Tucked away in the most unsuspecting of areas is a Chinese restaurant that seems to be talk of the town at the moment. After winning best Chinese in the recent Bristol Good Food awards, coupled with the fact that I am addicted to Crispy Aromatic Duck and my dinner date has a worrying addiction to Chinese food, we had to seek it out.

The journey is an interesting one – it’s through the bearpit under the Premier Inn – not something I would have happened across. Word-of-mouth has definitely worked for the Mayflower though, as on a Wednesday eve this place was full!

We started off with the duck – I cannot have Chinese without starting with this. In fact I am seriously considering just ordering a whole crispy duck to myself and nothing else in the future as nothing else lives up to it!  The portions here are good – we actually had duck left when we had finished with the pancakes which is a rare occurrence.

For main we went slightly off our usual meals – and were actually more reserved than the 5/6 dishes we sometimes order – by getting the spicy salt and pepper prawns and honey roast pork and duck platter with egg fried rice. My dinner date easily tucked into pretty much the whole plate of prawns – just spicy enough to give that little kick. I would definitely recommend this dish. The honey roast pork was lovely and sweet. The duck had a few too many bones and for what my tastes are used to, which made the finding of actual meat quite a challenge… Our key faux pas was not ordering a sauce based dish. We consequently had serious food envy at the table next to us who had order the beef in black bean. With our extensive Chinese ordering experience I cannot believe we were such fools!

I have to admit though, when it comes to Chinese food we both agreed we are happiest getting a takeaway and slobbing on the sofa grazing our way through the many dishes we have ordered (with plenty left for lunch the next day). For one, when you get too full you can lie down straight away – Bonus! 😉 (For the record – our favourite – after sampling most in Bristol – is China Capital in Bedminster.)