Jason P.
Yelp
When you get married and you start making joint food decisions, certain types of restaurants become less of a priority. I ate Chinese food with much greater frequency before I was married, but Chinese is not one of my wife's favorite cuisines.
There was a time when I thought of Great Taste as one of the better Chinese restaurants in the Greater Hartford area, but it's been years since I've been there, through no fault of GT's. I always thought of GT as a dine in place, and most of my Chinese meals now are lunchtime takeout since I'm looking for solo convenience. Today, I ordered takeout of the Happy Family lunch special, the hot and sour soup and an egg roll.
Great Taste is one of the fancier Chinese restaurants in the Greater Hartford area. I remember service being very welcoming and professional, and I saw that again in my limited interactions today.
Generally speaking, my meal was very good, but some parts were better than others. I forgot how good Great Taste's egg rolls are. I can't think of an area Chinese restaurant egg roll I like better than Great Taste's. It had a fantastic crispy outside. I'm no expert on egg roll filling construction, but whatever Great Taste does, that is my favorite style of egg roll. I don't know if the minced red stuff is pork or some type of Chinese sausage. Whenever I see that color, I know I'll love the egg roll. It didn't even need sauce.
The Sweet and Sour Soup was above average. It had nice flavor and was full of typical S&S ingredients.
The Happy Family Special was mostly very good. Many meals are about eliminating what can go wrong. For instance, if you have a good piece of salmon, just don't overcook it and you'll be alright. In that sense, Great Taste did their job. The veggies, which included broccoli, carrots, onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, pea pods, water chestnuts and baby corn were cooked just right. The shrimp and roast pork were also cooked properly. Some of the chicken pieces, however, were chewy. The sauce had a good consistency and flavor too. It was slightly sweet and salty, without being soupy.
The fried rice was just OK for me. I find I rarely love fried rice when it is yellow like Great Taste's. I don't know why, but it's true.
I don't presently have an area Chinese restaurant that makes everything I like in the exact way that I like. For this reason, I think my lunch from Great Taste was about as good as any other I've had from an area Chinese restaurant in a while. I would definitely go back for takeout or dine in.
Four Stars