Review: Chop Chop, Edinburgh

 FOLLOWING THE ANNUAL post-Christmas belt buckle loosening, a Chinese banquet probably wasn’t the best way to get back to full fitness, but the enjoyment of good food should never leave you feeling guilty.  Anyway, January is usually boring and all the talk of Veganuary, Dry January and so on brings out the anti-Phil.  As we entered the multi-award winning Chop Chop the beaming face of restaurant manager Yin Fei makes you feel like this feast was completely necessary to banish those January blues.

Whilst Sarah is a big fan of Chinese food, I need to be in the mood for it.  Too often, all I get is the taste of MSG and old cooking oil that coats your mouth, resulting in that nasty sickly feeling. Situated on Morrison Street, just around from Haymarket station, Chop Chop guarantees that MSG is not used in their kitchen – all the better for it. 

The unlimted banquet, priced at £22.95 per person, comes ‘when things are ready’, beginning with cucumber salad and crispy shredded potatoes on this occasion. The salad was a thing of beauty, perhaps even my favourite course.  The dressing (lemongrass, sesame oil and rice vinegar, I think) seasoned the fresh cucumber without taking away its flavour, bringing a richness to it.  The straw potatoes reminded me of those crisps you used to get when you were wee, but without the excess grease.

Next out of the kitchen was sweet and sour pork ribs, a generous portion of boiled pork and coriander dumplings (Jiao Zi) and seasoned chicken wings. It’s been an idea of mine for a while to open a rib joint, kind of like the one opened by Freddy in the early series of House of Cards. What do you think? The meat flaked off the bone and was slightly sweet.  I didn’t get much of a countering sourness but enjoyed them all the same.  Famed for dumplings, Chop Chops speciality did not disappoint. The tender casing was stuffed full of dense meat that I loved and had the right amount of salt added. The chicken wings were indeed seasoned to a tee and were expertly executed to ensure a crisp, non-soggy batter with sesame seeds running through providing a nutty riff.

We were joined by a mammoth portion of crispy northern (sweet and sour) chicken, a portion of contrasting crispy chicken dumplings (Guo Tie) and some much-needed veg in the form of garlic aubergines, as well as a portion of perfectly cooked rice. This time the sweet and sour sauce did deliver and was one of those plates you could have just kept eating and eating.  The dumplings offered a pleasing crunch and bags of flavour.  Aubergine can be a funny ingredient to cook, but it still maintained a bit of texture here and was reeking of garlic, as anything with the ‘G’ word in the title should be.  Very moreish, too and, like the other plates, not laden with oil.

The food was filling yet almost had a semi-healthy feel to it, unlike the takeaways I alluded to earlier. We struggled with what we had, never mind ordering more to be sent out, which of course we could have. Front of house were extremely friendly and accommodating.  They visibly chatted with other guests throughout and kept on top of the relatively busy canteen-like
dining room. In researching this piece, I learned that Yin enjoys a card trick or two, so I was disappointed he didn’t show off his skills!

This feast left us so well and truly stuffed that we didn't need to take advantage of the unlimitedness of it, well this time at least. What we ate was certainly worth the calories; even after the Christmas excess.  Yin runs a steady ship front of house and it certainly brought satisfaction to an otherwise boring month.

Web: chop-chop.co.uk/

Twitter: @eatatchopchop

Phone: (0131) 2211155

Address: 230 Morrison Street, Edinburgh, EH3 8DT

Opening hours: Mon-Fri 12:00-14:00, 17:00- 22:00
    Sat: 12:00- 14:00, Sun 12:30-14:30, 17:00- 22:00