Tiverton is not known for its Chinese Restaurants.  The only descent Chinese Restaurant in Tiverton is the Golden Panda I have been told.  Then there is The Orient and China Xpress on Distribution Road, and really the choice stops there.  We were coming back from a tiring day, and the best thing you can eat on a Saturday night after any tiring day is Chinese, it is THE law.  So here goes with my impressions on The Daily Chef on Angel Hill.

Chinese Take-Aways in the UK often have strange names, House of Wong, Fo Young, Golden Woo etc. but this one is very English.  The name doesn’t make sense unless you take in to account the fact they’re open pretty much every day apart from Monday? So that isn’t really Daily…is it?

Get past the name and you have a pretty traditional Chinese.  A vast wall mounted menu, some fish in a tank, over-priced cans of drink and a 60p surcharge for any card transactions under 12GBP and some cheap chopsticks for sale in a plastic cup on sale behind the counter.

The Daily Chef doesn’t have a website or any sort of digital internet presence.  This is highly unusual for any business in the UK at the moment, but they seem to get by with word-of-mouth and a bit of advertising.  This is not a pretentious establishment, and for that it is endearing, it is what it is.

The prices are average ‘Chinese’ prices, anything between 3GBP and 6GBP, there is a set menu with four person menu hitting 38GBP and they do Chinese and English meals.

The greasy state of Chinese food in England is pretty legendary.  And the food here doesn’t really go past that expectation.  I went for two Pancake Rolls, Chicken in Water Chestnuts and some Egg Fried Rice.

The speed of the food was quite amazing (5 minutes!).  I have been to some Chinese’s where you have to wait for up to 30 minutes for a ‘very busy chef’ to cook  your food for you and then have it brought out in some greasy congealed half cold mess.  This wasn’t.  It was quick, it was hot and the service was very polite.  No resentful crone sitting behind the counter with a face like a slapped trout, the young lady seemed to have a hold on what was happening, who was having what etc.  It did give me confidence that this was going to be a good meal.

One thing about The Daily Chef which will make you overlook everything else, is the portion size.  For what we paid, we felt satisfied.  The prawn crackers cracked, the Pancake Rolls were a little small but still very nice and the Chicken and Water Chestnuts hit the mark three times over.  This is definitely a place we will revisit 🙂

Tel:
01884252135

No website or Twitter or anything Social or Digital…