The Ming

TL;DR version: Run of the mill Chinese restaurant on the good side of average. Don’t drive for miles and you won’t be disappointed.
I approached Ming full of that middle class snobbery engendered in you by having recently visited the country that the restaurant’s speciality cuisine pertains to, causing the belief that having spent a couple of weeks there you are now some sort of renowned expert on the minutiae of how to prepare and serve every dish ever to originate on their shores. I tried to put this behind me for the purpose of this review.
The building itself was ok, there was no sense of having attempted to recreate any sort of traditional Chinese look and feel, just white walls and white table cloths everywhere. It was nice and clean but to look at it could have been any type of restaurant.
The service was quick and unobtrusive, the menu had a decent amount of vegetarian offerings to keep my girlfriend happy and the portions were a decent size. The food was good, it wasn’t great (but let’s not forget I’m an expert on Chinese food now so it was never going to be), the prices were acceptable for what we got.
This is the sort of place which if I lived a couple of miles away I could imagine I would probably visit fairly often. It’s not going to be on anyone’s bucket list to visit but it’s not going to leave you sobbing with despair at your poor judgement if you decide to eat there either.

Mings is one of the nicest Chinese restaurants I’ve been too, really personable staff and top food.
From the outside it’s not your stereotypical looking restaurant as it’s a converted residential building, but inside it’s very slickly presented — formal without being too fancy.
Creatures of habit that I and my family are we always go for the Crispy Duck for a shared starter and it’s awesome. Brought to the table where they shred it up for you, loads of pancakes, sauces etc and happy to serve up more if you run out.
We always go for a mixture of main course dishes with my favorite being the sizzling plates, sometimes can be mega-​spicey but even then still very nice (just make sure you’ve got plenty of water).
Word of caution on the Chinese Liquer for an after dinner tipple — they’re seriously brutal so dont take them lightly
Cost wise it’s not the cheapest evening but you’re getting really good food and service, the last time the head-​waiter even showed us how to make an origami rabbit from a napkinyou had to be there