IF you take a look down the list of takeaways on many a main street you could almost lose your bearings.

People are becoming more adventurous with their tastes and in most East Lancashire towns you can eat Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Turkish and Greek. OK, you struggle to find many decent chip shops but there are plenty of alternatives.

And one form of takeaway is expanding at a rate of knots. You could almost be forgiven for thinking you are American given the amount of fried chicken shops popping up.

Fried chicken was the brainchild of an American chap with a white beard and, while his brand of ‘diner’ is still going strong, there are also many imitators. One is the Dixy Chicken franchise chain.

They are all over the place, including one in Blackburn that was so bad that it almost put me off food altogether.

So it was with caution that I approached Nelson’s Dixy.

Yes, they sell the same chicken as the others with the same secret coating (basically a batter made with buttermilk and spices,) and the same thin fries that only the French could love. But a value box meal with two pieces of chicken, three wings, fries and a tin of pop for £3.59 is a deal and fills a hole.

OK, it would never sit well with the late Michael Winner and dieticians will frown but it was a decent enough.

VERDICT

  • Taste: 6
  • Temperature: 7
  • Speed: 6
  • Value: 7
  • Choice: 6