A Great Wall of Chinese comfort food

The Great Wall is a survivor from a dim and distant culinary past – and more power to their elbow for that.

There are a good few such places dotted around, still knocking out that deeply English take on Cantonese cuisine, and the fact is, if done well, is just as pleasing as the more ‘authentic’ offer of recent rivals.

And substantially more filling. The subtle flavours of the Orient via the English love of hefty great heaps. Portions that, with two main courses and a starter in the carrier bag, are stretching the handles even as you tote it out the shop.

The menu does not seek to thrill you with new sensations but makes you feel at home, and so with a starter of chicken satay skewers we chose to lug home a special fried rice and a chicken chow mein.

They say the Great Wall of China can be seen from space. I suspect these portions could too.

Steaming mountains greeted us as we flipped the lids – twoering supple saucy noodles with oodles of chickens and whopping chunks of carrot, onion, mushroom, pepper and bamboo shoots – swap the carb for spuds and you’re looking at a stew, basically.

Ditto the special fried rice, which along with the nice veg, prawns and char shui was enlivened with that most Oriental of ingredients, gammon.

None of which is to knock Great Wall. The starter aside – which might have been made on the premises but I gravely doubt it, and was neither here nor there as a result – this was good food, obviously freshly prepared, tasty and hearty on the bitterest night of this week’s cold snapette.

Unlike some cheaper shops they hadn’t taken refuge behind a Gourmet Powder (MSG) blitz, and both dishes were moist but not greasy.

Free prawn crackers with an order that came out bang on £15 and more than enough left over for meals the following day.

Barry Freeman

Star rating: 7/10