A YouGov poll last year found that Chinese food was Britain's favourite takeaway, ahead of Indian and fish and chips.
But as the cost of living crisis continues to pinch, supermarket ready meals can provide a cheaper alternative.
Here, Birmingham Live 's Rebecca Astill gives her verdict on five supermarket chow meins.
She says: “Personally, I am a huge fan of Chinese food. I love the picky nature of the cuisine and the fact everything has a yummy coating of oriental sauce.
“I put Aldi, Tesco, Waitrose, Asda and Marks and Spencer’s chicken chow meins to the test and here were my thoughts.”
Tesco
£2.75 for 400g
“I had high hopes for Tesco’s chicken chow mein, it came in a plastic pot as most Chinese takeaways do and the noodles looked thick and appetising.
“However, I was not impressed at all.
“There was next to no moisture and only about two bits of chicken throughout the whole meal.
“It claimed to be dressed in a 'savoury sesame sauce' but I found there was barely any coating at all.
“What was there was bland and the opposite of moreish.”
3/10
Waitrose
£3.75 for 400g (currently £2.81)
“The difference between Waitrose’s chicken chow mein and Tesco’s could not be starker.
“Waitrose’s chow mein claims to be a Chinese recipe with 'free range egg noodles, chicken and vegetables in a soy and rice wine sauce'.
“On first glance, there was a much higher proportion of chicken than Tesco had, not that that was hard.
“It was much moister and the chicken was lovely and chargrilled.
“There was lots of flavour and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
9/10
Aldi
£1.89 for 400g
“I tried a bit of chicken first and it took me a good minute to get through; it looked and tasted completely dry, making it difficult to chew and swallow. It was like cardboard.
“The rest of the dish was fairly bland and the noodles were soft but it was still a nicer consistency to the Tesco version.
“There was also only a small number of vegetables in the dish.
“I liked that it had chilli in too which added a hint of spice.
“But the fact that the spice was the one redeeming feature is a giveaway that this is a pretty poor chicken chow mein.”
2/10
Asda
£3.50 for 400g (currently £2.75)
“Unusually for Asda, their chicken chow mein was at the higher end pricewise so I was expecting something a bit special.
“On first impressions, the amount of carrot was certainly overwhelming - there seemed to be more carrot than noodles.
“This chicken chow mein definitely had the highest proportion of vegetables to any of the others.
“It took me a while to actually get anything on my fork as the texture of the food was quite slimy.
“When I did manage to, I thought it tasted like a pad Thai rather than a chicken chow mein, likely down to the soy, ginger and garlic sauce.
“However, what it lacked in authenticity and texture it made up for in taste and overall, I liked it.”
7/10
Marks and Spencer
£4.50 for 400g
“Marks and Spencer was the most expensive option by a whole pound so I was expecting big things.
“The sauce in this M&S version was slightly different, opting for a soy and Shaoxing rice wine sauce.
“Shaoxing is a traditional Chinese yellow wine made by fermenting rice, water and yeast.
“It made for a rich flavouring which had soaked into both the chicken and noodles to make a delicious flavouring.
“In contrast the vegetables were dry, but that could be solved simply by giving the meal a good mix before digging in.
“Overall it was pretty good and up there with the best.”
8/10
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