Lucky LanternChinese takeaway · Crane Street, PontypoolPontypool

The family

Wing and Amy, since 1994.

A family takeaway in its second generation, and working on its third. Wing is at the wok every night the shop is open; Amy runs the counter and the drivers.

The takeaway counter with bags of food and the kitchen hatch
Wing Chan in a black chef’s jacket in the takeaway kitchen with woks behind him

Wing Chan

Head chef and owner

Wing was eleven when his parents opened the Lucky Lantern on Crane Street in 1994, and he did his homework on the bags of prawn crackers behind the counter. He trained under his father on the wok and in a Cantonese restaurant kitchen in Cardiff’s Chinatown before taking over the takeaway in 2009.

He cooks every evening the shop is open. He kept every number on the menu the same when he took over, because, he says, people do not want to learn a new number for their usual.

Amy Chan in a red polo shirt at the takeaway counter with paper bags of food

Amy Chan

Front counter, orders and deliveries

Amy is Wing’s daughter and runs everything that is not the wok: the counter, the phones, the two drivers and the website. She studied business at university in Newport and came back with ideas, starting with the separate vegetarian wok.

She is the reason the order page tells you the real wait on a Friday night rather than an optimistic one. She also remembers what about four hundred households have as their usual.

  • 1,994on Crane Street since
  • 150numbers on the menu, same numbers for thirty years
  • 20 minusual wait for collection
  • 4.7average from 612 reviews

The kitchen

What we hold ourselves to.

Food hygiene

Our rating is displayed in the window and on the Food Standards Agency website. (Left for the owner to fill in on this demonstration site.)

Allergens

An allergen sheet for every number. The kitchen handles all 14 major allergens, including peanuts and sesame, so we say what we cannot promise.

Cooked to order

No bain-marie, no reheating. The wok runs at full flame from opening to last orders.

Our own drivers

Two drivers who know the streets, insured for hot food delivery, with card machines.

Your usual number, cooked when you order it.

Ring the shop or build your order online: collection in about twenty minutes, delivery across Pontypool from £2. Same numbers since 1994.

Start an orderThe numbered menu