Recently I've been really disappointed by the quality of food I've eaten in eateries in the Coventry area, so I decided to start this Blog in order to give some of my fellow Coventrarians a view on the places I've eaten at, or taken-away from and to give some feedback to the owners of the local establishments in order for them to have an independent view of what their patrons could be thinking about them.
In particular my wife and I have been on a mission to try and find a decent Chinese takeaway near our house in the North-west of Coventry. The challenge seems to be proving quite a task. We had a regular place where we went most weeks to get our fix of Chicken in Blackbean Sauce but my wife had an unfortunate experience when eating a takeaway from this particular place (which I won't name) just after Christmas. Now I can't prove it was food poisoning, but she was violently ill for 24 hours after eating a meal cooked by them, it started about an hour after she had finished the meal during which she discovered, lurking within her vegetable Chow mein, what I can only describe as a 'foreign body', which neither of us could readily identify as being vegetable, mineral or other upon inspecting it. Draw your own conclusions.
Back to the search, luckily I think this search has now been concluded just this very night after trying many a mediocre takeaway where it seems bland is the order of the day but I can safely say the meal we enjoyed from Allesley House tonight, was a cut above the recent experiences.
Our regular test menu is Chicken in Blackbean Sauce with Fried Rice and Vegetable Chow Mein with Curry Sauce, however tonight we both went for Blackbean Sauce, one portion of vegetable and one of the usual Chicken. To our pleasant surprise the dish was really quite tasty, and had a good selection of vegetables in both, I have to also say that the chicken did not taste reheated which is the usual practise it would seem these days, I'm not saying it wasn't (why oh why do you reheat pre-cooked chicken all you Chinese takeaway chefs, you can clearly taste it and its not great, I want fresh food not reheated, please, please, please give your customers freshly cooked food, not reheated) but it didn't taste reheated.
The place itself is located at 6 Westmede Centre, Allesley Park, and is fairly welcoming, if a little dated in the decor department. The staff were friendly and efficient and the food was ready from ordering at the counter in around 10 minutes. I like to visit takeaways before I order first time around as you can tell a lot from the general decor, the cleanliness of the front of house and the patron traffic.
Overall we were impressed on first visit and will be going back, so the scores are as follows:
Service 4/5
Speed 4/5
Food 4/5
Price/Value 3.5/5
Front of house appearance 3/5
Accessability 4/5
Overall: 22.5/30
The menu is typical of many a Chinese Takeaway with no signature dishes that stand out but it contained all the regular dishes you will know and love. One thing of note is that they are open at lunchtime on a Friday and Saturday - 12-2 it says on the menu I brought home.
So if you want to check them out or if you're struggling to find something near you (although not on a Tuesday as they are closed) you can find them at:
6 Westmede Centre
Winsford Avenue
Allesley Park
Coventry
CV5 9AF
Tel: 024 76 674174
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