Chop & Wok

Chop and Wok is a funny one as I really don’t know what category it falls in. Being Chinese I really don’t associate it with being Chinese cuisine but like they’ve taken the noodle concept and did a fusion with stereotypical Oriental influences and Indian influences too. There are many opening up in London with the same concept and one of the advantages is that it is freshly cooked for you unlike buffet restaurants.
The layout makes it more classier than your usual Chinese Takeaway with seatings available downstairs, a bit like Wasabi where you pay at the counter and served in takeaway paper boxes and disposable cutlery and you can make your way downstairs to eat and it’s all self service from there.
The place is clean and well maintained, vivid and bright. I personally went during the evening and it was pretty quiet but probably more popular during lunch.
The most appealing part of the menu is probably the option of a type of noodle, your meat/​vegetarian topping and then the sauce you want it to be cooked in. All the sauces are all pre-​made so nothing too complicated for the chef. All they have to do is stir-​fry the meat, the vegetables, throw the noodles in and pour on the sauce. It’s not the most authentic way of cooking hence why I don’t associate it with being Oriental but it’s what you’re getting here. They also do the simple rice dishes with various curry in the same concept but with rice instead of noodles, fridged sushi, wraps and salads– mostly aimed at for lunch diners.
I decided to stick with their most popular choice being the noodles and went for medium noodles, with shredded roasted duck and Malaysian spice & udon Delhi cumin & coriander with strip steak. The things I did enjoy was the abundance of fresh vegetables which gave the noodles an excellent texture, full of crunches and nutrition. The noodles were also cooked well and although the sauce was quite generic they were both quite flavoursome and both with a good kick of spice. The Malaysian sauce was slightly sweeter whilst the Dehli Cumin was more savoury. Both a good choice.
But if you compared this to traditional Oriental cooking it is still miles away. It’s satisfying for a quick lunch but if aiming for quality you can taste the lack of wok skill and energy. The duck and meat tasted like they were probably frozen and duck pre roasted by a supplier. The sauce was quite one noted lacking the different layers of taste by sauces that are made there and then. It was also slightly overpowering, too much of it and high in salt making me quite thirsty after. I could taste a lot of oil was used to speed up the cooking process. It is definitely what I associate fast food to be, tasty sauces, quick and relatively cheap– £5.95 for each noodle combination.
Still it was edible and better than most Oriental Fast Food places where everything is cooked beforehand and poured into big containers. The combinations are more interesting and at least you get your food hot here and customised.
Probably not a place I would return to but for workers nearby I don’t see why you can’t give this lunch place a go.