Loon Chen

Loon Chen is the small Chinese takeaway on the High Street in Langholm — the Eskdale town the locals call the Muckle Toon, famous in the Borders calendar for the Langholm Common Riding at the end of July and as the birthplace of the poet Hugh MacDiarmid. The shop is one of a thin handful of takeaways serving the town and the surrounding upper-Esk farms.

The menu mixes Cantonese-takeaway staples with a chippy side, which is common in single-shop rural takeaways where one kitchen has to cover the whole evening: chow mein, fried rice, curry, sweet-and-sour and black-bean sauces over chicken, beef, pork and prawn on the Chinese side; battered haddock, sausage, pies and chips on the chippy side. Reviewer call-outs include the egg fu yung, the spicy lemon chicken and the fish-and-chips, with portions described as generous.

The shop is closed Tuesdays and trades an early-evening service through to mid-evening from Wednesday through Sunday, with slightly later closing at the weekend.