Taste Gallery, Parramatta
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Hey my loves! Okay, I know I keep slipping in and out of my bloggersphere and I don't post as frequently as I usually have in the past but things are really slowing down with uni lately. I hope this is a good sign as I look forward to having a little more free time. I did a mass edit of photos and now all I need to do is have a good day to sit down and write out the reviews. If you do want to get more frequent foodie pics and reviews, head to Instagram and give me a follow @kimmiebites! I answer all questions and always try to comment on how my dining experience was so my posts are more than just a pretty picture you scroll past on your dash! 😊
Today I'm going to take you through the time I ate lunch at Taste Gallery in Parramatta. I confess I have never eaten at any of the numerous Chinese restaurants in Parramatta outside of the Westfield Shopping Centres. So when I finally decided a cold windy day would be a great day to try something new, I was overwhelmed with choice and ended up picking one very close to the shops and featuring very fresh and colourful decor.
Taste Gallery stands out compared to the other restaurants along the strip as their shop front is undeniably flashier with their pristine food pictures and menu plastered upon the windows. I'm not sure if this place is new itself but it definitely looks so.
We head inside to find quite a decent amount of people dining at the late post lunch hour of 3pm and hope this is a telltale sign of good food = loyal customers.
The menu's are handed to us just as fast as we sit down.
The inside is simple with a few paintings on the wall and dark wooden furniture. I felt like the place had potential to have a cosier vibe but it didn't and instead was very impersonal. Also relatively quiet.
We made our order of the $12.80 lunch deal where you could choose a side dish, main dish and then receive a bowl of soup of the day. Also ordered some extra dumplings since my dining partner wasn't feeling particularly hungry - because who can turn down dumplings?
Complementary tea
I love that Taste Gallery offered hot complementary tea! Very Asian/Chinese.
What kind of baffled me though was unlike other Asian restaurants, all the tables were completely bare. No utensils, no condiments, no spices, no tissues, and no sauce bowls. I thought this to be very inconvenient as we ended up asking the waitress for extra utensils and tissues and she forgot so we had to ask again. And then there was the taste thing...
Braised Beef Noodles
Arriving steaming hot with a generous amount of thick noodles, braised beef and fresh green bok choy, this bowl of noodles was almost a dream come true. Until it came to taste. Unfortunately while this looked so good, it was so bland that I could've sworn it was just everything in plain hot water. The soup didn't have any taste. The braised beef was tender but it was also flavourless. As if all the colour was just for show. I was really unhappy with these noodles and there were no condiments on the table to even attempt to save it. Give this one a miss, guys.
Side dish: Shanghai Style Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs
Unfortunately, this was no better than the noodles above. They were served to us cold, likely to be fresh out of the fridge and I'm not sure if that's how it's meant to be served but it was definitely unpleasant. This seems to be the meat taken off the rib bones but especially after being served cold, it was nothing but tough, chewy and gelatinous. The sweet and sour sauce was also ridiculously sickening in my opinion. I believe it was too vinegary. Also a miss.
Soup of the day: Egg & Fresh Tomato Soup
I expected this soup to be served first, for instance as a starter while we were waiting for our noodles and dumplings to be made. However the staff completely forgot and we had to talk to a few of them before they understood us and realised they didn't give us soup. It was nice they gave us two bowls of soup even though the deal only gives one, but once again it's unfortunate to say the taste of this wasn't great either. The soup was luke-warm, almost cold temperature and completely bland. I could slightly taste tomato but this soup was extremely watered down. A pinch of salt could've saved the day but again, no condiments on the table and who wants to save a bowl of cold soup anyway.
Handmade Pork and Chive Dumplings, 12pc for $8.80
Quite a good price. We opted to have our dumplings boiled because usually this means they're served faster. It arrived during the middle of our meal so I'm not sure if that's okay or not as I wasn't really into it. We were really hoping these dumplings would make up for everything but they didn't. First of all the skins were REALLY thick and doughy. Second of all, let me demonstrate it to you with a picture...
... what is up with that filling! Every single dumpling on the plate had this similar ratio of filling - being predominantly chives and a tiny, stingy scatter of ground pork.
And I'm not done yet. Thirdly...
... the dumplings were SO oily.
We opted to have them boiled and so receiving a plate pooled with oil is outrageous.
So there you have it guys, I literally enjoyed none of the food here at all.
Even as we agreed the food was bad, we still really wanted to order dessert because they had fried ice cream. And fingers crossed this was old-school fried ice cream in the crumbed coconut coating as it has a nostalgic element to it over the usual pastry/spring roll wrapper fried ice cream you can get at most places these days.
Fried Ice Cream
Thank goodness I can say that there is ONE thing I enjoyed from this restaurant. Classic fried ice cream just the way we were hoping for. Nothing more and nothing less. It left us able to leave on a good note as opposed to if we left without dessert.
Overall I am extremely disappointed in the food at Taste Gallery as I couldn't find anything to like about their noodles, ribs, soup or dumplings. All which I think are really simple menu items which I should be able to judge the restaurant on. This place has some great ratings online but for me, I can't say I enjoyed my dining experience. There are many other Chinese restaurants in Parramatta and I'm sure theres another one who can cook much better food.
TL;DR:
Price: Pricey side
Quality: Bad
Service: Unattentive, forgetful
Ambience: Quiet
Taste Gallery
133 Church St,
Parramatta NSW 2150
Open 7 days a week
11AM - 10PM
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