Chop Chop

Not your average Chinese restaurant no sweet and sour chicken or breast of chicken curry in sight. Boy am I glad. The interior is so striking thanks to the beautiful artifical cherry blossoms and the restaurant is large and spacious. The staff were so friendly and very knowledgeable. As a vegan eating out can be daunting but rest assured chop chop has some great options on the menu.
My companions and I were out shopping so didn’t want to overfill our faces so we didn’t have the banquet lunch offer but I’ll definitely be going back with the hubby to sample it! I had hot and spicy noodles they were as described hot and spicy and I was delighted they were so tasty and full of flavour! We had some spring rolls and cucumber salad on the side as well again both delish the salad was again full of flavour and so refreshing. It doesn’t sound exciting but it really really is.
At the end of our meal and chap came over to chat he may have been the owner. My mother in law mentioned that I’m vegan but was very impressed with the menu and he said his wife devised the menu and as her father was veggie she wanted to devise a menu with decent options. Well job done thanks so much! I look forward to going back… soon!

Went for dinner here last week.
The inside of this restaurant is beautiful, they have two fake tree trunks in the middle of the floor with a swirling pattern of tree leaves, it looks great. My friend and myself noticed there was not much in terms on artwork on the walls, apart from a small picture of someone shaking Gordon Ramsey’s hand.
On getting the food both my friend and myself were sure Gordon would not eat here.
My friend’s main arrived before my starter. A guy (who we both assumed was the manager, the one shaking Gordon’s hand in the picture) came up to our table and said «Are you not eating?». To be honest I had no idea who he was but it was clear he worked there. I replied that I was, just waiting for my food. The then said something along the lines of «Ok I’ll go and see where your food is without firing someone». This might have been funny had he made a proper introduction as it stood it was strange.
The food was not good. I had a vegetarian dumplings and vegetarian chow mein. Most of the veg had not been touched by a frying pan. I then looked over at my mate who had half finished his pork belly and we decided to call it quits.
Went to pay but the contactless payment didn’t work.
I was buying my friend a meal out but because it was so bad I will buy him another. Definitely won’t go back here.

It’s a downgrade update review, unfortunately. Visited here on Monday night with girls from work and the place was empty when we turned up at 5.30. As in one other table. The guy then said sit anywhere and then pointed out we choose a table of 4 which was setup for two.
Ordered drinks and then all went for the unlimited buffet. The ribs were great, as were the chicken wings and the dim-​sum. However a lot of the food went cold really quickly due to the plastic plates. The aubergine in particular, which gave it a gross slimy texture.
After finishing, the waiter then cleared our plates and was like oh you girls did well and gave us the desert menu. Was then quite awkward when we ordered more dimsum, ribs and green beans. We would have ordered more but we felt so awkward after he had already cleared our plates and chopsticks away. Unlimited means more free plates, right? The second serving of ribs was not nearly as good as the first.
Then it got even more awkward, after our plates were cleared by another server. We sat waiting for ages, as in a good 25 minutes before we realised we weren’t going to be offered desert, or any other drinks. We then asked for the bill, got the bill and waited another 10 – 15 minutes to pay. Again I had to ask if we could pay it, and the waitress was honestly quite rude!

I really didn’t know what to expect going to Chop Chop for the first time on New Years Eve but what a welcome, what service and what a fantastic meal!
We’d booked using a voucher deal (5PM?) for a tasting banquet and with Lucy B being vegan and all that, I was expecting to eat vegan too as the banquet was for the pair of us. Our host however was having none of it and once he’d twigged that I was a full-​on carnivore, he made sure I had some meat options too — way beyond expectations and probably more than what we should have been given!
He gave us both steamed and fried dumplings for our starters — so we could give him some feedback about which we thought were the nicest — oh ok then :-). The dipping sauce was GARLIC heaven. if you liker garlic that is! Lucy B I think you’re supposed to dip your dumpling into the sauce not pour it all over your dish!
Main course was suitable impressive with a sweet & sour chicken dish for me and a similar tofu dish for Lucy, accompanied by two vegetable dishes. Keen to please — our man even gave us different rice options!
Suitable stuffed, we just about managed to down some sorbet for desserts — just to clean the palates you understand!
So in summary, if you want freshly prepared chinese made with decent quality ingredients and not a sprinkling of MSG in sight — get yourself down top Chop Chop pronto… if however you prefer a ‘cheap as chips’, MSG loaded version which doesn’t taste anywhere near as good — this probably isn’t for you! I know which I prefer and am looking forward to our next visit which is already being planned…

