A PREVIOUS editor of this paper banned reviews from Chinese (and Indian) restaurants or takeaways, because he claimed they were ‘all the same’. Our latest experience shows just how wrong that is.

We decided to revert to our favourite takeaway for Saturday night, but the Chinese we usually use has not yet re-opened after the coronavirus lockdown. So we took to the internet to find somewhere new, and settled on the Noble House.

In the spirit of adventure we decided we would try something different and instead of going for a dish apiece, order their set meal for three, which seemed to include the sort of things we liked - and one person’s favourite.

We’re compulsive over-orderers, so as well as the large prawn crackers, spare ribs in barbeque sauce, chicken with green peppers in black bean sauce, crispy shredded chilli beef, king prawn with ginger and spring onion, Yung Chow fried rice and beansprout and onion chow mein (all for £27) we added on an egg fried rice and a set of mini spring rolls.

We could have had it delivered, but chose to collect. I phoned the order in and was asked to wait until 7.30pm, as the polite lady explained they were quite busy a little earlier.

And their timing was spot on, for as I parked the previous customer was leaving, and when I walked through the door I was the only person there. The front of house server was taking a phone call and straight away another staff member walked out of the kitchen with my neatly packed order, fresh from the wok. No complaints about delays or lack of social distancing measures, they clearly have their timings down pat.

At home we unpacked and ladled a mixture of dishes onto three plates - realising that once again we’d overdone it and the extra fried rice would probably end up in the freezer.

The spare ribs were delicious, meaty and succulent with no chewy bits and good flavoured sauce. I wasn’t so keen on the mini spring rolls, and felt fatter ones would have been nicer.

The crispy beef certainly had a real chilli kick, and was voted better than our usual takeaway’s version on account of it. The plain chow mein was also full of flavour, and Yung Chow rice turned out to have chicken and shrimp embedded in it. I thought it was a little dry, and tasted best when eaten with some sauce on top of it.

Plenty of king prawns in the carton made that a satisfying dish too, and I really enjoyed the sauce, which was sharp without being too strong - again, I liked this better than our usual place.

The black bean sauce, on the other hand, was a bit too sticky and salty for my taste - other people didn’t agree with me about the salt. The chicken itself was very moist though.

We did notice that when we went back for seconds two of the sauces had thickened rather with waiting and were now a bit sticky and not so pleasant.

Altogether a very reasonably priced Chinese meal for three, and no complaints about the service or quality. Maybe sticking with one takeaway all the time isn’t such a good idea, after all.

ALISON PHILLIPS