London Wok Flat Bottom Wok 330mm

Firstly, please ignore the other reviewers when they claim that food burns to the metal. They obviously haven't taken the time to season the wok at all, and haven't the slightest clue about Chinese cooking. This is my first carbon steel wok, and first time ever seasoning a pan. I acheived very good results on my first try. My seasoning of the pan certainly isn't the prettiest, or best you'll see. But even for me it worked great. The wok is light weight, nicely built, and has a wooden handle. It has a wide flat base, which is perfect for domestic gas burners. I'm sure that with daily use, this wok will only get a better finish. It's a good sensible size, that won't be crowded when cooking a meat dish. I love how fast it heats up too. I'd have to wait about 5 mins for my non stick one to get up to temperature. Now it's about 30 seconds. After use, make sure you leave a thin film of oil over to protect from rust. When you next use, heat up very hot until the smoke stops. If you do this each time, you'll passively maintain the seasoning. Using metal utensils in a pan like this is fine. I'll be gentle for a while, as the patina is new and thin though. Common sense is the approach. If you only use your wok once or twice a week, then this isn't for you, and you should instead consider a non-stick version. If you use it 5 or more times a week, and have a powerful gas stove top, then this will do well for you.

If you have a gas hob, this is a very useful tool in your kitchen. The wok is thin and light, which is exactly what you want as it makes adjusting the heat and moving the wok around much easier. I recommend also getting a large lid, which makes this quite nice for steaming. Actually, this is also great for deep frying if you get a suitable high-temp thermometer (just search for "deep frying thermometer" or something, I bought one for around 7£ I think?). I made some delicious fried chicken with it, which worked very well. Don't get non-stick, and don't get anything smaller than 12 inches! You can't properly stir fry with that: the non-stick coating may be damaged by the high heat necessary and a wok that's too small will be overcrowded. Before use, scrub the wok to remove the protective wax (and scrub it well, with steel wool and hot water!) and then rub it with oil, which you should heat on the hob until smoking profusely. This takes around 10 minutes, but you should open your windows and close the kitchen door as the oily smell is intense. Afterwards, you have a non-stick cooking surface that's very fun to use. Even at the 13 inch size, I wouldn't recommend making more than two or at most three portions at a time with this, as the insufficient power of your hob will make stir-frying become steaming - suboptimal!

This is a very good solid steel wok. I have seasoned as clearly described in the instructions on the bag. Not yet used but am looking forward to it as I can feel the quality of the steel. However one drawback when I filled with water for the seasoning process the water leaked from the rivets holding the handle on. Not a big problem as the rivets are high on the bowl of the wok and will not interfere with normal cooking. I guess solder would melt and brazing increase the price, this is good value.

A nice work, and pleased the 30cm size caters for a family of 4-5. We’ve cooked some lovely meals for the family, exploring some great recipes A couple of recommendations, I’ve adopted after making some wrong turns in maintenance. Seasoning: For initial seasoning, using the gas or oven method. Remove the handle - which you can do with the screw. It ensures all parts of the Carbon steel is seasoned. See YouTube for further advice. Maintenance: a) I tend to use either a green sponge or stainless steel scourer with light pressure to wash by hand. if you wish you can re-season at this stage, but this is not necessary. b) if your don’t want to re-season. Wipe excess water using paper towel and but back on the burner - low heat - to dry thoroughly! c) Only when the wok has cooled, pour a teaspoon of oil and using paper towel, wipe all over (inside and out). Wipe away excess oil, before storing away - This is different to seasoning, it’s just prep before storing away. Managing Rust: On one way occasion, I did not perform steps b) & c) after washing. At the time, I just wiped it dry and stored it away. The next time I used it, to my horror, the wok developed rust spots. Watching school of work - YouTube, demonstrated how to recover wok if it develop rust. I followed instructions and rust all gone - lesson learned! No need to discard wok in the bin.

I wanted a simply wok - light, no non-stick surface, no extra handles, etc. And this seemed to tick the boxes. OK, a few reviewers seemed surprised it needs seasoning but I was actively looking for this characteristic so not worried by that. I season my pans in the oven - it's pretty foolproof (and being a fool, that's my benchmark). This wok has a wooden handle but I could see there was a screw holding the handle in place so, again, not concerned. Except that unscrewing it doesn't release the handle. It appears to do nothing whatsoever. I've used chisels, screwdrivers (full size and craft), a blowtorch, several different hammers, awls, files, an electric drill, WD40 (and a silicone based alternative). In total, I think I've spent about 3 hours on this - I've broken three different tools and, suffice to say, it no longer looks brand new. But the bastard handle is completely unmoved. In the bin she goes! I can't tell you anything else about the functionality, except it makes a pretty ugly doorstop.

Good size but handle is only held by small loose screw.