The Hot Wok on St James’s Street

The Hot Wok on St James Street is a small outlet selling wok fried rice and noodle boxes to collect and take away. It is located opposite the spoons in the unit that used to house the Nottingham store Dukki.

Being a bit of a sucker for a cardboard container full of fried stuff I have been ordering and partaking more than I really should the last couple of weeks

They offer and operate the classic ‘create your own’ box where you can select from Noodles or Rice, Flavour, Additions, and Garnish so that you can just pick all the stuff that you want in your take away carton.

You don’t have to though, you can just do what I did and stick to one of the classic combinations that they have listed on the menu.

Here is some of what I have had

CRISPY SHREDDED CHICKEN BOX

I do like a bit of crispy fried chicken from the Chinese takeaway so I took a punt on one of the Hot Wok’s Salt & Peppercorn boxes ordering the Crispy Shredded Chicken for £5.50.

I was pleasantly surprised at the size of the box and the amount of fried chicken that I received for my money. It was a quite generous portion

As well as the slices of crispy battered and fried chicken the box also contained fresh onions, carrots and peppers

Once tipped out of the carton into a bowl it looked a lot better, although I am pretty sure it had no effect on the taste. I quite liked this chicken although it was a bit boring after the 9th or 10th mouthful and was a bit dry without a dip or a sauce, so either order one or raid the cupboard at home for some condiments, ketchup would be fine but I used the soy and the chinese rice vinegar

SATAY PEANUT CURRY EGG NOODLES BOX

The Satay Peanut Curry Egg Noodles box was one of the suggested combinations from the ‘Signature’ section of the menu at the Hot Wok. The name of the dish pretty much sums up what this box is likely to contain but it does not give away all the surprises.

The full description was ‘Chicken, pork, beef & egg noodles tossed in our homemade satay peanut sauce‘ and as with all the Signature dishes it also comes with ‘fresh onion, beansprouts, carrots & broccoli‘ so it is a lot more than just a box of noodles with some satay sauce added, well in theory anyway

Once out of the container and into my bowl things were looking up and the congealed block of noodles in the box was looking a bit more appetizing now.

First things are that it is very easy to eat or rather just stuff down your face, there is something really comforting about the way that soft noodles covered in sauce feel as you fork them into your mouth.

Tastewise these noodles were a bit light on the spice from the curry, but then again satay can be quite mild. It was all a bit one note though and that was impacting my ability to stay interested enough to eat the whole carton. I mean I still did eat it all but it was not as much fun as I was hoping when I placed the order is all I am saying

I liked that you get three meats in the dish, but really I just needed one, three was kind of overkill, not complaining! I just wanted a lot of one as opposed to a bit of three if that makes sense.

Anyway three bowls later I had eaten the whole box and probably have lost the will to order this particular combination again as a result, although having just said that, as I look at the photo I have a small yearn to pop along to Hot Wok to grab some more

VEGETABLE DUMPLINGS

I do love a dumpling, so I ordered a portion of their vegetable dumplings for £3.20 which in the end I thought was a bit steep for just 4 of them

These ones tasted good enough once I had added a dipping sauce of black rice chinese vinegar but the deep fried over crispness just spoiled the fun for me. I am not keen on the way that many places cook them, I prefer at least a little bit of give to the bite as I eat one

NASI FRIED RICE

The last thing that I ate from Hot Wok was a carton of their Nasi Fried Rice which was described online as ‘Shrimp, pork and rice tossed in Nasi sauce. Hot’

That pretty much sums it up to be fair, it was quite spicy, I even needed to sip from a glass of water on occasion in between bites. This time I just ordered a small carton for £3.99 but there was still plenty in there to fill you up.

I quite enjoyed it but again wasn’t that excited about it. It’s basically fried rice in a box but tasty enough and kind of what I was expecting anyway and so I was satisfied with my lot in life each time I order. Just don’t expect anything too fancy and you’ll be grand 🙂

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The Hot Wok is located at 18 St James’s Street, Nottingham, NG1 6FG right next to the Malt Cross and opposite The Roebuck Inn. You can order at the counter and the lady who served me was very friendly, you can also order online I snagged a couple of orders of those Deliveroo people.