There are certainly a lot of Chinese restaurants in Glasgow, but I haven’t eaten Chinese food for years. I have a very bad reaction to MSG and every single other place I have asked uses it in their food, so that’s a no-​go for me. Not cool. I want to eat food, not chemicals.
And then Chop Chop come along! No MSG here. Their food is fresh, healthy and delicious, with no artificial ingredients. I was so happy when I started eating! Finally, I can eat amazing, tasty, Chinese food again!
We were given a warm welcome by friendly staff, and the service was impeccable. Our main waiter in particular seemed to really go out of his way to ensure we were happy.
We had a deal for the banquet for two. My long-​suffering other half was quite prepared to eat vegan for the night, but our lovely waiter was having none of it, and worked out dishes from the tasting menu, so that there were plenty of dishes that we could share, and Simon could also have some meat dishes.
We started with dumplings — I had veggie dumplings, both steamed and fried. The waiter showed us how to make the dipping sauce for them from the soy sauce, vinegar, and fresh garlic, and there was also a beautiful shredded cucumber salad, which altogether made such a wonderful combination — so fresh, and full of flavour. There were also some little potato sticks, and prawn crackers for Simon.
The main course was just as good. The green beans and chili dish was probably my favourite of the night — it was just so simple and full of flavour. There were also some squishy delicious aubergines (very filling), and an excellent tofu dish — with little cubes of silky tofu, cooked with peppers and chilis. Despite being vegan, I don’t eat a lot of tofu, but this I would happily eat again, it was excellent.
We finished with sorbet — normally the boring option for vegans across the land, but totally appreciated and appropriate after this meal, to cleanse the palate somewhat, given the ton of garlic we’d just had! I’d heard about the peanut butter dumplings, but there was no way we could have fitted them in after our meal, but I will definitely be back to try them. The waiter also told us about their sugar string apple dessert, which sounds beautiful. I enquired whether it would be OK if I could go back sometime and just order desserts, as I wasn’t sure if that was really the done thing, and the waiter said that would be absolutely fine. Yes!
The whole experience was fantastic — from the good-​natured staff, who made sure we were both happy, to the beautiful food. I am looking forward to returning for those longed-​for peanut butter dumplings.

The novelty of the cherry blossom trees and some good reviews had me itching to try Chop Chop so when an itison voucher deal of the tasting menu for 2 people for 17 quid came up, I jumped at it. A mild hangover on the day also meant that I was really, REALLY looking forward to my big slap up lunch so I’m disappointed to only be giving 3 stars today. We started with 2 kinds of dumplings. First, we had the pork and coriander potstickers and they were really good, which is saying something because I do NOT like the greasy, soapy taste of coriander usually. The second set, the lamb boiled dumplings, were not so good. Normally, I love the slippery sloppery softness of boiled dumplings, but the dough on these was a bit too thick, and the filling was too solid and I found myself quoting Julia Roberts as I chased the tough little parcels around the plate because they wouldn’t yield to the chopsticks («slippery little suckers!»). For mains, we had a selection of a sweet and sour crispy chicken dish (perfectly nice-​enough, standard dish), beef with Sichuan pepper (the beef was deliciously, meltingly, soft with loads of mouth-​numbing pepper), an aubergine dish (really good, lovely soft and creamy fried aubergine) and green beans with chili and garlic (exactly what it says on the tin, tasty and an unusual side dish), with one portion of boiled rice (a bit stingey, so we had to order more), some prawn crackers and a selection of chili oil, vinegar, soy and crushed garlic to make up our own dipping sauce. I rounded off my meal with a scoop of lemon sorbet. The food was perfectly nice, and a very good deal at just the 17 quid for two. It didn’t blow my socks off, though, so I think I’d like to order from the full menu some time — the peanut noodles look great.
The service was a little awkward and clunky which I think has added to my general feeling of being a bit underwhelmed. Maybe the staff are inexperienced and maybe there isn’t the buzz on a quiet Saturday lunchtime to get them fired up. I don’t know. It just felt a bit like front of house weren’t quite on the ball. There was a delivery of big boxes and a new sanitary bin for the toilets just sitting stacked up against a pillar a couple of feet from our table, the waitress standing behind the bar kept staring into space and slurping from her big bottle of juice (yes, OF COURSE you can have a drink, but it just didn’t look very professional), I struggled to catch our waiter’s eye to order more rice until my friend pointed out «ehhh, no, I think maybe he’s finished his shift-​I think he’s eating his lunch», and a few other things like that just made it a bit awkward. They were perfectly nice and friendly but just a bit… odd, distracted. Maybe it was an off day. It’s a big space so they must surely have an A-​game mode when it’s busy.
All in all, it was a decent enough meal and I will return, perhaps on a busy evening when there is more buzz about it. I wanted it to be remarkable because there are blossom trees and dumplings, and I’m sure on a different day with some dishes from the full menu, it will be remarkable, just not today I’m afraid.

