Staff at Golden Palace Chinese restaurant and takeaway in Aberdeen, say that Christmas Day is one of their busiest of the year.
Mother’s Day and Chinese New Year also prove pretty popular.
The Chinese restaurant in Bridge of Don overlooks the river, and with a tempting set menu on offer, it’s no wonder that families decide to ditch the home cooking – and the piles of dishes – and eat out instead.
Erin Wang, 24, works as a waitress at Golden Palace. She says Christmas Day can be both “exciting” and “chaotic”.
“You have an idea in your mind of what it might be like,” says Erin, “because you see so many reservations.
“But when it actually happens, things still feel a bit chaotic.
“For the whole day last year, we had roughly 200 customers. And that’s not counting the takeaway orders.
“It is quite exciting too though.
“We have Christmas decorations up, all the staff wear hats, and there’s crackers on the table.
“When the customers come, and you see them have their food and they feel satisfied, that’s when it feels exciting.”
Chinese students also enjoy Christmas at Golden Palace Aberdeen
And it’s not just Scottish families who enjoy visiting Golden Palace in Aberdeen on Christmas Day.
“We are also open for Chinese students who are here on their winter break,” says Erin.
“Some of them stay in Aberdeen and many of them are our regulars, so we also want to open the restaurant for them.
“Otherwise they might be cooking for themselves on Christmas, all by themselves.
“That could be quite sad as it’s a special celebration when everyone is normally together.”
Hoi Liu, 42, works as manager at Golden Palace.
He says: “We have a lot of families in, or friends, all from different areas coming together to meet in Aberdeen.
“That is always really nice to see.”
How to combat the Christmas ‘chaos’
I asked Erin if she gets nervous for the busyness of Christmas Day at the restaurant, where there might be 200 customers to serve.
“You don’t actually have the time to think about it,” she admits.
“The bell in the kitchen rings, you will hurry to the kitchen, and then you bring everything out.
“On the way the customers will be asking you for a lot of things.
“You need to take care with kids too. They might be stepping in your way.
“Most of the customers are quite understanding because they know how busy we are.
“This year, we will be even more prepared.”
This year, Golden Palace has separated Christmas Day into three service time slots, so that customers are more evenly spread out.
This should make service easier to handle for the staff at the Bridge of Don Chinese restaurant.
The set menu on the day includes dishes like won ton soup, crispy aromatic duck, lemon chicken and many more.
The restaurant and takeaway also have an à la carte menu with more traditional dishes, such as beef tripe with black beans, fried pork intestines with hot pepper and lamb with pickled pepper.
Erin says: “Compared to last year, more customers want to try new things from our à la carte menu.
“Some of the authentic dishes though, I know are hard for customers as there are bones in the chicken, and we eat things like chicken feet.
“But we are really happy to see more customers coming to try authentic dishes too.”
Conversation