Ahead of Chinese New Year next week, I went down to one of the highest-rated Chinese dumpling restaurants in Lancashire - King Dumpling in Preston - to try it for myself... Safe to say I enjoyed it.
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00:00Hi guys my name's Jack Marshall, I'm a digital food and drink reporter with the Lancashire Post
00:05and in today's video we're going to be doing another bit of a food review but obviously with
00:09Chinese New Year coming up next week, it lands on Wednesday the 29th of January, I thought what
00:16better time than to explore the Chinese culinary offerings that Preston has to offer the citizens
00:22in this lovely city. So I did a bit of online research and now we've done a lot of stories
00:27about the best Chinese places, best you know Chinese takeaways, Chinese restaurants, buffets,
00:31whatever it might be, but one name kind of stood out to me and I thought that looks properly
00:36authentic, that looks like the kind of food which is really going to resonate with people who love
00:40authentic Chinese food rather than the kind of beige blob which we Brits tend to order in our
00:46Chinese takeaways. No shade on that, I love it as much as the next person, that's brilliant,
00:50but let's face it it's not what they're eating in Sichuan province. So I went down to a place
00:55called King Dumpling on Lancaster Road in the city, now a bit of road works out and out and
00:59about there so I was a bit worried it might be closed but it was open, ready for me to go in
01:03and check it out. Now obviously as the name suggests this place is famous for its dumplings
01:07so I was really excited to try that and all I can say is it's one thing that sums up how much I
01:11enjoyed my experience here is that I completely forgot to take any notes about just how nice the
01:16food was. Two food items, dumplings, obviously I had to go for the dumplings with the place being
01:20called King Dumpling, I went for the beef dumplings and then I had some chicken fried
01:24rice on the side. Now the first thing to mention is the portion sizes were huge, I'd not had any
01:28breakfast that morning so I was ravenous, I was ready to take this on and by the end of it I was
01:32stuffed, I was glad of my work, cross-pressed it again to walk off my very very full stomach at the
01:37end of the meal so that was really nice. But we'll start with the dumplings, now I was just blown
01:42away by the dumplings they were so tasty, I got the fried version because I don't kind of like
01:47the soppy sogginess of dumplings where they haven't had a little fried thing at the end just
01:52to give them a bit of crispness on the kind of outer layer, so that was lovely. Now one thing
01:56which really stood out to me was the ginger in it, the garlic, the flavours, the beef itself as well,
02:02I was, this is the thing with dumplings sometimes because there is a steamed element to it, sometimes
02:06if you're steaming beef and it's not a very good quality cut it can get very tough and just very
02:11chewy and the whole experience is ruined, this was the furthest from that as you could imagine,
02:15it was soft, it was flavourful, it just like we say that spices with the ginger and the garlic and
02:20it was delicious, every single one was just an absolute joy, I was just eating them whole,
02:25chopsticks were going, I was having a great time, brilliant, those were just one of the best
02:30restaurant like food items I've had in my time doing food reviews of places in Preston so that
02:36was outstanding. Now coming on to the chicken fried rice, I thought I've got a bit of rice on
02:42the side, get a bit of soy sauce in there that'd be lovely, I got a big heaping bowl, steaming bowl
02:46full of peas and loads of chicken and the rice was really nicely kind of, it wasn't just like boring
02:52plain white rice, it had lots to it as well, that was just outstanding, it was exactly what you
02:57wanted, it was nice and hot, it was a cold day, it was raining in Preston so to go across Towneville
03:02to pick up a nice bowl like that which you just know it's going to sit in your stomach and warm
03:06up from the inside, that was absolutely outstanding, exactly what you want from a big bowl of chicken
03:11fried rice. Overall the entire meal was on the expensive side, it was just short 20 quid, I think
03:16it was £19.99 but like I say I got loads of cups of tea for that and I got a hefty plate of, how
03:22many dumplings was it, I think it was, it was 12 dumplings, each one was like a mouthful but still
03:2712 of them and then this big bowl of rice as well so you're getting a proper feed for your 20 quid
03:31there, I was absolutely you know chuffed to bits with it, I'd definitely go again, absolutely 100%,
03:36but I'd just like to say this place was stunning, the service from the people there were really
03:42really friendly, they were lovely, really friendly, really accommodating on what was a pretty foul day
03:46weather-wise, business wasn't exactly booming because people just were not going outside so
03:50I like was pleased to be able to go in there and kind of chat to them and just get a full
03:55experience really so that was absolutely lovely, I just thought yeah 10 out of 10, I could not have
04:00enjoyed my experience anymore, the place was great, the food was outstanding, the people were friendly,
04:05what can I say, why not come try it yourself, Chinese New Year coming up next week, get yourself
04:09down to King Dumpling, try it out yourself, let us know what you think, let us know if there's a
04:14better dumpling place in Preston, if you think there's a better Chinese place in Preston,
04:18what more is there to say than happy Chinese New Year, thanks for watching, cheers.