The Laughing Buddha (From Redhill And Reigate Life)

The Laughing Buddha

3:47pm Wednesday 10th December 2003

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28-34 High Street, Redhill
01737 780 084

It's a familiar scene: an array of empty silver-foil take-away cartons, the odd piece of discarded rice and the usual Saturday night choice of television.

However, The Laughing Buddha, an understated Chinese restaurant and take away house, converted what had been my previous and somewhat standard Chinese food encounter into a fantastic feast of classic and curious dishes, writes Lisa Scott.

Our meal began with the usual offering of prawn crackers (refilled three times), while we decided on our order. As if the decision wasn't hard enough already, the waitress informed us we had two menus to choose from their main menu and a separate noodle menu.

The latter, designed more in mind for busy lunchtimes is slightly cheaper, filling, but still available throughout the day and night.

Encouraged to avert from our usual choice, we went for a slightly unusual combination. For starters, we ordered chicken satay sticks served with a strong peanut sauce and chicken gyoza dumplings, which appeared to be strange, dough-like lumps filled with a pinkish consistency.

However, our apprehension wavered immediately upon the first bite, they were unusual,but delicious.

We later discovered that the curious filling was in fact a blend of chicken, cabbage, chives and water chestnuts mixed in with a variety of Chinese herbs.

Feeling like a group of novices, we followed the waitress and part owner Kim's suggestions for our main course, opting for dishes from both menus.

The Laughing Buddha Extra was our choice of noodle, a huge and filling plateful, consisting of extremely thick Soba noodles, chicken, beef, duck and prawn, tossed together with some light vegetables and a soya sauce.

I was a little concerned that the dish would be overloaded with too many types of meat, but the texture and amount was spot on. The dish was so big, it could have been served alone and, with each dish costing around the £5 mark, the noodle menu is certainly good value for money.

To complement the noodles, we also decided on a portion of lemon chicken and a portion of beef and green peppers in black bean sauce chosen for the less adventurous.

However, the fantastic Kung Po Chilli Prawns were recommended for the rest of us fearless diners definitely my favourite dish of the evening.

The Laughing Buddha serves a fine combination of tasty food and good service.

It offers a delicious dining experience - even for the fussiest of palettes.

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