Taste Elements Cantonese — Restaurant in Mount Hawthorn

First time to come here for a big family dinner. Venue: Street parking. Fine dining setting. Every table had a little vase of flowers. Small area and rather packed. Simple decoration. Open kitchen. Good for small and larger groups. --- 7.1/10 Service: We booked for 4 big tables (~10p /table). Probaby, that made them very busy (full house). A waiter opened the door for us when we entered. He showed our tables. Pui Er tea and water were served. The waiting time was a bit long between the first and the second dishes. Different serving times of same dishes for each table. Due to a communication issue, one chicken dish was missing. The manager did apologize. She was polite and introduced a chicken dish. She talked with our "organizer" the most, but he wasn't the boss in our family. --- 7.3/10 F&B: Chinese cuisine with innovative fusion dishes. Some dishes suit Australian's taste buds. Tailor-made menu for family's banquet, $75pp. Good presentation. Prices were the high side. Good quality of ingredients were used. Abalone with Crystal Jelly Noodles: one serve per person. Tender abalone. The noodles were slightly dry. Mixed with Japanese style sesame dressing --- 7.3/10 30 minutes later Beef Brisket in clear broth: it's not usual to have carrots in this traditional dish. White radish was sweet and soft. There were preserved vegetables 冬菜 in the soup. Beef was cut into large slices (usually in cubes) and tender. --- 7.5/10 10 minutes later Stir-fried fish slices with red onion & snoe peas: very small portion. Not enough to share with everyone (8 slices only). Fish slices were fresh and well-cooked. It's not outstanding as a whole --- 6.3/10 Sweet & Sour Pork: The pork was made into a smooth ball shape - good looking but unable to stick with the sauce. Lack of sauce. Good portion. --- 7.2/10 Steamed Rice: soft, not mushy. Served in uncover wide bowl. The rest of the rice will be cool down soon if we can't finish all rice at once. Prawns in white sauce: The sauce was very western style. Sweet sauce. Prawns were normal size. --- 7.3/10 Salt & Pepper Deep-fried Squids: large portion. Tender --- 7.5/10 Stuffed Tofu with prawn paste: with mushroom in oyster sauce --- 7.4/10 Spinach with Salted Egg, goji berries, and mushrooms: good portion and ratio. --- 7.5/10 1 chicken disappeared as poor commutation. The boys were still hungry. Odered another chicken dish Three Cups Chicken : served in hot Claypot fast. Small bite size of chicken. --- 7.4/10 Oranges: 1 wedge per person. Red Bean with Tangerine Peel & sago sweet soup: good in...

The service was impeccable. Tim (the manager) was so friendly and helpful when he recommended the menu for the night. He was very open and honest when recommending how much food should be ordered to feed the number of guests we had and he was spot on, everyone was full by the end of the meal and no food left over. I love that he didn't try to get me to order more than necessary. We ordered: Abalone with sashimi salmon and kingfish; absolutely fresh and delicious. Roast quails with chef's special seasoning; good flavour and most importantly the meat was juicy. The Lobster in xo chilli sauce with vermicelli; lobster was fresh and the dish was delicious, everyone wanted more vermicelli. Steamed barramundi with shallot and ginger; fish was fresh with overall good flavour. The bones was removed for us when it came to the table so that's a bonus. ROEI abalone crystal noodles; the noodles looked like flat rice noodles but had a more chewy texture topped with a silky creamy sauce, when eaten there's a crunch from the ROEI bursting with every bite along with abalone chunks on top. This dish was divine, I've never had a dish like it at other Chinese restaurants. I would come back for this dish. Roast goose; had crispy skins, meat was juicy. As first timers eating roast goose, we all loved it. Scotch fillet in creamy black pepper sauce; another dish that surprised me in terms of flavour. The creaminess of the black pepper sauce took the dish to another level. It was delicious! the Buddha garden claypot and black truffle fried rice was also nice. The only criticism I have is that the food came out a little slow at the beginning but the overall dining experience here was enjoyable and the price is reasonable....

My family and I had a lovely meal at Taste Elements on Saturday, and it was such a good surprise. We are from Singapore and my Dad worked in HK for a few years, so we wanted to eat good Cantonese food with local produce at least once during our vacation. The chef definitely delivered.

We had fresh, juicy Australian lobster braised with noodles, steamed tofu with truffle sauce and mushrooms (I usually think truffles are overrated but hey, my toddler ate TWO pieces of this tofu), tender and crisp fried pork ribs...even the seemingly simple fried kailan had perfect wok hei. My mother loves roast goose but we didn't pre-order it, so we ordered the roast duck instead and didn't regret it. The duck skin was so crisp, while the meat was juicy and didn't taste gamey. Lastly, I haven't had red bean with sago in SUCH a long time (ok I am way overdue for a trip to HK post-covid). I don't usually like Chinese desserts but the red bean soup wasn't super sweet and the sago added more "chew" to the whole dessert.

I must also thank the staff for accommodating our needs as my son was hungry and created a small mess around his baby chair. This restaurant is definitely going on our recco list for those looking for truly authentic Cantonese cooking, without the brusque service one usually expects from canto...