Have you ever heard of being food drunk … I thought it was a myth too but it happened to us when we visited Chop Chop!
Delicious, authentic, tasty, fresh, made with love food, packed with fresh herbs and spices you will not be disappointed the food is so ridiculously yummy you will feel giddy inside and like I said food drunk!
We got the sharing menu and the food just kept coming we were stuffed!
A must visit!

I had been really excited to try Chop Chop as it looked really interesting whenever I walked by the large windows of the restaurant. The first thing I noticed as I walked inside was the large cherry blossom tree that everyone seems impressed by. It really is a beautiful feature to have in a city centre restaurant. I was there with a large group of people for my sister and mum’s birthday. We weren’t drinking alcohol so ordered a few rounds of diet coke and water as we ate our meal.
We opted for the unlimited banquet which features Sweet and sour pork ribs, Crispy Shredded Potato, Tender Green Beans & Chilli, beef and chilli dumplings and Seasoned Chicken Wings among other things. My overall feeling was that we had large volumes of the cheaper vegetable plain dishes but the more tasty meat dishes were hard to come by. As we were a party of 10, we were constantly munching on the tasty cucumber salad until more beef or chicken dishes arrived.
I have mixed feelings about Chop Chop– I may need to go back in a few months to see if things have changed. The staff were lovely and the quality of the food was fine, but I felt that the banquet did not live up to expectations.

Chop chop has been on my hit list for a while now. When we eventually found it we ended up with the banquet lunch, I do think this would have ended up with more stars if we choose our own dishes. But hey at least we were hungry. 15 bucks and they keep bringing you food until you say no! This is not the case. This include drinks and deserts.
The food starts coming… Little tester size portions arrive– I let Austen start with the tiny dish that arrive as I thought we would be getting one each as we both ordered the banquet. I was wrong and good job I noticed this before the dish was done. The food was nice but nothing spectacular it was just average. Dished coming flowing out — pork dumpling Vegi dumplings, spring rolls, aubergine dish with garlic that was good.
Then they stopped bringing the food!!! But we haven’t said no more yet? In the middle of asking the waitress she was rushed down stairs to come back to overhearing she had infact been sacked! Or fired is how she describe it! Anyway we ordered more dumplings and noodles but my personal fave was the ice cream dumplings. Good job I was full as they one arrived with one dumpling each. I’m feeling that they want the banquet over and us to leave.
There are so many places doing Chinese style of food and so much better, not a total right off and another visit will happen just not any time soon! Oh and watch out the fried dumplings are extremely hot!!!

Chop Chop has been on the must visit list for a while and last Sunday we went along for a wee bit of lunch and ended up with a banquet. Basically the Saturday lunch offer is 15 quid a person and they keep bringing dishes to your table until you fall into a food coma. It also includes free drinks and desserts. It sounded a good deal so we went for it.
The food was nice but not spectacular. It reminded me a bit more of a western buffet restaurant than what I think is an authentic Chinese one. Everything was just a bit less spicy and complex than it would be at some of the competitors it has in Glasgow who have now set the bar very high in this food genre. Favourite dishes were the pork and chive dumplings, the aubergine dish and the pork mince and noodles.
There was some service issues as well. Very attentive at the start and they then sort of forgot about us and the food dried up. We never got to try everything we wanted. I am pretty sure a waitress was also sacked whilst we were there. One minute serving us and 5 mins later seemed to be out the door.
I would not mind going back, but there is also a lot of other restaurants doing this style of food and doing it better. They also have a bit more atmosphere… It is just 3 stars I am afraid. Although there is no denying the value for money of that lunch deal is worth a look.
Ohhhh I nearly forgot. There was also very little leg room!

