Review of 'Chopstix'

Having lived in Nantwich for several years now we have pretty much exhausted the dining options of the town, however, there is one place we have heard good things about but never visited and that is “Chopstix”. Evidently they serve the best Chinese food in town but when we tried to place a takeaway order there a few weeks ago we were told we would have to wait 2-3 hours as we had not “booked” our takeaway in advance and the kitchen was so busy with orders. To be fair, this is quite easy to see with the small space crammed with tables (never mind the second floor, which we did not see) and a continual stream of people early in the evening coming in to pick up their, presumably pre-booked, orders. In any case, on that occasion we ended up around the corner at Oriental Magic, a fair less attractive, takeaway-only affair.

I feel the primary attraction that people have to “Chopstix” is that, despite the name, it has quite a fancy interior that tries and succeeds in elevating their restaurant above others in the area. But as to the food, well, that is a different story.

Despite only calling the day before we were able to secure a table for two for 6 pm on a Saturday (the only slot available which is actually the time we wanted anyway). So the first suggestion would be that if you want to dine in (or eat out, see above) be sure to book ahead. Despite arriving a few minutes early there were a number of tables on the ground floor already occupied (they open at 5 pm and close at 10 pm every day though they are closed on Tuesdays) but we were seated at the front of the restaurant near the door with a wonderful view of the busy road and pavement crawling with young people this time of night just outside the window.

The interior is quite cool with plain walls decorated with a few items of Chinese art. Each table is draped with white linen (replaced during your meal if they get dirty) though the tables are quite close to one another. It gets quite noisy when the place is busy which is not helped by the frequently ringing phone which is at the back of the room behind the bar. A romantic restaurant this is not.

The main menu holds absolutely no surprises with all of the dishes you would expect at any British Chinese restaurant. It is divided into “Set Menu” options (including seafood and vegetarian sets), “Starters”, “Soups”, “Second Course”, “Hot Pot”, “Sizzling Dishes”, “Main Courses - Seafood”, “Main Courses - Poultry”, “Main Courses - Meat”, “Rice and Noodles” and “Vegetable Side Dishes”. The prices are a bit higher than other Chinese restaurants in the area but not significantly so. Most diners we noticed tended to select from the set menus so we did also, after some discussion eventually settling on “Menu B” at £24.90 per person. There is a separate, short, drinks menu with several pages of alcohol followed by a half dozen or so non-alcoholic options. For drinks I ordered Jasmine tea (served in my own pot and topped up with water on demand…a positive sign) and my companion had several glasses of wine which she assured me was quite good indeed.

Our starters were a large pile of “Crispy Seaweed”, “Assortment of Spice Salt & Chilli” (mostly thin sticks of deep-fried chicken with two pieces of squid and a single prawn), “Assortment of Satay on Skewers” (a mixture of chicken and thin prawns), and “Mini Pancake Rolls” (spring rolls). This was all served on a single plate in the middle of the table from which we helped ourselves. Nicely we had been offered chopsticks (though they are of the typically Chinese kind - slippery plastic) for eating. Nothing here was particularly amazing though I have to say the Satay sauce provided for the skewered chicken and prawn was quite nice in that it was not overly sweat but at the same time it did not have a huge amount of flavour. The seaweed caused an unavoidable mess trying to transfer it to our plates but otherwise nothing more to say here…

The middle feature of all of the (meat) set menus is “Aromatic Crispy Duck or Lamb” which I found a bit odd as lamb is something that (a) you rarely see on a Chinese menu and (b) the Chinese rarely eat it. Having lamb in “Peking Duck” fashion would also be more than a bit unusual. We went for the traditional “Crispy Duck” and were glad we did. There were about 4 wraps each in a steamer served with hoisin sauce and a few sliced vegetables along with a huge portion of shredded duck which I found slightly dry. All of this tasted quite good indeed.

For the main course we had (deep breath) “Sizzling King Prawns in Ginger & Spring Onion”, “[Deep Fried] Chicken in Sweet & Sour Sauce”, “Sautéed Mixed Vegetables” and “Special Fried Rice” (which included small shrimp). The vegetables were quite tasteless and, typically, slimy, the Prawns were quite big but verging on being overcooked as they sizzled away on their metal plate while the chicken was the most flavourful thing on the table and included small welcome pieces of pineapple. It always annoys me with set menus that the rice provided is generally a dish unto itself with lots of ingredients rather than serving (as it should) as a base for the other dishes and here was no exception.

The set meal included “Tea or Coffee” but by the end we were quite full and had no space for it, instead requesting the bill which came to just over £60 not including any service. For the amount of food we received and the drinks we had this price seemed reasonable. The service was OK but certainly not overfriendly though complements were received graciously.

I would say “Chopstix” is an elegant Chinese restaurant in Nantwich serving good, but not extraordinary Chinese food that you can find in pretty much any Chinese restaurant in the country. I suppose what it has over many other Chinese options in the area is that you can eat in but otherwise I can't say the food is all that special though, to be fair, it is prepared properly with good sized portions. It is slightly more expensive than other options but you will not go away hungry with the set menus…In general, disappointing but acceptable.

Rating: “It is OK but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2024-04-27

Cuisine: Chinese

Address: 33 Beam St, Nantwich, Cheshire CW5 5NA ENGLAND

Location: Cheshire (England) - Nantwich

Map:

Telephone: +44 (0) 1270 619 519

URL: https://chopstixnantwich.co.uk/