needless to say, I patted myself on the back for my inspired last-minute addition.
Some people recoil at the sight of battered chicken balls in sweet and sour sauce, but this is another dish that I simply have to order when I get a Chinese takeaway. The bright orange, glutinous sauce might put others off, but it was exactly what I was looking for. The crunchy batter balls were perfectly cooked and the chicken was tender.
The second main dish was the only minor blip in another otherwise superb meal. I was hoping for something light and delicate when I ordered roast pork, ginger and spring onion. While the veg was refreshing and the pork was nicely cooked, the sauce itself was gloopy and stodgy.
I must counter this by saying the takeaway as a whole was fantastic. It was simple and straightforward to place an order, the service was incredibly friendly and most of the food was top notch. It’s just a shame that one dish wasn’t quite up to scratch.
If you’re reading, Alice Cheung, please don’t rip me to shreds.
The Bill
- Grilled dumplings - £5.20
- Aromatic quarter crispy duck - £11.50
- Battered chicken balls with sweet and sour sauce - £8.40
- Roast pork, ginger and spring onion - £8.40
- Fried rice x2 - £3.20
Total: £33.50
Oriental Express, 201 Richardshaw Lane, Pudsey, LS28 6AA
Order online via Just Eat or the Oriental Express website.
Takeaway open 5pm - 11pm every day except Mondays.
