Lassies Who Lunch: August 2015

I've had a long love affair with Chinese food and it's pretty much a given fact I'd never say no to Chinese takeout. I'd heard amazing things about Chop Chop and their famous dumplings but we don't get through to Edinburgh very often. Lucky for us Chop Chop recently opened a restaurant in Glasgow and invited us along to give it a try.

Chop Chop is famous for its "jiao zi" or North Eastern style Chinese dumplings. Both my husband and I are HUGE fans of dumplings so we knew we were in for a treat. If you are anything like me you tend to fall in to the same old habits when ordering Chinese food so we went open minded and ready to try something new.

The restaurant is hidden down Mitchell Street not far from the bustle of Buchanan Street and only a short walk from Central Station. It is bright and clean with lots of cherry blossom trees decorating the room. Our server was really friendly and explained the menu to us and we were sold on the Unlimited Buffet. I let them know I had a coriander allergy and while it did feature in several dishes it wasn't a problem to get them made without coriander or have something else subbed in its place. The server also showed us how to make dip for our dumplings, to our individual taste, which was a really nice touch.

We opted for the Chop Chop Unlimited banquet for two which is served Chinese style--everything comes out when it is ready so there isn't your typical Western progression of starter to main. You can re-order as many of the dishes as you like, as many times as you like but the portions are already really generous.

It included cucumber salad (tofu salad for me due to coriander), fried chicken wings, chicken dumplings, pork dumplings (coriander left out for me), spicy fried potatoes, aubergines, prawn crackers, crispy northern beef, crispy shredded potato and rice.

It's called a banquet for a reason y'all--it was amazing. I'd never had potatoes at a Chinese restaurant before but they had me questioning why I hadn't before. I was prepared to really not like the aubergine, but it was one of my favourite dishes by far. Nothing was greasy or oily; anything fried was crispy and light and we came away full but not gross if you know what I mean.

Gluttons for punishment we decided we couldn't pass up dessert and tried the ice-cream dumplings and sugar-string apple. My husband has travelled to China before and remembered the having the apple in China. I'm so glad that memory came to him because it was amazing. The ice-cream dumplings were nice but the sugar string apple was just so different and amazing. Cooked apple pieces are covered in a caramelised sugar coating and then you dip them into a bowl of ice water so it begins to harden. It's like the nicest candy apple you've ever had because the outside is a bit hard but the inside is still warm and gooey.

You can tell from the carnage we had a great meal, right? The staff were all extremely welcoming and helpful. I always worry about set menus with a food allergy but they were so accommodating to my coriander allergy that it was pretty much a non-issue. You can join their loyalty club for discounts as well as money-off vouchers on your birthday and anniversary, how sweet is that? They are also now deliver via Deliveroo, too!

We will definitely be coming back again soon!

Chop Chop