For the final review of the Chinese section in Thame's Best Takeaway our foodie will be sampling Ming's Chinese Takeaway. Ming's Chinese Takeaway is of course the Chinese formerly known as Tommy Yaki, who had some bad press earlier in the year after being fined for a mice infestation.
So let's see if they've managed to turn it around and can take the crown of Thame's Best Chinese and make the finals of Thame's Best Takeaway.
"To say I was a little bit apprehensive about eating here would be an understatement. I'd read the articles in November about the mice infestation and I wondered if they had just had a name change and rebranding to get around it, but in order to conduct a fair review I would put these things aside and just concentrate on the food.
So just a reminder of the dishes I was to order to keep the competition consistent.
- Sweet and Sour Chicken with egg fried rice
- Beef Chow Mein
- Prawn Toast
- Chicken Satay Sticks
- Prawn Crackers
Ordering at 7:30pm on a Saturday night I was told that I would be in for a twenty five minute wait which seems the norm for a Chinese takeaway in Thame at the weekend. I was delighted to find that this takeaway came to £24.10 which was the cheapest of all Thame Takeaways. Harvest Moon was £27.90, Famous House £26.90 and The Sun £25.45.
As I arrived to pick up my order I was greeted on first name terms which i felt was a nice touch, but unlike the rest of the Chinese takeaways on Saturday night prime time I was the only one in the establishment. Had Thame turned its back on Mings after the recent controversies. Despite the nice greeting and the apparent lack of customers i was slightly disappointed to be told it would still be a further five minutes till my order would be ready.
So first up in the final Chinese review was the Chicken satay sticks. These came slightly different to the other Chinese takeaways, four skewers were in the tub but what really caught my eye and tickled my taste buds was the satay sauce. Instead of pouring them over the sticks, a big tub of satay sauce was included for you to pour over the chicken yourself. With some satay sticks you don't get much meat, but there was plenty on these ones, and with the full flavoured satay sauce, these went down a treat.
Next up was the prawn toast. I could only give these an average rating unfortunately. Although receiving six, triangular portions of toast, some of the toast was slightly greasy and had perhaps been fried for too long as a significant amount of taste from the prawns had been lost.
Now to the mains!
Sweet and sour chicken with egg fried rice. I must say that this was the best version of this dish I had ever sampled, not just from Thame but from anywhere. The chicken was divine and the sauce flavoursome, even leaving some excess sauce to mix in with the rice. A big thumbs up from me for this dish.
The beef chow mein was next up, and once again an excellent amount of beef in the dish. All of Thame's Chinese takeaways have done well in this section of the review and once again they didn't scrimp on the meat. The dish was ever so slightly dry but on the whole another excellent dish.
I must give a special mention to the prawn crackers in this review. Not much has been said on the prawn crackers in other reviews because prawn crackers are what they are. But these prawn crackers were by far the best i have had in the review. They tasted fresh and really kept you coming back for more. Not only that but Ming's included two bags rather than one.
So to summarise my Ming's Chinese Takeaway review I would say this place definitely deserves a second chance. If you had turned your back on this place after the recent bad press or if you had never actually tried it as it is a little out from the town centre, then definitely give this place ago. On the whole fantastic flavoursome dishes and portion sizes only let down slightly by the prawn toast."
Read our previous review on Thame's best takeaway below:
Thame's Best Takeaway - Chinese - Round 1 - Sun, Chinese Food - www.thamehub.co.uk/thames-best-takeaway-chinese-round-1-sun-chinese-food/
Thame's Best Takeaway - Chinese - Round 2 - Famous House - www.thamehub.co.uk/thames-best-takeaway-chinese-round-2-famous-house/
Thame's Best Takeaway - Chinese - Round 3 - Harvest Moon - www.thamehub.co.uk/thames-best-takeaway-chinese-round-3-harvest-moon/
Stay tuned for our article later this week as we reveal which Chinese has won the first section of Thame Hub's Best Takeaway. The winner will be entered into the finals and will be joined by the winners of the pizza, kebab, chippy and Indian categories.
