This Lorne Street restaurant serves up delicious traditional Chinese cuisine along with juices and herbal teas.
The dishes that receive special commendation here are the eggplant and the stir fried chicken, while the sweet and sour pork is described as some of the best in town.
If you're on the hunt for a cheap, quick and easy lunch that's sure to satisfy, Taste of China is a great place to find yourself.
A review from journalist and avid foodie, Lincoln Tan
For five years Jane Yu has been working long hours managing two restaurants in the city centre. Her motivation has never been about the money, she says, but driven by the fact that she gets to share flavours from her hometown with diners.
Originally from Yangzhou in China’s Jiangsu Province, Jane recommends dishes close to her heart to all who ask when they come to Taste of China on Lorne Street. “When I first moved to New Zealand, I was quite angry when I tried the sweet and sour pork from Chinese takeaways here. I feel like they are an insult to Chinese cuisine,” she says.
Among Jane’s recommendations are always the Jiangsu-style sweet and sour pork dishes, classic braised pork belly and she’ll also likely steer you towards having the tofu with egg yolk and shrimp instead of the more popular mapo tofu.
There is a deep history with Jiangsu cuisine, tracing back to the Qin and Han Dynasties (202BC - 220AD) when Yangzhou in Jiangsu was an administrative region and food like the braised pork was created. When the Grand Canal which connected the North and South of China opened, cooking skills were improved in Jiangsu and developed distinctive flavours.
Jiangsu cuisine is recognized as one of eight culinary traditions of China, and it is not widely available at restaurants here. The flavours are mostly lightly sweet, which are derived mainly from the original flavour of food ingredients. This culinary philosophy applies at Taste of China, where the traditional Jiangsu sweet and sour pork fillet is a clear stand out with its incredibly crispy exterior and well-balanced sweet-sour sauce. Unlike most places, no tomato-based sauce is used here but rather vinegar and natural ingredients to bring out the tangy flavours and sweetness. The classic braised pork belly was as authentic as it gets, with pork meat and fats braised for several hours till melt-in-your-mouth soft.
Taste of China’s menu is broad - offering everything from dim sum, hotpots to noodle. But for me, and I have to agree with Jane, the best of the offerings has to be the flavours from Jiangsu.
$2 per hour to a max of $12 on weekends and a $12 flat rate for weekday evenings at The Civic car park. Find out more.
Last updated:
15 April 2024
