Crispy duck for Christmas

November 18, 2005 6:03 PM

Does anyone know a Chinese restaurant or takeaway in London which opens on Christmas day? Extensive googling and ringing round last year failed to turn up any that did.

We're non-cooks with very limited kitchen facilities (think microwave). Last year we ended up eating at a very fancy hotel when all we really wanted was a crispy duck with pancakes and hoi sin sauce. Please help us feed our tasty waterfowl habit.

posted by Flitcraft to food & drink (10 comments total)

Toptable UK.

I plugged in Chinese for December 25th, and got 13 results.

(I am assuming you mean London, UK and not, say, London, Ohio).
posted by spinifex23 at 7:51 PM on November 18, 2005

Can't you order the night before, store it carefully and re-heat it? Maybe a resturant could package it to help with that?
posted by crabintheocean at 9:36 PM on November 18, 2005

Crispy duck is a surprisingly easy dish to cook, if you buy the pancakes ready-made. You shouldn't necessarily let the fact you're not a cook put you off having a go at it. Limited kitchen facilities present more of an issue however.
posted by edd at 2:10 AM on November 19, 2005

Sadly Toptable UK is no good for this - we tried it last year. Their search doesn't seem take into account that 99% of London restaurants close on xmas day itself. If you search for what's open in London for 2 people on December 18th and then on December 25th it gives you exactly the same 503 results. It thinks 58 restaurants near us in North London are open on xmas day which I know is not the case!

It's my partner's flat and we only have a microwave - I wouldn't have thought that would be much good for the condition of the duck - am I wrong? What we're really looking for is an open Chinese restaurant like the one across from me in Edinburgh which is doing dinner on xmas day at very reasonable non-extortionate rates, but I can't anything like it in London - only very fancy 60-70 quid a head non-chinese places.
posted by Flitcraft at 8:59 AM on November 19, 2005

It's not Chinese, but the Tokyo Diner on Newport Street claims it's open to midnight every day of the year for any sushi-and-noodles jones you may develop. On the other hand, based on a visit a month ago it's slipped seriously downhill.

If you're close enough, I'd suggest walking through Chinatown on the day. Or if you're going to be in Soho with a half-hour window between now and then, wander through Chinatown (or Gerrard Street and Lisle Street anyway) and ask all the restaurants if they're going to be open on Christmas Day, and if not then do they know of any restaurants that are?
posted by Hogshead at 3:25 PM on November 19, 2005

Sorry I don't have an answer, but does anyone else have the scene from "A Christmas Story" running through their heads?
posted by misterioso at 6:25 PM on November 19, 2005

I live in the centre of London and I know some residents near me do go up to Chinatown near Gerrard Street every Christmas Day. So as confirmation of what Hogshead is saying, I would suggest you either call round or visit one day and ask a few of those restaurants.
posted by skylar at 12:18 AM on November 20, 2005

Sorry I don't have an answer, but does anyone else have the scene from "A Christmas Story" running through their heads?

Absolutely... Fah rah rah rah rah, rah rah rah rah.

Thanks for the idea for eating Chinese on Christmas -- I'm in Japan, away from my family, so I may just do this instead ;-)
posted by armage at 5:02 AM on November 20, 2005

Hogshead: I've been eating at Tokyo Diner for years, what did you have that you thought it had gone down?
posted by quiet at 11:09 AM on November 20, 2005

I've been into Tokyo Diner twice in the last couple of months. The first time the noodles were over-cooked; the second time there was a complete absence of waiting staff downstairs. After nobody had passed to take our order after ten minutes, we left and went to the place two doors down on the right that does basically the same food, better, in nicer surroundings.
posted by Hogshead at 2:06 PM on November 25, 2005