Adam C.
Yelp
The reviews that complain about the prices at Taste of China simply do not understand what it costs these days for a restaurant to consistently turn out top-quality food using top-quality ingredients.
You go to McDonald's, you pay X for a double cheeseburger, you eat it, and it fills some space in your stomach without too much complaint from your palate.
You go to In-n-Out Burger, you pay 2X for a double cheeseburger that tastes 4 times better, you eat it, it truly satisfies your palate, and it gives you something to recommend when your mates ask "Where should we go to eat?"
So why would anyone in their right mind go to a prestige burger joint and pay 5X for a truly great double cheeseburger that is 20 times better than McDonalds? Simple: BECAUSE IT'S TWENTY TIMES BETTER THAN MCDONALD'S!
If you've spent your entire life eating McDonald's then that $17 double cheeseburger will give you Sticker Shock, but it's not like you didn't see the price before you ordered it, right?
That doesn't seem to be the case with some reviewers of Taste of China. The ones who complain the loudest didn't do the Napkin Math before ordering, or they didn't ask what the Market Price was that day. That isn't the restaurant's fault, it's theirs.
And as for the quality of the food, NEVER listen to ANY review based on takeaway (take out) orders, because all takeaway food is ruined by the time it reaches the hapless customer. Trapped high-humidity heat overcooks the food, condensation of that vapor drips off the cover into the food and waters it down, it turns Crispy into Soggy and Crunchy into Squish, it waters down the delicious glazes so they drip off the food into the bottom of the container into a watery soup, and it is not the optimum temperature as served in the restaurant.
Enough said about misguided reviewers. And now for a NOT misguided reviewer who has been to Taste of China many times.
Taste of China is a lovely restaurant with excellent food that is reasonably-priced within its elevated culinary tranche. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for "the Chinese restaurant where mostly Chinese people go" to share a feast with their friends, family, and colleagues.
The table next to us had 13 very pleased diners with many, many dishes -- or emptied serving platters, I should say. The rest of the restaurant patrons were Chinese, too. We were the only white, black, and biracial people there. So many indicators of excellence!
My son and I thoroughly enjoyed the Xiangtan Spicy Stir-Fried Pork and the Cumin Beef.
My wife, who runs screaming if you even so much as show her a picture of a hot pepper, thoroughly enjoyed the Sweet and Sour Pork Chops and the Mongolian Beef, as did my son and I, even though it didn't have the hot spices we love.
We all shared the Fried Pork Dumplings, which were perfectly crisp and the fillings savory and aromatic with the perfect amount of salt.
And a special note about the rice. In most Chinese restaurants, the person who draws the Short Straw has to make the rice, which is an eye-rolling burden to them: in the big rice cooker dump in rice to about here, pour in water to about there, close the lid, push the button. What comes out is, undeniably, rice. It's just poorly made rice.
The rice at Taste of China was cared for. Someone made it with a precise process and a choice rice that was washed just the right amount, carefully measured, and cooked with the exact amount of water specified in their recipe.
I can taste the evidence of it consistently every time I dine there. They really do care about the quality of the rice they cook and serve. It's the perfect balance of separate grains, just the right amount of adherence to each other to make eating with chopsticks easy, and a texture that isn't soggy like it is in every other Chinese restaurant.
$110 plus a $28 tip for a $138 total, for a meal and service that was a pure delight on my 63rd birthday.
Taste of China is now our go-to default restaurant when we either want Chinese food or can't decide what kind of food we want. That way we are guaranteed a delicious meal every time.
Thank you, Master Chef, for the best quality food. You have proved that talent and experience have great worth, and you stand out from the culinary crowd.
And thank you, Wenjie and Junyi, for your outstanding service. Quality service really helps make the meal a delight rather than a frustration.
I really do hope you'll visit Taste of China when you want a truly great experience at a price that is fair to everyone.