Takeaway review: Jing Jing

This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of posts, as me and my housemate attempt a gastronomic feat and take on Preston’s takeaways. First up was Chinese takeaway Jing Jing on Water Lane.

We’ve devised a number of factors that takeaways are scored on: Delivery time, Price, Food quality, Warmth on arrival, Taste and Bonus/Extras offered. The only rule is that we must have the Set Meal for Two if it is offered.

Placed the call for the meal, gave address and order was taken in just 38 seconds, very efficient. Plus the girl on the phone spoke good English, so no trouble with placing the order. We were told it would be 20-45 minutes for delivery time.

14 minutes later and the takeaway arrived. Good stuff! We unpacked our meal, and there was plenty to go round. Chicken & Sweetcorn soup to start with, a tub for both of us, and then some King Do Spare Ribs to share. A big bag of prawn crackers was easily shareable between the two of us.

The soup was nice and hot and there were generous chunks of chicken in it, not just a load of sweetcorn. The ribs were nice and again plenty of meat, not just a load of bone.

We were pretty impressed by this point, and then we moved onto the mains. There were two medium sized tubs of Yung Chow Friend Rice, which turned out to be plenty for each of us. The rice was warm and there was egg, vegetable and bits of duck and chicken mixed in with the rice. We had the Beef in Black Bean Sauce first and it was delicious. The beef was really well cooked and not “like chewing gum” as my housemate commented. The sauce wasn’t too overpowering either, often black bean sauce can swamp the taste of everything else.

We’d saved half the rice, so now it was Chicken with Mushroom time. It was a generous portion size and we’d found the weak link, the chicken. It was cooked but it was rubbery, and completely tasteless. The sauce and the vegetables were okay but the meat was poor quality.

Overall, for the price it was a good meal and we were very impressed by everything apart from the chicken. Highly recommend ordering from this place.

Scores on the doors

Delivery time: 14 minutes – 10/10
Price: £15.90 (set meal for 2) – 8.5/10
Food quality: Beef was excellent, chicken was rubbish – 7/10
Warmth: Prawn crackers were warm – whoo and saw was everything else – 9/10
Taste: Overall very good, apart from that tasteless chicken – 8/10
Bonus/Extras: We didn’t get any, as they don’t come with set meal. But it’s free prawn crackers with any order over £10 – 5/10

Overall: 47.5/60

Details:

Jing Jing, Unit 2A, Water Lane, Preston, PR2 2NL (see map)

01772 72 55 88

Free delivery within a three mile radius on orders over £7.00.

Open 5 PM – 12 NOON seven days a week and open all Bank Holiday Mondays.

22nd November, 2009 1 Ed Walker