Vegan review: Sir Sun’s Wok

I’m still on the lookout for our ‘go-to’ Chinese takeaway. Throughout my childhood living in a village, our family definitely had a regular takeaway that we were very loyal to (probably the only one within a 15 mile radius), and despite there being so much choice in Oxford, I’m yet to find that favourite Chinese restaurant here. Particularly since going vegan, a lot of places still don’t even mark the vegetarian dishes on the menu, and it’s tricky to know what you can eat. So I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed that Sir Sun’s Wok on Cowley Road has both vegetarian and vegan dishes clearly labelled on their Deliveroo menu. Guess what – that meant we had to try it out.

Our Friday night order came incredibly quickly, so much so that my initial reaction was that it must’ve all been sitting in a pot for hours ready to just be ladled out into Tupperware. However, I think I was too quick to judge, because when it arrived and I opened the pots, I got the opposite impression. My garlic fried pak choi looked so bright and vibrant, I’m pretty sure it had been freshly stir fried to order, which obviously wouldn’t have taken too long. The green leaves were nicely cooked, retaining a satisfying crunch. I had expected there to be more of a sticky garlicky sauce, but it was just diced fresh garlic. Although there was a lot of that visible in the dish, the flavour was quite subtle and it was all in all very refreshing.

I also ordered the ‘homestyle’ cooked tofu. Again it looked and tasted really fresh, and the sauce wasn’t too greasy. The chunks of red and green pepper, slightly bitter compared to the sweet sauce, were still firm which added some nice texture against the soft tofu. There was also a good handful of flavourful, slightly chewy mushrooms stirred in. This tofu dish was labelled as ‘slightly hot’ on the menu, which I’d say was accurate, it had a nice level of chilli heat to it – though when I accidentally ate one of the pieces of whole dried red chilli that were scattered through the sauce, that was a step too far for me.

There were numerous plant-based dishes labelled on the menu, many of which I liked the sound of. When we order a takeaway we often like to order a few different things to try, knowing we’ll eat any leftovers the next day. Sadly I couldn’t justify that this time, purely based on price. The garlic fried pak choi was £9.90, which I thought was astonishingly high for a small tub of vegetables, however nice they are. The Tupperware pots were the standard size you’d usually get from a Chinese takeaway so I felt the portion sizes didn’t justify the price. The tofu at £9.80 felt a bit more substantial as a dish but it was still expensive comparative to other Chinese takeaways I’ve had in Oxford. So it’s a shame – while I very much enjoyed the meal, on price alone sadly I don’t think I would rush to order again.