Chop Suey, Dubai

Chop Suey is located in Beach Park Plaza Centre and very near to the latest attraction – Dubai Canal. A small cozy place with bright and colorful interiors. Instead of ordering, you just circle whatever you like to have on the table mat and give a tear away to the server. I think it’s a good practice to avoid any confusion while ordering.

Upon seated, we got some giant prawn cracker and chili dip as pre-starters. Crunchy and perfect for getting in the mood for some Chinese food.

Drinks

For the drinks, I ordered their special mocktail – Ginger and Pineapple which was a little fizzy and very light. Dubaigirl ordered her usual watermelon juice which was prepared fresh!

Soup

We both ordered soups – Tom yum Goong soup and Hot & Sour chicken. The Tom yum was flavorful but had a lot of bits of spices that were inedible and sometimes annoying to bite on. The hot & sour had a good consistency and both were in huge bowls.

Starters

The vegetable spring rolls were excellent. It was crunchy and had a lot of filling. Perfect with the sweet chili sauce.

I got myself the Pan Fried crispy chicken dumpling which was a treat. The chef whipped up a special Szechuan sauce as we like our dips spicy.

Crystal prawn dumpling is their best seller and a must try. The texture itself is very different from any other dumplings we’ve ever tried. They do look like crystals!

Small plate

We got some Crispy Szechuan Prawns from the Small plates & Salads section. The prawns were perfect and the dry spices were outstanding and flavorful.

Main course

For the mains, we got the Beef chop suey. Please keep in mind that it’s a very huge portion and can probably feed three people. The crispy noodles were excellent. Here’s a fun fact:

Chop Suey is thought to have originated not in China but in California during the 1800s. Food historians speculate that Chinese cooks in the United States, seeking to sell Chinese food to Westerners, but lacking many of the ingredients required for traditional Chinese dishes, created Chop Suey out of necessity rather than culinary creativity. The name Chop Suey means “mixed pieces”.

The other mains were Sizzling chicken with Chop suey chili sauce. It was served on a sizzling hot plate. A point to note – chicken is coated in egg and not mentioned in the menu. It gives off an eggy smell which you may not like.

We also ordered Kung Pao Prawns which were a little overdone but had a lot of cashew nuts and veggies in it. As a side, we ordered Vegetable Fried rice which went well with the Kung Pao and the Sizzling chicken.

Dessert

In my opinion, Chinese cuisine has the worst desserts especially if you’d compare it to the French, American or Italian cuisine. With low expectations, we got the Sesame Toffee Banana with Ice cream. We enjoyed the ice cream more than the banana as it was filled with Malteezers and Marshmallows.

I’d recommend Chop Suey starters and small plates for sure. The mains will depend on your taste buds but we liked most of it. The service was excellent and it’s also a good choice for takeout or delivery. We had a good time exploring the dishes.