Tuesday, March 14th was a momentous occasion: Long Ashton finally got its new Chinese takeaway. Owned by the same people behind China Capital on Ashton Road, Cherry Blossom has opened its doors at 21-23 Weston Road: premises most recently (and not even that recently) home to the Sun Fung Fish Bar.
Cherry Blossom serves up exactly the same menu of pan-Asian food as its BS3 counterpart – and, perhaps surprisingly, at exactly the same prices. At the time of writing, only collection was available: either by ordering and paying through their website or by heading to the restaurant itself and paying in cash.
We’d had a funny feeling that the first Friday of service would be a pretty busy one, so we ordered dead on 5pm when Cherry Blossom opened. It was a quick and easy process: the website laid out intuitively, the payment process trouble-free. Shortly after ordering, an email from the restaurant came through to confirm that our food would be ready to collect in 20 minutes.
Having ordered so early we were the only ones in there at our designated collection time. No sooner had we had the chance to look around the elegantly-decorated space – complete with cherry blossom picture and the obligatory waving cat on the counter – our food had been bagged up and handed over the counter with a smile.
We’d ordered a selection that included some old favourites as well as some new things to try: sweet and sour chicken balls (the five-year-old’s favourite), house special chow mein, Malaysian satay pork, and the honey & chilli dish with mixed meats and prawns.
The sweet and sour chicken balls (£5.50 for 6, £8 for 10) were sizeable and fairly light in colour, filled with a generous amount of tender chicken and the coating of batter thick and fluffy. We were impressed with the sauce, too, which was more muted in colour than the lurid red that we’ve had from other Chinese restaurants. With its vinegary tang it had a decent balance between sharp and sweet, and it didn’t have that thick, almost congealed consistency that you find with some.
The Malaysian satay pork (£8.50) was a bit of a mixed bag. We all loved the thick sauce laced with a decent amount of peanut flavour, as well as the tenderness of the meat itself. While there were no complaints about how the veg the dish contained was cooked, the combination of courgette, aubergine, onion and pineapple seemed slightly unusual.
I think the honey and chilli dish, which we chose to have with mixed meats and prawns (£8.70), is now a new favourite of mine. The thick, sticky sauce started off super sweet but the chilli heat quickly grew – and there was plenty of sliced red chilli, too. The prawns, pork and chicken were cooked well with a deliciously crispy batter coating, and the sweet and crunchy slices of carrot, pepper and onion added a nice contrast.
The house special chow mein (£8.90) was mostly great: small chunks of pork and chicken and whole prawns nestled alongside crunchy beansprouts and slivers of spring onion and plenty of nicely-cooked noodles which had a smoky flavour. In all honesty, though, we’d have enjoyed it just as much – if not more – without the slices of meat on the top. While the chicken was tender inside it was a little leathery around the edges, and the slices of pork were definitely tougher than those we’d enjoyed as part of the satay dish.
I know some of those who ordered later – post-7pm – had some issues with long waits for collection with no updates from the restaurant, but hopefully this was just an opening weekend blip. I know we’ll certainly be ordering again – and that honey and chilli dish is now going to be a regular addition to our order.