«I just want to go home and die»
Not me, but the harassed waitress. «We’re seriously short staffed and lacking direction!» — she gasped. I felt sorry for each and every one of them, but under all the stress and strain they managed to keep the smile. If a pat on the back wasn’t too patronising, or worse, deemed some kind of sexual harassment that’s what they’d have got for keeping it together. My only gripe? Not the service or food, but the table leg room. Bruised knees aren’t a good look in the bedroom :-/​
I don’t know why anyone would want to come outwith weekday lunchtime? (Unless you work in Cardiff or somethin’) £7.50 for an all you can eat mega-​taster «Rolling Lunch» is by far your best option. You’ll get all the «accompaniments» like ribs, wings, crackers, salad etc… put on your table. Then order as many dumplings, soups and noodles as you like. The only stipulation is that there’s no waste, which is fair enough — Fantastic and stuffed! And if you’re not unbuckling your top button, or just a greedy b@st@rd you won’t need to ask for more. They’ll do all the asking :-)

Given the name we expected a quick lunch here with the intention of grabbing a quick beer in Tabac afterwards. Lychee Oriental which we really like is just a couple of doors up, but we like trying new places so we ducked in here.
The waitress gave us the impression that we had to have the banquet, but came back and informed us otherwise. Fair enough, I ordered the Pork and Coriander boiled dumplings to start, followed by Stir-​fried Spicy Beef (with a side of noodles) and my dining partner ordered Beef Chow Mein.
Chop Chop is certainly an apt name, my dumplings took no time at all, they were really good, without doubt the best boiled dumplings I ‘ve ever had. I finished them and we sat waiting for our main courses.
Then something weird happened, another waitress came over with sauces and a bowl and explained how to mix them together to eat with my now entirely consumed dumplings. I’d eaten all my dumplings, and without proper accompaniments. Hmmm!
Our mains came, again very quickly, and even though we are both pretty accomplished with chopsticks we were really struggling with the greasy noodles, too greasy, I was also struggling with the inconsistent, chewy meat. Some of it I just had to gulp down because it was too tough, even though the odd bit was really nice and tender. I have to say the chilli taste was not bad, but again for me it was a bit too dry to coat the noodles, lucky they were a bit greasy then!
Maybe it was just a bad day, maybe it doesn’t help that Chinese food isn’t my natural first choice, but given the main is the most important part of the meal it really just wasn’t good enough!

