Review: When birthday nights out become an excuse to dine in

Unless of course you’re one of these people who completed your shopping in July.

It’s not just Christmas that makes this time of the year an expensive time in our household but a run of birthdays added to the mix leading to a December diet of beans and corned beef hash.

That said it’s a family tradition on my side to dine out for said birthdays so for my sister’s day earlier this week we compromised..... Chinese takeaway.

With five of us plus my two children, we left my dad at the wok frying up extra rice and decided/argued on a selection of dishes to share from Bao Bao Chinese on Plungington Road.

We had never tried Bao Bao before but it seemed reasonably promising. The website says ‘our takeaway aims to deliver fast, fresh food that is full of authentic Asian ingredients.

You can order your favourite dishes online, over the phone or in person.’

We made a phone call to place the order and were told the waiting time with delivery was likely to be more than an hour - it was Monday early evening so quite busy for this time in the week.

The plan was to pick up for collection anyway so the staff suggested coming into the shop and ordering over the counter so it could be cooked fresh and taken home hot.

Some might find this a bit of an inconvenience, added with the fact Bao Bao only accept cash payments, but the order was very quick this way and the shop only a short distance from home so we did not might at all.

With our order of two chow mein (one beef, one chicken), chicken and pineapple, chicken and cashew nut and a portion of crispy spring rolls, the bill came to £27.

We received two complimentary cans of coke and a small bag of prawn crackers. The one thing the children complained about. They love their ‘Chinese crisps.’

We were all impressed with the flavour of the dishes, plenty of meat in the chow mein, none of it too greasy, no flavour too overpowering. It was an enjoyable meal, my dad’s homemade fried rice wasn’t too bad either.

My brother had a whinge he didn’t think there was enough, but given there was still leftovers at the end, his argument didn’t quite stand up.

It would have been nice to have a few more prawn crackers, you can never have enough but Bao Bao can be added to the list of takeaways I would be happy to return too.