Eating Out: Mainland China (Near ITC Kakatiya)

If you are new to the city and looking for Chinese food, this will be one of the upmarket restaurants that will be commonly recommend alongside with Aromas of China (at City Centre) or Golden Dragon (at Hotel Taj Krishna).

Almost full marks goes to their ambience with traditional Chinese music in the background and two big terracotta looking soldiers standing at the entrance. Furniture is in dark modern wood and gives a new and trendier feel to it.

Service is great as most of the servers and managers speak English well enough to explain clearly what is the difference between the four different types of fried noodles. Small things like offering Chinese tea proactively and asking if you require chopsticks shows that the staff is attentive.

Food wise, of course it is still not authentic Chinese but they certainly have got some dishes right. On our first visit, we were skeptical about their choices of Dim Sum on the menu.They had the usual hak kow, siu mai, spring rolls amongst other choices but of course, as there is no pork, the choice is between chicken, prawns or vegetarian filling. Too bad they have no chang fen (steamed rice rolls) else it really would be perfect!

What is siu mai without the pork filling? But we were glad that we ordered the prawn filling siu mai to try because it was actually good! The skin of the siu mai is ordinary but the taste of the prawn filling passes the mark. Dim Sum is one of the reason why we return to occasionally on a Sunday afternoon to kind of try to replicate the Yum Cha feeling.

I was rather amused by their interpretation of certain Chinese dishes. For one, the stir fry Singapore Rice Noodles is a simply a spicy version of the Cantonese Rice Noodles. When we ordered claypot rice on another occasion, it was fried rice served in a claypot that was not even hot and of course was more pricey than the regular fried rice.

Overall, I do not really fault them for certain dishes that are off the mark as this is India. Most main course portions are good for sharing between two people and with one/ two starters to share, it is a satisfying meal.