Retro Chinese takeaway menu from the 1970s leaves foodies stunned over unbelievably cheap prices

A decades-old menu from a Chinese takeaway restaurant in London has stunned foodies over the prices of popular meals from years past.

The vintage menu resurfaced after a man found it with his father’s belongings and guessed it was from the late 1970s or early 1980s when he lived in the British capital. 

After he shared a photo of the menu on Reddit, many were wowed by the jaw-droppingly low prices that wouldn’t get customers a cup of coffee in today’s economy. 

A meal for two including roast duck, fried chicken, pork, prawns, fried rice and prawn crackers, only cost £1.25 back in the day. 

Meanwhile a serving of chips, listed under the ‘vegetables’ section of the menu, cost a miniscule 5p. 

The retro find made today’s food lovers nostalgic for ultra-affordable prices with one pointing out that ordering one of everything on the menu would cost less than £20. 

‘Found an old Chinese food menu behind a filing cabinet. Wouldn’t mind a 50p set these days,’ the finder said in a Reddit post. 

The eatery named On Lok was in Leyton in London’s north-east and only closed recently under a different name. 

It listed soups for only 18p, noodle dishes for 15p, curries from 20p and specialities like fried beef in oyster sauce for as little as 30p. 

The ‘highly recommended special dinners’ started from just 40p for one person and £1.15 for two and included multiple dishes.

A customer could have ordered one of every item on the menu excluding the special dinners for around £17 – less than a standard takeaway order total today. 

People were quick to express their shock at the relic with one joking: ‘Have you told the British Library about this rare manuscript?’. 

‘The prices, omg!’ a second exclaimed and another replied: ‘Why is everyone ignoring the lobster in the room? When was the last time you saw lobster on your local takeaway menu? My last time was never’.

‘Yeah I’ll have one of everything please mate – stick it all in a cardboard box for me. How much? £8.42? Ok, great,’ someone laughed. 

One user thought it was amusing that most of the vegetable dishes were served with some form of meat.

Others compared the old prices to what they have paid at their local takeaway joint recently and some speculated about the time period the menu was from. 

‘I just paid £18 for a regular cod and chips,’ one commenter wrote.   

‘Chicken chow mein at my local Chinese is £7.80. Plain omelette £6.80,’ another said and someone replied: ‘The rent of this place was probably the price of that omelette back in the day.’ 

‘Looking at the prices this has to be very soon after decimalisation in 1971,’ one man guessed. 

‘£1 in 1971 is equivalent to just under £12 now, so this is still really cheap – that set meal for two which is £1.45 would still only be about £16.’