When two sets of friends, who are foodies, recommend a place, as happened with Go Chow Mein, we had to go along to see what all the fuss was about.
Go Chow Mein is just off The Strip in Puerto del Carmen and bills itself as an “Asian street food restaurant.” They offer a range of Asian Cuisine – Chinese, Thai and Japanese, including sushi, all prepared in an open kitchen and freshly to order.
We were greeted by the owner, Shang, but everyone knows him by his anglicised name of Sam. He and his family are from Southern China, but they’ve lived in Lanzarote for 12 years and owned the restaurant for 5 years. Sam runs the front of house and his wife does the cooking. It’s no exaggeration to say they’re superb at what they do. Sam is the most delightful host, welcoming everyone, having a laugh and a joke in both Spanish and English with clients and keeping the food and drinks coming. The communication is perfect too, with dishes arriving at just the right moment between courses. I cannot remember the last time I felt so welcome in a restaurant and to be properly “engaged” by a waiter. Absolutely top marks for service.
The decor follows the street food theme, with fascinating hand written graffiti on the walls, simple tables and chairs and the kitchen right at the front. The whole place was spotlessly clean. We chose to eat inside, but there are tables outside, which have a view to the ocean.
The menu has a decent range of starters, three types of Sushi and a limited number of traditional Chinese and Thai dishes and curries, as well as several different ways of serving crispy duck.
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We chose to share three starters – beef skewers, crispy chicken with pancakes and gyoza. The beef skewers had been marinated in loads of garlic and sesame oil and were excellent. The crispy chicken was a delight – fried battered chicken, served with Hoisin sauce, pancakes and strips of cucumber – think crispy duck, but without the gamey taste. The gyozas were world class – we agreed we would always have them whenever we visit again. The dumplings were perfectly soft and steamed, with a really tasty filling, but it was the super rich gravy they were served in that stole the show, and Sam recommended some hot chilli sauce which worked beautifully with them.
On to the mains! Julie ordered crispy prawn sweet chilli for her main course and I went for beef sichuan. For sides we had some rice and the special chow mein. In retrospect, we completely over-ordered – the chowmein could be a main course on its own. It was tasty and well cooked, and the crispy prawn sweet chilli was delicious – a sort of spicy sweet and sour flavour. I totally loved the sichuan beef, which was marked out by a really strong aniseed taste, presumably using star anise, but it made for a really good overall flavour.
As mentioned before, everything was brought to the table at exactly the right moment, and was super fresh and piping hot.
Overall, the food was excellent, but it’s the service that raises Go Chow Mein above the other excellent Asian restaurants on the island. Pay a visit – I’m sure you’ll be as impressed as we were.
Our bill was just over €30 a head, but we over ordered. Budget around €20 a head for two courses and a couple of drinks.
Go Chow Mein are in Calle César Manrique 1, Puerto del Carmen. They’re open from 13:00 until 23:30 every day. You can call them on +34 828 914 595 to book a table.
For Information, we don’t give reviews in return for free food or advertising and we never tell the restaurant we’re planning to review them. We simply rock up, eat our meal, pay the bill, and then write our review.
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