riddo7up   10 #1 Posted November 3, 2003 Can anyone remember where the first Chinese restaurant was in the city. I think I remember in the fifties a place starting up on West street/Glossop Road calling itself the Rickshaw. It was so popular originally that there were regularly queues outside waiting to be let in. Orwas it the Zing Vaa on the Moor. I know that the Zing Vaa was, and is, a more pretentious place, and that official visitors from China ate there Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
mikey   10 #2 Posted November 3, 2003 Some more info here  http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=935 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
riddo7up   10 #3 Posted November 5, 2003 Thanks for your help. I seem to remember trying to get in there after returning from Glossop Road baths, but there was always a long queue Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
DAVEGARY Â Â 10 #4 Posted March 1, 2004 I remember as a child in the 60's a chinese eating place in commercial street called the Gambit .You went down steps to it.It was somewhere under the Gas Showrooms I think Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Plain Talker   11 #5 Posted March 1, 2004 Originally posted by riddo7up Can anyone remember where the first Chinese restaurant was in the city. I think I remember in the fifties a place starting up on West street/Glossop Road calling itself the Rickshaw. It was so popular originally that there were regularly queues outside waiting to be let in. Orwas it the Zing Vaa on the Moor. I know that the Zing Vaa was, and is, a more pretentious place, and that official visitors from China ate there  the rickshaw cafe was just off west street, at the junction of Eldon Street and Broomhall street, at the side of the old Royal Hospital (where the new Royal plaza and tesco is now)  You can still see the old Gas lamp which stood outside the building.  My father was brought up in a flat above the rickshaw cafe, for the first few years of his life, before moving back to the summer street/ fawcett street area (before the wholesale slum clearance)  PT Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
rainbow2411 Â Â 11 #6 Posted March 1, 2004 When I was the office junior 1959 ish we used to go to the Peacock in the Wicker for the "Businessmans" lunch, 3 courses for 3 and 6 pence, not sure what that is in todays money. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
mikey   10 #7 Posted March 1, 2004 Originally posted by rainbow2411 we used to go to the Peacock in the Wicker for the "Businessmans" lunch, 3 courses for 3 and 6 pence, not sure what that is in todays money.  17.5p Bargain  Decimal to old money converter Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Dunlop St   10 #8 Posted March 2, 2004 In the late 50s I was a copper and one night I had cause to enter the Rickshaw - the front door was open! The upper floor was used as accommodation by several of the waiters who became quite worried when I walked inti their room, after knocking mind. I used the place regularly after that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
YOYO s2 Â Â 10 #9 Posted September 10, 2006 I think the first cninese was the WELCOME on West Bar Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Falls   10 #10 Posted September 10, 2006 the rickshaw cafe was just off west street, at the junction of Eldon Street and Broomhall street, at the side of the old Royal Hospital (where the new Royal plaza and tesco is now) You can still see the old Gas lamp which stood outside the building.  PT  Before the Rickshaw(s), there was The Oriental (also know affectionally as Sunburnt Harry's) on Langsett Road but I don't know whether you would call it a Chinese Restaurant. I used to eat there farely regularly.  The Rickshaw mentioned above by PT (lets call it Rickshaw 1) was certainly the first Chinese Restaurant in what might be called the centre of town (c1957). It was very popular because:  It was the only one. It was certainly one of the very few places around that offered something different to the traditional English (meat and two veg.) that we had all grown up on.  It was open seven days a week and in the evening (remember all the other restaurant in town in 1957 were locked-up tight by 6pm every night, particularly on Saturday night)  It offered good food at reasonable prices.  Rickshaw 2 (corner of Broomhall Street and Devonshire Street) opened a few years later but didn't last long.  The Zing Vaa opened soon after Rickshaw 1. It's big attraction, apart from the quality of the food and service, was that it was really in the middle of town and more up-market that the Rickshaw.  Places Like the Welcome on West Bar and the Peacock in the Wicker came shortly after the Rickshaw. The Businessman's lunches (Mon-Sat) were very popular. The Peacock used to be hopping at lunch time on Saturday.  I think that you can credit the Rickshaw, and the other Chinese restaurants that came later, with totally changing the eating habits of a generation of Sheffielders and everyone who came later. Before that, if you wanted Chinese food, Indian or anything the least bit different, you had to go to Manchester, Birmingham or London.  Falls Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Arfer Mo   10 #11 Posted September 10, 2006 I remember one of the first was in the Wicker but cannot think of the name this was before 1950. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Nigel Womersle   10 #12 Posted September 10, 2006 When I was the office junior 1959 ish we used to go to the Peacock in the Wicker for the "Businessmans" lunch, 3 courses for 3 and 6 pence, not sure what that is in todays money.   In today's money it is seventeen and a half pence. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...