Wander down past the fantastic Barolo Bar&Grill, almost all the way down the dodgy and dingy looking street turned alley, past a NCP car park, to Diamond Dolls.
We were hungry and tired after a day of shopping, when we embarked on this little adventure down Mitchell Street to find Chop Chop. Unilocalers of Glasgow had been going on crazy review sprees and it kept popping up on my news feed, so it was an almost easy decision to make when it came round to picking a place to go.
Upon walking through the doors we were greeted by a friendly waiter who informed us all tables were booked — although only 2 tables out of 30 odd (maybe) were taken. He was joking of course, I can understand that this wouldn’t go down well with certain types of people, but although we all believed him, we didn’t hold any grudges. We picked our table and sat down, and were handed our menus and the waitress explained how ChopChop works. One should also note that the food is definitely more Northern Chinese, so not your average Chinese takeaway.
Our group ordered two chicken chow mians, one chicken noodle dish and one prawn chow mian. Although I adore the way the noodles take on the soy sauce taste, I really didn’t enjoy the amount coriander that was served on it — however that is easily remedied by just asking for the dish without coriander next time.
We also got the pork and coriander dumplings and the veggie dumplings to share between the four of us — dumplings fried not boiled. However don’t let that description mislead you, as only one side of the dumpling is actually fried. You mix your own dimpling dipping sauce too (soy sauce, vinegar, fresh garlic and chilli if you so desire). It’s rather daunting if you’ve never done it before, and mine unfortunately ended up much too vinegary. Nevertheless, lesson learned and it didn’t ruin the dumplings altogether.
We also made the mistake of ordering a bottle of water rather than tap water for the table. What we believed to be the restaurant manager also came to chat with us during our meal. The timing was a little off but he was nice enough to come over anyways. An issue I had however were the chopsticks, which were the big chunky plastic kind which makes grabbing slippery long noodles very difficult. Generally getting all of the sauce over oneself isn’t something I am keen on, and so my advice is to keep a napkin close! The menu for some reason was also a little difficult to navigate. I would suggest signing up with them for some discounts (because who doesn’t love a good discount?).
I definitely want to come back for the unlimited weekday lunch menu for £7 (something around that benchmark). They also do unlimited menus for two, three and four people, which sounds very reasonable (I believe the set unlimited menu for two people is £20.25 per person) for the amount of food you are promised. I also love sitting under the fake cherry blossom tree and the sky painted on the ceiling — with ambient lighting which confused me. I could have also sworn the cherry blossom is more Japanese than Chinese, but that’s a different story altogether.
I am, until I come again, going to be a little reserved with my star-​giving. Don’t misjudge my giving «only» three stars for a negative review, because the food is tasty and the service is good!

I was pleasantly surprised when I came across this lovely new Chinese. It’s airy and beautifully decorated with cherry blossoms. I knew this was going to be a good experience.
I was quite early as my phone decided to die on me but the folks at Chop Chop were lovely and accommodating. I asked if I could charge my phone in which they did for me. They also took my jacket to hang up in the back to dry as I was soaking thanks to the lovely wet and wild weather of late.
They let me sit at the booked table and get me a drink while I waited on the rest of the Unilocal crew. Fortunately they had a practise your Chinese sheet. Yas! Got my pen out and learned the way of the written Orient style.
Tonight was a CMYE to try this new place and menu. I’ve seen the other restaurant in Leith and thought it looked pretty good so was pleased of the opportunity to try out with my fellow Unilocalers.
There was a good guide to how many dishes an average person could order. I decided on the two small dishes and one large. There was dumplings so they were like a total automatic yes. I had the steamed Pork and Chinese Leaves and fried chicken dumplings. Absolutely delicious! I did have to wait on them but then I think that was mostly down to Rob A. having the unlimited banquet option and ordering everything. Haha!
I also had the noodles with pork mince but I felt it was quite dry and wish I had went for a more sauce based dish. I adjusted my dress and made room for a dessert which is very highly unusual for me at a Chinese restaurant, I never make it to that stage. I had the deep fried dumpling with vanilla ice cream. It was super tasty but I wish I had tried the peanut butter dumplings but there was no room in my wee tummy. Next time those bad boys are getting scoffed.
Thanks to Briony C for organising, it ‘s definitely a Chinese I would go back to visit, oh and to practise my Chinese. Hehe!

