Extract one daughter from the chocolate fountain (Wing Wah Restaurant (Coventry))

Member Name: freediveheaven

Product:	Wing Wah Restaurant (Coventry)
Date:	12/07/07 (1637 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great range of dishes

Disadvantages: Not good for the waistline

Wing Wah is a chain of Oriental restaurants based around the West Midlands. Opened by celebrity chef Ken Hom in all there are five restaurants in all and the one I have experienced is in Coventry. There are also restaurants in Birmingham, Warley, Burton on Trent and Wolverhampton.

The one in Coventry is located on Fletchhamstead Highway on the corner of the A45 and from the outside I would guess that before it became a restaurant it was probably a large pub based on the size and layout of the building. Open seven days a week it is open weekdays and Saturdays between 12.00pm and 3.00pm for lunch and 6pm to 11.30 for evening meals while on a Sunday lunch is from 12.00 to 5.00 with it re-opening at 6.00 till 10.00 for evening meals.

This restaurant is a one price eat as much as you like buffet style and the prices do vary according to the time of visit. Children under 1.4m in height pay a reduced amount. Lunch from Sunday to Thursday is £5.90 (£3.90 under 1.4m) with the evenings £11.90 (£9.90). On a Friday or Saturday prices are the same for lunch but rise to £13.90 (£9.90) in the evenings. There is also a take out service for £5.90 where you get a polystyrene container and can fill it up with pretty much anything you like as long as you are able to close the lid.

I would recommend booking in advance as it does get very busy and especially if you are in a large party, I have been in on three separate occasions and every time it has been at least three quarters full and on one occasion it was pretty much packed out. On the plus side it is all on one level so ideal for wheelchairs or those who do not like stairs and there is plenty of parking spaces.


The Eating Area

As you enter there is a small bar area with limited seating and then the main floor opens out into a large eating area. There are windows all around so that there is plenty of light however the décor is rather cheesy but not too oppressive. There are a whole variety of tables sizes from small two seater ones to larger circular tables that could cater for ten people, the largest group I have been with totalled 23 and this was accommodated by making one long table. I have been told there is also a separate function room as well but have not seen this.

Sprouting out from the kitchen area is the hull of a boat and within this is contained most of the food, on one side there are a number of starters and Japanese dishes while on the other there are more traditional Chinese and Malaysian dishes as well as soup and crispy duck. At the bow of the boat is a teppanyani hot plate where you can fill your plate with raw ingredients and have it cooked for you. To the left there is an area that has sushi and also all the desserts including a cabinet for ice cream and my children favourite a large chocolate fountain with trays of fruit and sweets for dunking purposes.

The Food

The strength of Wing Wah and the reason that I like going there is that it does represent good value for money as there is such a huge choice of food to enjoy. There must be well in excess of 100 dishes to choose from and you can make as many journeys as you like so my advice is to get thee stretchy pants on and go for it in true Homer style. You should also avoid some of the pitfalls and exercise caution when loading your plate or you could merely adopt my daughters’ style and attempt to eat your own body weight in sweets and chocolate.

When you arrive your table will have a basket of prawn crackers, these are a trap and so you should not eat more than a couple as they are designed merely to fill you up on cheap stuff. There are a huge number of starters to choose from and although most of them are of the heavily fried variety it is worth hunting out the sushi (which are rather strangely displayed next to the desserts) and the ribs are also rather nice as well. My personal favourite is the crispy duck of which there is an unlimited supply alongside pancakes, sauce, chopped cucumber and spring onion.

When it comes to the main courses I personally go for the teppanyani which is cooked in front of you, although all of the other dishes are rotated on a regular basis and because it is usually so busy nothing sits for long some of the dishes that are less popular do look a bit congealed at times which puts me off especially with sea food so I prefer to load up a plate with some raw veg, noodles and meat and watch it cooked in front of me. The chefs certainly put on a show and are very dexterous as they line up a number of peoples food at a time occasionally adding oil to make flames shoot up into the air, the kids loved this way of getting their food and it has a nice taste although there is a limited choice of only two sauces to add, a mild chilli sauce or soy sauce and it would be nice to see some other alternatives like teriyaki or oyster sauce.

There is a fantastic range of choice for the main courses, one section is devoted to Japanese dishes while there is a good selection of vegetarian dishes as well. The sea food range is really good with sea bass being my favourite alongside a really nice dish containing giant mussels in a black bean sauce and of course there are lots of meat options as well.

It is worth saving some room for dessert, now I’m not a big fan of the chocolate fountain although the strawberries in chocolate are nice it is just that the chocolate is not as nice as some I have tried, instead I head straight for the little portions of cheesecake which is very acceptable as is the tiramisu. There are a number of other sweets a well and there are about three types of ice-cream as well. This is when the stretchy pants come into their own and when the sacrifice on the prawn crackers starts to reap its rewards.


I have not mentioned the drinks situation mainly because every time I have been there I have been driving so I have never checked out the wine list, drinks are not cheap however in line with most restaurant prices, I the big group I went with which had a range of alcohol and non alcohol drinkers the shared bill was just shy of £18 per head which included the week rate of £11.90 for food.

The service is very good, there are a lot of staff bustling about bringing drinks and collecting dirty plates from tables, all of the staff are polite and for the most part work with a smile which is no mean feat given how busy the place gets. You may have to queue to get your food at times as the line can be slow moving as people pile food on but the wait is never that bad and as the serving area is in fill view you can time your visits.

Kitsch Value


I have to mention some of the slightly more tacky points, the first is the truly awful canned music that rings out every time they bring out a celebration cake, actually what they bring out is a large dessert with sparklers in it, however this dessert is accompanied by a woman wailing the Happy Birthday song in an stereotypical Chinese accent, when we went for my sons 14th birthday he was so pleased that we had not gone for this option as I knew just how embarrassed it would have made him.

I’m also not convinced of the need to dress all of the waitresses up in Suzy Wong style split gowns no matter how attractive they are and some of the décor is a bit tacky as well.

On the plus side the toilets are really clean as is the whole restaurant and I also like the fact that the tables are reasonably spaced out to enable people to move about.


Overall if you want a good variety of traditional (for the UK) oriental food at a reasonable price then Wing Wah is a fun place to visit especially in big groups.

For the details of the other locations check out the website at

http://www.wingwah.net/restaurant_contact.html

Thanks for reading and rating my review.

Summary: Oriental restaurant arranged on a one price buffet style.