Should I satay or should I go?

Liked the look of the chicken in our takeaway from Leyland Chop Suey House last night.

All odd sized pieces, some breast, some thigh, most curled in that way you only get when fresh meat hits sizzling hot fat.

Not aesthetically the most pleasing, perhaps, but reassuring, at least to anyone who has ever seen the big plastic sacks of identical pre-cooked chicken breast blobs used by many takeaways nowadays.

We – by which I mean me – started with a Chop Suey Roll, a British Chinese classic, and in this case a good one.

Sizzling crunchy tube of hot beansprouts, meat and fish bits, one happily lacking the river of hot grease which often flows from this treat.

For mains, a chicken satay was all one could hope for, if a little light on the peanut.

The sauce was otherwise spot on; hot, sticky and punchy, slithering with unctuous onion, crisp slim green pepper strips, just enough fresh chilli and seeds to make your lips sing.

Less enjoyable, although hearty enough, was a chicken fried rice, which would have benefitted much from a few more veggies and a little bit of extra seasoning.

A good meat fried rice should pack real rich flavour but this blandish dish ended up as a side for the satay and an order of mixed vegetables.

These vegetables, incidentally, picked up as an afterthought prompted by a feared lack of sauce, were superb value at £2. All fresh, crunchy corn, lively mange-tout, succulent fungus and sweet light sauce.

Free prawn crackers, leftovers for lunch next day and a coin or two change from £15?

As fair a Chinese takeaway deal as you’ll find in this neck of the woods.

Will definitely return.

Barry Freeman

Star rating: 8.5