I loved my food at Chop Chop — peanut & mustard sauce noodles are now one of my favourite things. At £7.25 for a satisfying portion of their own inhouse freshly made noodles (no eggs or preservatives) I thought it was fair value. The sauce isn’t heated; it comes in a bowl allowing you to pour on as much as you want, and a small tray of shredded cucumber and coriander on the side.
The menu suggests four small plates, or one main and two sides, and I opted for the latter. I had seen on the menu online that they had stir-​fried tofu, I didn’t spot this on this evening but perhaps it is to be added later (or the Glasgow one doesn’t do it yet, but their Edinburgh one does and the website has yet to be updated?). As a tofu lover I opted for the one tofu option I spotted, which was the tofu salad. The combination of oil, spring onion, and coriander dressing was tasty, but I prefer a bit more of a crisp and or marinade to my tofu, and this seemed something I could very easily make at home by just opening a tub of firm tofu, chopping, and drizzling over oil. However, it was a generous portion of tofu and if I went back with another tofu fan I would order it again as a side to share.
My second side was crispy shredded potato, garnished with coriander and spring onion. This was quite nice, a little trickier to eat with chopsticks, and I had a little bit left when my main arrived and it made a delicious extra noodles topping! I think next time I’d opt to give the pan fried aubergines or spicy potato slices a try over this.
The staff were very nice and helpful, the décor of the pink and white trees widespread and reaching to the ceiling were pretty, and it was a nice touch having paper tablemats featuring facts about China and the opportunity to practise writing Chinese characters. Service wasn’t outrageously slow, but it did make me wonder how long a largeish group (there were 9 of us) would need to wait on a Friday or Saturday night. They have only been open a week though, so it probably takes a bit of time to get in the groove. Desserts were served quite quickly.
Dessert! Usually in Chinese restaurants the options are banana fritters, or dairy ice cream (which is no good for me as I’m vegan), but here they had mango sorbet (not listed on the website), peanut dumplings, and ‘sugar string apple’. (As well as dairy ice cream dumplings!) I had the peanut dumplings, which were filled with peanut butter, raisins, sugar, and sesame seeds. So good! The sugar string apple dish looked amazing — it’s apple slices topped with caramelised sugar which you dip into a small bowl of ice water, and I think the sugar crisps and it tastes like toffee apple! I’d definitely go back to Chop Chop again.

Had a great night here last night, the food was great as was the service. I am a Chop chop Edinburgh girl and I am so glad to at that the food is just as good here. The décor in Chop Chop Glasgow is so pretty, they have 4 faux blossom trees and everything smells so new. At the moment it doesn’t have an alcohol license so you can BYOB with 5% off at the local odbins which is great. I heard they should have the license by April. It is just along from the Tunnel nightclub which I feel would be hard to find unless you knew it was there. I hope it does well as I will certainly be telling everyone to go.

Chop Chop got my attention with the cherry blossom tree — what a gorgeous way to decorate the restaurant!
I’d never been to the Edinburgh one so I wasn’t totally sure what to expect. I’d booked in advance and the restaurant was kind enough to phone me a couple of times to mention they didn’t have an alcohol licence yet — you can pop into Oddbins a few doors down and get 5% if you mention you’re dining at Chop Chop which is a great idea.
We had a group booking and the numbers changed on the day but they weren’t phased by this at all. The restaurant is a large, open space which doesn’t feel intimate but was perfect for a semi-​rowdy group dinner. There’s a banquet option for around £20 pp at dinner but instead we opted to order our own dishes. I tried the: pan fried aubergine with garlic and spring onion, crispy squid, fried pork and cabbage dumplings and steamed chicken dumplings. This was perhaps a little too much food for one person! My favourite dish was definitely the aubergine — it was cooked so much that it was really soft and delicate, just the way I like it. The dumplings were delicious as well and I always find myself preferring the fried ones more than boiled. The squid was great too but definitely needed the soy sauce to give it a salty kick.
I wasn’t going to have dessert but everyone else was, and there was actually some dairy-​free options on there which I could have so I shared a portion of the peanut dumplings (6 for £3.85) — they are filled with peanut butter, raisin, sugar and sesame seed filling. They are small but absolutely heavenly as the filling isn’t cloying at all — I would get a portion of these to myself next time!
Overall, I had a great time at Chop Chop (the company was amazing, of course!) — lovely food, cool décor and friendly staff made for a very pleasant evening. And prices are very reasonable too, so I’m sure I’ll be back for the banquet soon.
Top tips:
* The lunch deals are amazing — £7.50 during the week and around £15 on the weekend for all-​you-​can-​eat style banquets (served fresh to your table).
* They also have a discount deal with the Mitchell Street NCP car park whereby if you spend over £40 at dinner, you get 6 hours free parking.
* Sign up for Chop Chop rewards for 20% off your food bill on your next visit.
* Peanut butter dumplings. Do it.

