Oodles Wok Blackburn — Restaurant in England

I am only giving one star because the staff was polite and professional. The food however, was awful. First and last time I will ever go there. I tried to order online and was unsuccessful because the website option had been disabled. So I called the store and was told there is no pre orders and it's cash only, ( with the corono virus around businesses should be encouraging contactless payments but not these guys). I ordered the udon noodles (which should be wheat flour based but are rice based). I found this out by asking the staff what makes these udon noodles non vegetarian as they do not have the V sign on the menu. I was told that the menus were made 3 months ago and they must have forgot to put it on, also they are rice based noodles. Ok, so I go to the store and the staff member is polite. He takes my order, udon noodles, Manchurian chicken sauce and Kung Pao chicken ( Pao incorrectly spelt, they spelt it Po instead of Pao.) After taking my order he advised me the chef is out and should be back shortly. So I sit and wait. A few minutes go by and the chef arrives. I don't think he even washed his hands and started warming up the noodles. Not even 3 minutes and he was done. The order was boxed into what is supposed to be a medium box and was placed into a bag with tissues and chop sticks. The box size for the price charged is ludicrous. Got home and gave it to my daughter to eat as she wanted to try this place. I was asked to have a taste. The Kung Pao chicken had zero flavour, it was not sweet nor sour nor savoury. There was no stickiness to it, it was just full of heat. The Manchurian chicken was the dryest chicken I have ever had. It was dry and rubbery in the mouth. The noodles were just thick rounded noodles with a hot sauce which when eaten were dry and chalky to the pallette. This place cannot be called oodles noodles when they only have one noodle choice, there having a laugh. Now you may be thinking what gives me the qualifications to give negative reviews to this place and what do I know about food. A brief history of me. I have been in the restaurant and hotelier business for 35 years. I have qualified as a chef and baker. I have silver service qualifications. I was asked to assist a head chef on the QE2. This place is a joke and not worth spending your money in. Overpriced menus, many mistakes, cheap nasty food which is not even cooked properly. You want decent noodles? Go to a supermarket and buy your own noodles, sauces and meat and you'll hardly go wrong. Take care and...

Ordered online last Sunday so order could be ready before collection. I was prepared to pay the extra online service charge I was collecting from another takeaway too and didn't want to wait whilst the food got cold.

Went after 15 minutes as stated online and when I went to ordering counter with my online order they struggled to find it. They eventually found my empty box! Told me it'll be 15 minutes whilst they make it ready and put my box in the queue with the other walk in orders. I was told that it is policy not to pre prepare online orders!

I was then told that they did not have the prawns so would I take the chicken instead. I obliged and took their suggestion. When it came to payment they charged me including the service charge even though they didn't have it ready or have what I ordered. Beware that they DO NOT TAKE CARD especially considering that we are in the midst of a pandemic! Maybe the VAT man needs to take a look. It's definitely busy enough to be VAT registered!

I subsequently realised that they had overcharged me for the prawns as well which they didn't have in stock. Cheeky!

My biggest gripe is "What was the point of ordering online if it takes just as long to come into the store, queue up and order like walk in customers and wait whilst your order is prepared? Especially considering that THEY CHARGE EXTRA TO ORDER ONLINE!!" And don't even get me started on the cash only scam!

Ordered a box today over the phone and was told it'd be ready 15 mins after I turn up. I told the young lady that I'll be there in 15 minutes and as I am collecting other takeaway orders please could she have it ready so I'm not taking cold food home. She agreed as long as I'm there in 15 minutes.

I got to the takeaway and guess what ... it wasn't ready. Again they didn't have one of the items. Why couldn't the lady taking my order just tell me instead of wasting time? I changed my options and went to pay when it was ready. Explained to the guy behind the counter about the over charging regarding the prawns and he apologised and put a free coke in my bag. How nice I thought!

However, when I paid him the total minus what I over paid last week he threw a strop and took the can back !!

The moral of the my experience is "If you pay peanuts, you...

This is an honest review and i hope my views and experience dont offend anyone... food is great, thats what the 3 stars are for...however, the box sizes seem to be VERY disappointing. First 3 times i ordered from here i would always get a small size for myself. Today i ordered a Large size as my Husband wanted to just "try/taste" some but he didnt want to commit to a whole box incase he didnt like it since he has never tried chinese food before. When i got it, the box seemed very small.. small to the point i was left wondering what the difference would be between all three sizes? With each size you are charged an extra pound but the sizes arent significantly too different. It felt almost the same as a small portion with maybe just a a tablespoon of each thing extra put in (a table spoon of rice, a bunch of noodles, 2 nuggets of thai chicken and two nuggets of lemon chicken).. also.. i had selected 2 dishes to go with the rice and noodles but 95 percent of the dish that i found in it was just the dry dish (lemon chicken).. this was my experience... i just feel it is already pricey and then you get charged extra for a bigger size only to find it not too different from the small size. 🤷‍♀️ This will definitely be the last time i order as i could get a decent portion of food from elsewhere for £9 or even get 2 decent portions for 2 ppl for that amount. Spending £9 on a food that was only enough for 1 person felt like a huge rip off (and trust me i am not a big eater at all at just 46kg but i managed to finish it and feel like i had only had a snack 😆lol)

Re: reply from Oodles: well then it seems i may have been given the wrong size because there definitely wasnt 19 pieces of chicken in mine, if i was to think back and compare what i got to the sizes you stated in your reply i would say i got something between a small to a medium if anything? Especially if you state a large is enough for two people 🤷‍♀️ now that makes me certain that what i got...