PAYA Cuisine (Highgate) — Restaurant in London

We’ve been ordering from PAYA for several years since living in the area and it is by far and away the best Chinese for miles around (and we’ve tried a lot). I’ve genuinely never had a bad delivery from here.

These our favourites we order each time: the crispy shredded beef is impeccable - covered in sauce, spicy with big slices of chilly and crisp (not stale like so many others). The seaweed is crunchy and not too salty or sweet (again not soft or stale like others), the chilli chicken wings are banging (those chickens clearly lived well as the meat is clean), the satay chicken is nicely done, and the chow mein is so good too.

The service is also super quick - we order it as soon as we get out of the underground and the delivery driver is usually already sat waiting outside by the time we get to our flat 20mins later. Hands down the best chinese...

AVOID. I’ve always tried to support PAYA as there aren’t many offerings like it in-and around highgate/archway… but this was the nail in the coffin. Totally inedible. For starters we had pork buns in which you could taste the uncooked dough and the bottoms of which were cold( indicative of a microwave). We got what looked like a carcass than a quarter duck, hardly any meat and tasteless. The chicken wings used to be a staple of theirs and a large reason as to why I would persist and order again…however these failed to impress and they have changed something I’m sure. Chow mein ridiculously oily. Even the banana fritters had undercooked batter and not even the golden syrup doused over them could redeem the situation. We were left with an awful queasy feeling and I hope there are no consequences for me...

Awful!! Do not buy from here!! Was an hour and a half late and arrived cold and without the drinks. However the cherry on top was when I opened my crispy chicken balls to see 3 small nugs rattling round. Alarm bells should've sounded when the delivery man rang my ball chewing his jaw off. I called the restaurant to ask how many chicken balls there is normally and he said 8. My spider senses were tingling. I said there were only 3 and he said that was simply not possible. Mountains would fall into the sea before a dish left the kitchen with only 3 chicken balls he said. I asked for a refund on the dish and he accused me of lying to him! Aye mate, it's the great chicken ball swindle of 2017. What a goon. 1 star. Crispy Szechuan was...