Ming Dynasty, Swindon (From This Is Wiltshire)

Ming Dynasty, Swindon

9:29am Thursday 11th February 2010 in

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SAT in the pub after work on a Friday, getting a takeaway instead of rustling up a nutritious, home-cooked meal became increasingly more likely.

“I reckon I’ve found the best Chinese in Swindon,” a friend proudly told us. “It’s called the Ding Ministry and it’s in Manchester Road.”

An hour later, and we were on the internet and rifling through the Yellow Pages looking for the phone number. It took several minutes and a lengthy call to 118 before I realised the name was actually Ming Dynasty. Did I mention we’d been in the pub?

With the mystery solved, we turned our attention to the food. With only a phone number and no menu in front of us, we were left to rely on ordering old favourites - lemon chicken and egg fried rice for our son, chicken chow mein and foo yung for me and sweet and sour chicken balls with special fried rice for my husband, with a side order of barbequed spare ribs, all of which came in at £23.50 In the blink of an eye, the food was on our doorstep - it can’t have been any more than 20 minutes or so - and we tucked in like there was no tomorrow, sampling the customary forkful from one another’s plates.

Positives first: the lemon chicken was superb, with a sauce that was refreshingly lemony and not at all gloopy. The chicken balls were also great - good quality meat in a nice, crispy shell. The ribs were very tasty, if a little salty for my liking. Not that I had a chance to taste much of them as they disappeared like lightning.

On the down side, the foo yung (a dish similar to an omelette) did not travel well and was a bit rubbery by the time it arrived. Perhaps I should have thought of that when I ordered.

Having since looked at the menu, it seems the Ming Dynasty has a bit of a thing about Marmite, with Marmite ribs, Marmite chicken and Marmite roast pork all making an appearance. Personally, I can’t think of anything worse, but I know to some people that will sound like heaven.

As for it being the best Chinese in Swindon? Well, I’m not sure I’d go that far, but I’ll certainly be ordering there again before I make up my mind.

- MICHELLE TOMPKINS