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Chinese food delivery service. (They advertise themselves as "Chinese, Oriental, Thai", but the only Thai dishes available are red or green curries.)

A fairly good selection for a mid-range Chinese takeaway. A reasonable range of vegetable dishes (£3.50-£4.25 each) such as szechuan hot and spicy aubergine, sea spiced mixed vegetables, chinese greens with garlic - no beancurd dishes are sold individually though. Unusually, they offer five lamb dishes, including "lamb fillet in sacha sauce chiew chow style". No idea what that is. Meat and fish main courses range from £4.50 (shrimp chop suey) to £6.25 (most of the prawn dishes).

The individual dinner boxes are good value - £4.95 for non-vegetarian and £4.50 for vegetarian. You get a choice of dishes served in a single box with rice or noodles. The vegetarian dinner boxes feature the only appearance of beancurd on the menu - either hot and spicy tofu on rice, or braised tofu on rice or noodles, the latter being well-cooked with a good selection of vegetables, but a little bland.

We don't like the packaging. Instead of the standard plastic tubs with rigid snap-on lids, the food comes in plastic tubs with heat-sealed plastic wrap top. They're hard to get into, non-reusable, and a nuisance if you want to save some leftovers until tomorrow. Boo!

Benedict Sykes review

I agree with the heat sealed cling film, but apart from that we order once a week. One of the best dishes is certainly their red duck curry and they are happy to take the pineapple out.

The also do a mean Thai menu

Xiong Mao's website address is actually : http://www.xiong-mao.co.uk and the information above is old, they have changed the management and chefs a long while ago. They have an extensive Thai menu as well as a Chinese menu. They are no longer a mid-range take away, rather the best Chinese and Thai take away in London. I have been a regular customer of Xiong Mao, for nearly three years, and I agree that the previous chefs and management were not as good as now. As for the packaging, they have solved that as well, they do the containers with the rigid-snap on lids. ____________________

We ordered a few dishes, prawn crackers and asked whether the pork dumplings were steamed/grilled. The person on the phone said,"can't you read?" and when I asked again, he said its steamed and came in 6 per portion.

When the food arrived,there were only 4 grilled dumplings and no prawn crackers. We asked for a receipt and the delivery guy asked why we needed one and refused to give it to us.

I then called the restaurant manager to complain and he said this is how they do (or grill) steamed dumplings. And if I am not happy, I need to speak to the Chinese chef or never order from them again... Shocking !

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