I've passed this restaurant many times before, and was pretty put-off by the dingy exterior and the not-so-safe location (Van Riebeek can get a little dodge sometimes). Even though I love my Chinese food I always thought this was another lame westernised take away joint... But I was wrong. After reading some of the reviews and being too lazy to trek to Cyrildene for my Asian-craving, we went down the road to give Lu Dong a try.

The food was excellent. Authentic and so damn cheap. The service was typical, slow and a tad hard to communicate, but the owners son helped out with the English speaking folk. It seemed like a cute little family business with the father emerging from the kitchen in his chefs hat now and then to chat with the other customers, while the mother constantly came up to refill our pots of tea.

• Dried Beancurd with Cucumber and Chilli Oil: very tasty. The chilli oil adds such an awesome flavour to the dish. The tofu was nice and firm and different from what I'm used to, but good nonetheless.

• Lamb Flank Soup Noodles: I love my beef Flank, but I decided to try something different. The lamb was so tender and melt-in-your-mouth, and the broth had a nice flavour to it. The homemade noodles were nice and freshly made, but I found them a bit too undercooked and chewy, and there was a lot of it so I ended up leaving half of it behind. I wish there had been a few more veggies too. Definitely good to try but now I'm very keen to sample their beef flank.

• Kung Pao Chicken: Wow the flavour of this dish was divine! I really enjoyed the chicken and peanut mixture and it was quite a decent-sized portion.

Our meal came up to around R150 for two people including tip, and that's pretty damn cheap for such a large amount of decent and authentic food. Just don't mind the giant fridge by the entrance and the slightly dodgy exterior and interior, and it's definitely worth the sit-down for the food. This is definitely our new go-to spot when the craving hits again.