I feel peckish. Can anyone suggest something nice and tasty, not too greasy for a little Chinese dish for under a fiver....

A chow mein can be gotten for about a fiver round here with meat and veggies in so is really a meal all in one.

My local chinese serves a host of set meals for less than a fiver (instead of ordering the meat/fish and rice seperate) although the portion isn't as big

I've opted for beans on toast - cheap and no nasty MSG headache in the morning.

You're lucky, the chinese takeaways around here don't do beans on toast.

What a great thread.

Mine do - shame.

For under a fiver you can get a large battered sausage, chips and curry sauce from most chippies.

This could be contender for most pointless thread of the year so far.

I mean how can you want suggestions for a chinese dish under £5 then after 2 replies say you've went for beans on toast instead?

My local chipper will serve the following for under a fiver:

Sausage in batter
Chip roll
Savaloy sausage
Curry sauce
Mushy peas

fish and chips comes in a bit over a fvier, but a lot of chippies do "small fish and chips" for £3 something.

you can probably eat in a harvester for not much over a fiver, and there's a few carveries under a fiver.

That's a fair bit of food for your money if you think about it. No other takeaway gives that good value anyways.

I know, chippers are good value if you opt for sausages instead of fish. And lets face it, sausages taste better than cod in batter!

Yeah definitely. I get 2 large battered sausages and a half portion of chips with a pot of gravy from my local place. It's soooo good. And unlike Chinese food, I'm not hungry after 2 hours, and unlike Indian food, I'm not dying on the toilet for the whole of the next day

Kebabs and pizzas and stuff are good but probably worst value for money. Still good after 9 pints though.

Pack of 5 or 6 fresh, British chicken thighs £1.99, 1.5kg bag of oven chips £1 both from Aldi. Add seasonings of your choice ( store cupboard stuff ) plus baked beans or peas for a few pennies and you've got 2 'take away' style meals in about 30-40 minutes with chips to spare.

But it's not a takeaway is it....

Chippies are the best value takeaways, no doubt about it. There are a few of our local joints that serve flippin huge portions, especially chips, enough for 2 people easy.

Lots of chippers also serve chicken and it's pretty good value as well, my local serves six wings and chips for 1.99, and these wings are really meaty (unlike KFC wings for example).

I often wonder how independent chippers manage to remain so competitvely priced

Beans on toast from a Chinese takeaway? Is that a joke? Couldn't you make that yourself at home?

thats what I thought, never heard of a chinese doing that!

Local chippie will do a fish(cod or plaice), sausage x2, pastie, burger, chicken portion or hotog with chips and a can of drink for 3 pounds any time up to 4pm. Really good value plus you get a free entry to a weekly 20 pound food draw.

I once sat and added up the total of every customer's order whilst I was waiting for them to cook some more chips. In roughly 15 minutes they'd taken over 200 quid.

Profit margins are presumably tight but the revenue is huge. On busy summer days they must take thousands of pounds.

When we are trying to get a cheap take away we order from a noodle bar in our town.

They do a massive portion of Yaki Soba noodles (spicy in a sauce with veg, pork, chicken and prawns) for just under £5 and something called Yum Yum Chicken (battered chicken in a sweet and spicy sauce with steamed rice) for just over £5.

I love it as you can really taste all the ingredients (ginger etc) and believe there is no MSG or too much salt in them as I'm never dehydrated after like most Chinese food.