Village Chinese Takeaway

The Village Chinese Takeaway is the resident Chinese takeaway at The Dales, the small shopping parade serving West Hallam, the village west of Ilkeston with the Bottle Kiln pottery centre. It is a proper village Chinese — small kitchen, broad menu, evening-only opening — and one of the few hot-food options that the village can walk to.

The kitchen runs a broad Cantonese and Peking menu. Crispy aromatic duck with pancakes is the headline, alongside sweet-and-sour chicken Hong Kong style with crispy balls, beef satay, chicken with lemon sauce, special chop suey and Szechuan chicken for the people who want a bit more heat. The starters cover spare ribs with three sauces, crab claws, salt-and-pepper wings and a long set of combination platters. Chow mein and chop suey arrive in the standard heavier Cantonese style; the rice dishes — special fried rice, Singapore fried rice — get repeat mentions in reviews on Restaurantji.

The takeaway trades evening through to late-night, taking cash at the door. Delivery is short-radius — West Hallam, Mapperley, into the western edge of Ilkeston — and most orders come in for collection by households living within walking distance of the parade. For the village, it is the default Friday-night Chinese.