Chef Peking — Restaurant in England

First visit. Party of 6 - me, wife, son, his wife and two lads aged 9 & 11. Arrived early to check the place out. Clean, tidy, modern, welcoming, efficient and attentive.

Bigger than expected but adequate space between tables. Large Council run free car park to the rear (behind their own car park which was quite busy).

We read the menu, decided to order a 'running buffet' and we shared a wide range of dishes reordering every 10 minutes or so. I asked everyone to score each dish out of a maximum of 5 and ALL main dishes got a score of 5 except the Szechuan Prawns that got a 5.5 and the sizzling spicy chicken that got a 6! The rice, noodles etc are all fine, fluffy tasty, well flavoured/seasoned etc but we marked them all as 4's simply because the mains were so very good.

Star performers were the Char Siew (pork with honey) which we eventually ordered three times. Also the sizzling hot spicy chicken (ordered twice) which had a good hit of heat but was very tender, moist and moreish with a lovely sauce and despite my best attempts to control things, they scored this a 6! The Szechuan prawns were plump, firm and cooked to perfection and these also scored a heavily negotiated 5.5. Again, a nice hit of heat.

One 'lad' was a bit picky but we ordered a portion of Singaporean noodles 'without veg' for him without any fuss.

This is not cheap food, it is good food. It arrives quickly, looks good, tastes great and the price reflects the quality.

We tried the 'wine by the glass' options too. The white (Chilean Sauv Blanc) was perfectly fine with the food, I had the (Aussie) Shiraz which went very well with beef/pork/heat etc and the Italian 'Blush' (rose) went down a treat too. Very good selection.

We are going again on Monday with another '6' to eat our way through some more of the dishes and I am thoroughly looking forward to it.

My advice would be, if you really enjoy your food, try the...

This is a really frustrating review and relates to my seven visits to this restaurant having been working in the area and it being recommended by the hotel I've been staying at. The first time was great, really courteous and it's clean though very expensive for a Chinese not in London. The food was good but not spectacular. The second visit two nights later I had exactly the same order and paid £3.80 more? Didn't notice until back at the hotel but let it go that time. Next time had the same order again and the food wasn't as good but still okay but nowhere near as good as the first time. This time I paid £4.20 more than the first time for the same food so decided to ask why? Only to be told "yes little bit different this time" no explanation as to why? Menu the same and I ordered the same. Beyond me as to why? Left it then for a couple of weeks before going back and this time the food took around twenty minutes to come out between courses. It wasn't even that busy and the food was again not that good. It's hard to understand the inconsistency in the food and the prices seem to vary depending on what day or time you go in with no explanation or warning as to why? I've since gone back only because it's close to my hotel and clean but just have no idea what price I'm going to be charged or if the chef is having a good day or bad day cooking? For a Stokey like me it's not acceptable. Get consistent with your quality and your prices please. The menu seems to be nothing more than a ball park guide as to what you'll pay! Food can be good, but can and has...

The food here is really good, and if you stay in you'll get great treatment. But it's a touch expensive for what you get.

I've had both takeaway and dine-in food at Chef Peking, and I must say I was always satisfied with the food that I got. It's well cooked and flavoured, with some complexity and subtlety in their flavourings - rather than a one-dimensional blast. They also don't go in for that other habit of padding their food out with onions or vegetables, and their dishes contain a good amount of meat in them, although I'd say their portions are on the smaller side.

The crispy duck was excellent and all of their starters were really tasty, especially the dumplings which were just right. Our main courses were the standard crispy chilli beef and similar, but we weren't disappointed.

In terms of atmosphere it was lively but not too noisy, and there is a good amount of space between tables although at the same time it has a nice cosy feel to it. There are little nooks and no two tables are the same - something that gives the restaurant a bit of character.

Price-wise, as mentioned it's on the higher end of the spectrum, but not outrageous. For the money I paid I'd have liked slightly larger portions (especially on the starter selection), but it won't stop me from...