One of the many things that I missed from California is the abundance of what I call imitation Chinese food. Yummz. Fluoroscent yellow lemon chicken, bright pink sweet and sour chicken, chow mein that looks like msg-flavoured boiled noodles….its so bad its good. Not something I would advise on a weekly basis, but an occasional trip to msg-land is always strangely satisfying.

With moving to Leeds, my bizzare craving for the occasional msg-laden fluoroscent food is satisfied. I have a few favourites near where I work, and think I have sussed out the best of the lot, usually costing around £6.50 for lunch. Not bad, considering that a sandwich is around £2-£3.

Anyway. This post is not about the places that I usually go – Its about a new fake-chinese buffet in Castleford, a town about 15mins south of Leeds. Some of my favourite shops are at the attached discount factory outlet, which boasts of £2.99 tops and trousers from GAP.

We bumped into Flaming Dragon when we were food hunting a week or two ago, tired from tux shopping for bacon. I do not usually do reviews on such places, but seeing that it was on the day I got my camera, decided to snap away like as if I have never seen msg before

It was absolutely huge, think it must take about 200 covers.

Selection of starters. One of the reasons I love places like this is the unlimited variety of starters. Not that most of them are good, but I just like to try different stuff. Fried wantan, prawn toast, salt and pepper chicken wing, chicken ball, OK sauce ribs (no, I’ve not heard of OK sauce until I got here too..it tastes slightly fruity)

I love hot and sour soup too. I can only find it in the States & UK. It is usually next to the chicken and sweetcorn soup…again, only found in the States & UK. I assume it is also found in other ‘western’ countries like AU ect.

bacon enjoying his meal. Yummx. Note his onion ring. Hahahaha . He even had three chip – I think chinese food with chips are absolutely disgusting, but loads of people here order chips with black bean chicken or sweet and sour pork.

I send bacon for freshly cooked food. It even have a ‘teppanyaki counter’. Tastes nothing like teppanyaki – it was msg laden, oil drenched and extremely salty – I am sure the chef just wanted us to buy more drinks

Nearly died of oil and salt overdose. Only thing that I really enjoyed was loads of beansprouts. Yumz.

Dessert was fried bananas and fried apples with ice cream. Yes, goreng pisang. However theirs was fairly soggy – don’t think they use rice flour

All in all, for £4.50 per person (RRP: £5.50, we had a coupon for £1 off) this is not bad at all. They do, however, charge you £0.50 for refillable ‘filtered’ water. Still a steal, judging by the variety of food they serve. Well worth if even if you just go in for chips and sweet and sour pork. Our local takeaway charges about £5 for chips and sweet and sour.

Apparently they have branches all over the UK, ensuring that you get your MSG fix wherever you are! Aside from the chinese buffet and ‘teppanyaki’, they also do a brazillian carvery, where meats on skewers are brought table-to-table and they would happily slice some off for you. Interesting. At £12.50 per head it might be something that I have to consider further rather than just going tomorrow.

The Flaming Dragon,
Xcapse, Colorado Way,
Glasshoughton, Castleford, West Yorkshire, WF10 4TA
Tel: 01977 553311‎

You might also be interested in these

• Grrrr!!!!!!!!!
• Reappearance with flowers
• anti-valentine posting