A few weeks ago we wrote about Pin Wei in Abbots Langley saying it was our go-to Chinese. Lots of you then got in touch encouraging us to try Apsley Chinese saying it had been your local for years and was the best you'd tried. So we thought we'd do the decent thing and try it out (it's a hard gig this).
We ordered our usual (Salt & Pepper Squid, Shredded Chilli Beef, Egg Fried Rice, Chicken with Cashew Nuts, and Vegetable Chow Mein) and also added on the Starter Selection just to road test a few new dishes. They also kindly added in Prawn Crackers and Apple Fritters for free which was a gloriously lovely gesture! All this came to approx £30 (would have been £22 ish without the Starter Selection).
Good things first.
It was easy to order and pay by phone. Very much old school as they're not on food ordering platforms. A really friendly chap took the order for us and delivery was promptly about 30 mins later.
As we noted in the Pin Wei review, Chinese restaurants often get a bad rep for being hugely salty, requiring a gallon of water after chowing down on your meal, or super oily. We are happy to report that Apsley Chinese is neither of these things. Specifically, the Chicken with Cashew Nuts was tasty and succulent, the Chilli Beef was flavoursome and crisp, and the Sesame Prawn on Toast was juicy. Also you got a lot of food for your money - we got nowhere close to finishing our food, there was that much of it.
Unfortunately, that's probably about it for positive specifics. On the whole we found it generally only OK. It lacked freshness. I know that's probably not the paramount reason for going to a Chinese restaurant, but I would have liked to taste real beef in my Chilli Beef, fresh apple in the Fritters (although I did rather enjoy the sweet sticky fritters for my pud pud!) or fresh squid underneath such a heavy batter for the Salt & Pepper Squid, rather than something that tasted like it had been defrosted in the deep fryer for a second cook before serving. The Noodles and Spare Ribs were quite bland, and the Egg Fried Rice tasted quite old and lacking flavour. The telltale sign was the texture - you know when you bite into something that isn't fresh.
This isn't bad Chinese food. Not by a long way. This was just a middle of the road one - which is nothing to be ashamed of. It also feels unfair to compare it Pin Wei, which was in normal times a restaurant that also dabbled in takeaway. You could, pre 2020, fit 70 people in there and I imagine their facilities are set up to deal with the sort of quality people would expect from a sit down meal. Apsely Chinese must be a 10% of the size and as such have to do things differently.
So we will not compare. On it's own merits, I guess it's about what you're after that evening. And some nights you want a Chinese that feels a little on the cheeky side.
That's why I would still go back. Because sometimes you want that type of Chinese food just for those crispy textures and familiar flavours, big portions that you can reheat the next day, when you need to mindlessly eat something that's not from your fridge while you veg on the sofa watching Netflix. Nothing too challenging.
Service:
Got to order the old fashioned way (we happened to have a paper menu), but from the moment you call you are well looked after, with food arriving quickly.
Value and price:
You get a lot of food for your money. £25 will feed two people and then some.
Quality:
Lacks the freshness you'd want, but thankfully isn't too salty or greasy.
Overall:
ACCEPTABLE - A middle of the road score for a middle of the road Chinese.
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