Town Food Service 14 Inch Cantonese Flat Bottom Wok

What a great wok for the money. I've heard that the bottom wasn't flat enough or it rusts easy on a few of these reviews. Ok...this is a low carbon steel wok that requires seasoning like any other iron or steel wok or pan. It only takes about 20 minutes on a gas stove burner or propane burner outside. (Youtube has videos that explain this process in detail.) It will change the color from silver to beautiful gun blues, reds, bronzes and browns. While it's hot I rubbed some coconut oil on the metal. Expect the wok to smoke during this process. I did this a couple of times and it seasoned beautifully. The picture on the right is after stir frying veggies and fried rice. After use, clean by using hot water in the wok while the burner is still on. Let the water boil a minute and gently scrub it with a stiff brush or steel scrub pad then rinse, dry and apply a light coat of oil. This will protect it from rust. It's then ready to go the next time. The other thing is the flatness on the bottom. It is not perfectly flat because this an authentic hand hammered wok. All I did was put it right side up on a flat piece of wood and hammer the bottom around the edge until it was flat. No big deal...problem solved. Now I have an awesome authentic hand hammered wok that is flat on the bottom and perfectly seasoned with a non stick surface.

I bought this wok for daily use. I wanted cast iron but my mother is 72 and living with us and the iron was just too heavy. The non-stick has chemicals plus she's destroyed a few sets cooking with forks and whatnot. I decided on this one because it seemed to be quality, chemical-free, lighter than cast iron and the two handles give her added touchpoints for moving it around.I included before and after photos of my wok for reference. #1 brand new, #2 After seasoning 3 rounds it was this golden color #3 after cooking spam and eggs. The seasoning is beautiful and I expect it will be a beautiful deep color in the next year. Actually cooking with it seems to be the ticket. You can season your heart out but unless you go with the grill like one guy you will just have to gradually build up to greatness.As it's made by people and not machines your's (as mine) is not exactly falt, but it's flat enough. Added bonus it does tend to spin on my flat enamel cooktop so no more reaching to the back of the pan, I actually think this is great but some may not prefer. According to my 10-year-old it also "bobbles" a bit. In this, I mean that it has a bit of a shimmy on the hot eye due to the way heat waves interact with it. Again not a problem for me and not too pronounced.I am excited to see what changes time and use bring.

It's an ok wok, but it's not ideal for induction. The flat bottom isn't really flat, it's somewhat rounded, which means on an induction cooktop it does not work so well. I tested it on my cooktop and while it did heat up, it didn't heat up very efficiently and the wok would wobble all over the top since it's really only resting on a small point of the wok rather than the whole bottom. an induction top isn't really that great for a wok to begin with (unless you happen to have an induction top specifically made for a wok) so if the bottom isn't perfectly flat it's going to make it even less efficient.I've attached two photos, one showing how much of the wok bottom is actually touching the stove top and the other showing how unevenly it heats up. The darkened areas are the only areas that got really hot after leaving it on the stove on the highest setting for a few minutes.

This thing is so bad! I followed the instructions on how to season it the first time. After using,I wash it with warm soapy water and season it again and again but the result is the same...rusty.Worst is the kids who ate the food cooked from this wok got sick.One of them throw up right after eating and the other has bad diarrhea..To top it all,the food smells like iron.

This is an excellent carbon steel wok. Even high octane restaurants use $20 woks as these are ancient cooking tools that will cook anything... And must be properly seasoned. I chose to season my wok using outdoor grill like nomads would. Used coconut oil, seasoned 4 times, and didn't fill my kitchen with smoke. (Photos added) This is a wok yet my first meal I used it as a skillet...beef stroganoff using induction cooktop... Superb. Clean up with hot water in minutes. Acid test was scrambled eggs with cheese and sour cream. Again using induction, @176 until almost done. The @212 degrees to finish. Perfect and absolutely zero food sticking. Water cleanup in 2 minutes. Bottom of wok isn't perfectly flat however it doesn't effect cooking on my induction cooktop and I roll my food as I cook. Well made ancient traditional cooking tool, hammered and rivet handles well set. I'll gladly add the love and preserve the craftsmanship of this wok for many years to come

Poorly made. Handle rivets are loose and when wok was stamped into shape wasn't centered on the die so its lopsided.

After doing a lot of wok research I have found that contrary to the conventional logic of paying more to get a better product that is not what you want to do when purchasing a wok. Teflon can melt/sublimate into unhealthy gases at high temperatures. Cast iron takes far too long to heat up on a conventional stove and won't give you the pinpoint temperature control that you want while working with a wok.You will have to SEASON this wok before you use it. I prefer the oven method since it is easy and very effective (search y-tube: "Walking you through seasoning a Wok"). A lot of videos show trickier gas range methods that my electric range certainly can't achieve - the oven method is completely idiot proof and very quick. This is a FLAT BOTTOM wok and is optimal for use on a ELECTRIC RANGE since a round bottom can reflect heat back onto the burner. Due to the thin steel I doubt this would work well on induction. UPDATE - Another person reports good function with induction (see below). If you have a gas range you want to go with a round bottom wok and wok ring.I give it 4 out of 5 because at $20 it isn't an amazing deal given the obvious stamped nature of this wok. The handles are well fastened and it isn't perfectly flat on the bottom but it works well.