from andy (100%) on August 1st, 2007 (1 year ago)

The Ping On Chinese Restaurant, 26 Deanhaugh St, EH4 1LY, Edinburgh

7 of us ordered delivery to the Old Town from them on Saturday night. They didn't mention how long it would take to deliver. After an hour we rang back to ask where it was. They were very apologetic and said it was on its way. When it finally arrived (after about 1 hour, 15 minutes), the guy only charged us £20 as it was so late. It should have been about £50. The food was still hot, so we were pretty chuffed.

Why don't more takeaways treat their customers like that? We probably wouldn't have used them again if we'd had to pay full price, but now almost certainly will.

Food was pretty standard Chinese takeaway fair. Better than average. Good work Ping On!

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from Meng (92%) on August 6th, 2008 (2 months ago)

The Ping On Chinese Restaurant, 26 Deanhaugh St, EH4 1LY, Edinburgh

Originating in the sutra caves of 8th century Dunhuang, the cheap and cheerful Chinese takeaway is that indescribable craving, that trawl of the dirty brothels of the Far East. Pursuers of the purveyance of Oriental pleasures driven by indescribable lust and longing alike, becoming like an unstoppable force of nature across the globe. Much of these drives have been perpetuated by the simple, abundant, flavoursome recipes and ingredients prevalent in Cantonese cuisine, along with the flexible mindset that followed these mercantile sailor-castes that adapted local flavours and available materials to produce a unique, hybrid beast.

A dirty hunger. You need it, you want it. Gotta feed it.

The philosophy of a cheap and cheerful Chinese takeaway are lashings of salt, liberally prepared. Good takeaway food also contains amongst other things, meat, fat, grease, monosodium glutamate, and is usually ‘prepared’ by a highly trained and specialised chef who simply covers the meat and/or other foodstuffs with a standardised sauce with slight variations. This is normal, and even expected. The food in places like these give the punters what they want, and if they want chips with it, who are they to complain? They provide the supply to reach the demand. This is intensively-efficient-hyper-sustenance.

It is ironic that I am fully embracing the food of the masses. Indeed, in China, there is an immensely clairvoyant distinction between British Chinese takeaway food, and peasant glop barely sustaining the sustenance requirements of the glorious Olympic-approving Mainlander proletariat. ‘Inauthentic’ chicken sweetcorn soup, prawn crackers, spicy chicken wings, battered sausage VS ‘authentic’ fermented chicken feet gristle, pig’s trotters in cold soy sauce, pickled deer penis, panda balls and shredded liver pancakes? I know which side of the fence I lie on.

Screw authenticity. I’ve eaten the takeaway food of the Ping On several times, and my experience has ranged from mediocre to good. The staff and service are always reasonable (they always warn you they’ll take longer than expected and then come early. Efficient service most excerrent!). The menu ranges from 4-5 quid a dish with the barely edible (beef in black bean sauce, sweet & sour pork, chicken and cashews. Avoid all!) to the pretty good (chicken sweet corn soup, crispy beef, stir-fried noodles with tofu, spicy fried chicken wings with dashes of cut tiny green chillies). AND like the giggling geishas, coquettish concubines, diseased debutantes and luscious ladyboys of the mysterious Orient, I can highly recommend the Ping On’s Special Fried Rice. It is always excellent, tasty, value for money, and delicious.

STOP! You must try the Special Fried Rice in order to proceed! Your life depends on it!

It is critical that many reviews on this wonderfully quiet facility, Edinburghmenus, must unavoid reviewed shame. Glancing across the history of many reviewers reveals, in many cases, a review of gluttony between four out of five and a five out of five. I noticed another lady reviewer, with at LEAST 4 reviews, who has given every one either 3, 4, and even 5 for a favourit (though she gave Khushi’s a 2! So that’s Okay then). One is justified in asking the point of submitting a review in blatant pursuance of haute cuisine par excellence, without having a bit of rough and tumble in the dirty, filthy, fast bloody foody buttery gutter.

You have to taste the delicious crap that is indeed delicious. You must, or face the consequences. YUM!

The pertinence of the point is in my score of Ping On, which I deem 3 stars to be a decent, reliable takeaway. Cetainly not the best in its category, but you are assured a meal with value for money, reasonable salt levels, decent amounts of pork (the secret ingredient to all Chinese cooking. Pork, and it’s other relations: ham, bacon, trotters, etc). To those seeking to savour only the elite handful of five star establishments in the city, I say to these elitists: “ Let them eat cheap chow mein “.

Bring On the Ping On.

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from Tomg (12%) on August 9th, 2007 (1 year ago)

The Ping On Chinese Restaurant, 26 Deanhaugh St, EH4 1LY, Edinburgh

But the food is dire. Everything is doused in a generic take away Chinese sauce. It is below average for a take away, and considering the very low standard for Chinese take away food in Edinburgh, I couldn't recommend eating here. If you've had a few too many beers you won't care that the food isn't remotely Chinese but is there a Chinese restaurant in Edinburgh that is actually somewhat authentic? - do eat battered sausage in Beijing? For about the same price you can eat well in Stockbridge.

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