American gives verdict on UK Chinese food – but Brits say he's 'eating it wrong'

Daily Mirror

12-05-2025

An American couple travelling through England decided to see what the hype was about with a "British Chinese food" and went to a restaurant in Worthing to try some of the most common dishes
One of the most popular takeaway option for Brits is Chinese food. In 2025, 51% of UK consumers chose Chinese as one of their top three favourite takeaways, according to data from YouGov.
Chinese takeaway shops in Britain usually see a mix of dishes, such as sweet and sour chicken, kung pao chicken, crispy duck pancakes and salt and pepper chips. And to understand why Brits love Chinese food so much, one American couple, Ryan and Pam, decided to go to a Chinese restaurant when they were on holiday in England to try the popular food for themselves.
"Eating and rating British Chinese food - this is my second time going to a British Chinese food place. We went to a place called China Palace in Worthing, England," he said at the start of his TikTok video.
Ryan then went on to go through all the different foods he tried before giving them a score out of ten - and most items ended up being tastier than he'd expected.
"First they start you out with what's called a prawn cracker, really crunchy, it's pretty good," he said, scoring it a 6.2 out of ten.
"Then we opted for an appetiser sampler," he said as he filmed himself taking a bit of another item. "I'm not sure what this is but it's good."
"And I still have no idea, does anybody know?" he asked viewers, giving it a score of 7.2.
He then went on to try a spring roll from the appetiser platter, which he said was 'pretty tasty', but noted that it was a lot smaller than the spring rolls he's had in the US. He went on to score it a 7.7.
"These bone-in spare ribs were glazed nicely, had a lot of flavour. Way better than any spare rib in America," he said as she showed himself trying it. In result, he scored it an impressive 8.0 out of ten.
The chicken satay was then named 'the best appetiser' of all the ones he tried, scoring an 8.6 out of ten. However he wasn't as impressed with the crispy seaweed, which only scored a 5.9.
"Now onto the main courses, I opted for beef Lo Mein and my wife got the crispy aromatic duck," he explained. "The noodles were cooked perfectly, they weren't overdone. And the beef was like biting into a piece of butter. Usually in America with Beef Lo Mein, it's like chewing into a piece of rawhide.£
He scored his Lo Mein an 8.8, before moving on to rating the aromatic duck pancakes. He noted: "This is a pancake with some cucumber, crispy onion, and hoisin sauce. You roll it up and get that bite. Mine kind of fell apart though."
Despite the pancakes falling apart, Ryan scored the duck pancakes 8.1. He then said: "Overall I give this Chinese experience an 8.3 out of ten. It absolutely destroys any Chinese food place we have in the United States.
Despite Ryan's praise of the food, several Brits took to the comments to share their thoughts, with some criticising the way he had eaten the duck pancake.
"Search, how to eat duck pancake. thank me later," one viewer commented, while a second person wrote: "Duck and pancakes is usually a starter or side dish from my experience not a main course."
"Tip for next time. You're supposed to order as a table so you can try lots of different things. That's why your portion was so massive and just one thing," a third viewer recommended.
Another person said: "Did you try adding the crispy seaweed to other parts of the meal? i think it's intended to augment the umami of other food rather than be a standalone dish."