Hello Chop Chop.
I’m not going to sit on the fence here, I visited with the Unilocal lot today with the best intentions of being sensible and «just having a little bite to eat».
Oh no — simply not possible; on browsing the menu I decided there was too much to choose from so managed to end up ordering the beef and chilli dumpling, pork and chinese leaf dumplings, prawn dumplings, hot and spicy noodles, some fried squid and some stir fried spicy beef before getting settled into some dessert (similar story — managed to end up having the ice cream dumplings, peanut butter dumplings and stringy apple things).
So I feel as if I’ve had a good skeet at the menu and I’m in a position to judge it just a little.
The good things then:
1) BYOB (for the moment) — I read this as «Bring your own Bourbon» and ice was provided and it was good
2) The squid was *excellent* — lots of small pieces cooked pretty perfectly — which is hard to do
3) MIx your own dumpling sauce (So lots of garlic, a good dollop of soy and a dash of vinegar then)
4) The dessert — dipping the caramel coated apple in iced water to crystallise them — so much fun
5) The desert (2) — Ice cream dumplings — super awesome, hot, crispy, cold — just the way I like it
6) The noodles were lovely and soft and long and beautiful
The okay things:
1) Dumplings could have been fried a tad more, they’re not afraid of the frying pan and a little bit of crisp goes a long way
2) the stir fried beef was okay but… well just a bit boring, no real texture, fatty and tasteless
3) The oily stuff provided to make the noodles spicy… I dunno, didn’t need to be quite so oily — it was tasty though. I’m wondering if I could have perhaps mixed in the beef to the noodles and spicy sauced and solved these problems though
I really like that on the front of the menu it tells you how many dishes you probably want to order — lots of venues don’t bother with this meaning you have to ask which is a small nuisance so top points for that.
I’ll be back here again — definitely one to watch.

First off this restaurant represents the cuisine of Northern China, it maybe a bit different to what you’ve tried in your local takeaway. Hmm 3 or 4 stars. I’m in two minds, but given that this is a new opening & there’ll be opportunities to update my review I’m going for 3.
Why? well I had a really nice cucumber salad and spicy green beans, both of which were full of taste and texture, but my chow mian was a bit strange. Instead of thin or vermicelli noodles I received a bowl of thick (udon style) noodles with mostly raw veg. The noodles were quite oily, which along with the raw spring onions gave it a very strange texture & a strong taste.
I was intrigued by the dessert menu, choosing the chocolate ice cream dumpling. The dumpling was crispy, but the chocolate ice cream seemed a little lost in the making, there wasn’t much taste to it. The only sweetness to the dish came from the icing sugar sprinkled around the plate.
The rest of the Unilocal crew seemed to largely enjoy their dining experience so I will be back to try some more of the menu (+ revisit the cucumber salad). I hope a future visit will bump it up to a 4 star as there seems to be potential for a really great addition to Glasgow’s Chinese food scene.

I’d never been to the Edinburgh branch of Chop Chop but have a friend who is a HUGE fan, so when he excitedly told me it was opening here in Glasgow we decided we’d chance our arms for a table on opening night…
This is a bright, nicely laid out restaurant — and although some of the staff are clearly very new to the type of role, that can be forgiven on opening night. When we arrived, we were told that since they didn’t yet have their alcohol licence, we could pop to Oddbins up the road if we wished, get a 5% discount for being Chop Chop customers and bring our drink back in — happy days.
The menu options all look amazing, yet my friend recommended we go for the unlimited banquet for two — £20.25 per person, and we could re-​order as much of any dish as our tummies could handle.
Our banquet came with boiled pork & coriander dumplings, beef chilli dumplings (should have been prawn but they allowed us to swap), cucumber salad, seasoned chicken wings, Crispy sweet & sour northern beef, spicy potato slices, fried aubergine AND boiled rice. Oh, and some prawn crackers to top it off. (I feel full again just typing all that out!) And even better than that, not a gram of MSG to be found in any of it, according to the owner Jian.
I have to admit to having pretty simple tastes — ginger & coriander are not favourite flavours of mine, but there were so many of the dishes we had which I really enjoyed and loved. Particular favourites were the boiled dumplings — a revelation since I don’t normally enjoy mine boiled — and the beef dish. Beautiful crispy chunks of beef in a lovely sweet & sour sauce.
I’d recommend not filling up on anything remotely linked to the carbohydrate food group, as the rest of these dishes are so good you’re going to want to order more of it.
I’m already planning on bringing the guys from work here for a team dinner — Chop Chop combines the joy of «eat all you can» with fresh, flavoursome food and I’d be very surprised if it doesn’t become a firm favourite in Glasgow too.