Chopsticks 101 — Restaurant in South Island

Hands down best Chinese restaurant I’ve ever had the delight to eat at, highlights be maos braised pork belly, hot pot, stone pot. Tooooo good. Wish Auckland had one of these, this’ll always have a special place in my heart.

Any of their szuchuan dishes are a great option. I've had their szuchuan pork belly which was delicious and the pork intestines. Both meats were very tender and easy to chew, flavorsome and a good portion size.

I've also had a tofu vegetable stir fry which was decent. No wow factor, the tofu was soft and there was a satisfactory amount of it compared to the vegetables.

(Also recommend mao's braised pork belly! there's one with rice and the pork belly is still such a generous portion-so worth! The pork is pretty delicious, best right there and then, and it also has pickled vegetables on the bottom of the dish, such a yummy accompaniment!)

Decided to opt out of my comfort zone and ordering something different from my usual choices of pork belly! Ordered the sliced lamb hot pot with Chinese medicinal herbs and it was definitely a goodie. The lamb was tender and soft to chew, and the tofu was a perfect solidness-not too firm but not fall apart soft either, and stayed well intact when I picked it up with my chopsticks. Other accompanies bits were bok Choy which were a little tough and two pieces were very dry (at the top), a few sweet Chinese dates (yummy not dry!), and bamboo shoot pieces throughout. They were a nice addition, but the flavor of the soup really carried the meal through. The soup was full of flavor and really well paired with lamb, it was sweet yet ever so slightly tinged with a hint of the distinct traditional medicinal herb flavor-dare I say bitter? Definitely worth trying if you're a fan of lamb hot pot. The meal was a generous portion for the price and definitely worth. It could've been separated into two meals but I was greedy and ate it all. My friend got the kimchi pork hot pot, and let me try a bit-the kimchi flavor was slightly spicy and sour, a delicious awakening for the taste buds, however the pork had a 'strong pork taste' and was a bit tougher than I was expecting (more so than the lamb) and did not hold my attention as much. Still delicious, but if the pork was more tender I would've rated higher.

Eggplant with mince and salty fish is also a...

Serviceable food in large portions at low cost. Great value if you're a student on a budget and in need of a feed; set menu goes for $65 for two people with is a 7 item taster menu + a carb of choice (fried noodles vs. rice), but you could easily feed 3 with it.

Unfortunately cost-efficiency is about all this place has going for it. Flavours can be somewhat Westernized, although I will say the tofu and claypot meals are actually pretty good, all things considered. This is fair enough, considering it's in Dunedin, but international visitors hoping for a taste of home may be disappointed.

6/10 wouldn't come again.

P.S. I don't usually comment on this in a restaurant, but because the place is clearly struggling (there's only so many conceivable reasons I can think for a restaurant to request guests to turn the lights off in the bathroom on leaving, and the most charitable assumption is a mix between saving on energy bills and attempting to be green, as well as for the restaurant to be entirely self-service for water and cutlery), I'll also add this: The decor could desperately use an upgrade; it looks like the place hasn't been updated in about 30-40 years, and it definitely feels its age...I'd never advocate for breaking the bank renovating, but investing a little change to the lighting would go a big, BIG way. Right now it feels like the place is dimmed down so I can't see the carpet stains and because you couldn't get fresh light bulbs; you want things to seem cozy and intimate, not like you're trying to hide things in the shadows. I'd happily have paid more if the place felt like a more comfortable spot to relax in, and I imagine I'm not alone...

A brilliant all rounder that offers a huge menu so everyone in your group has something they’d like. I was recommended Chopsticks 101 by my family who said it was their favourite cheap Chinese place to go to in Dunedin. The decor and the outside of the restaurant was promising (classic menus plastered on the glass windows, plain green chairs, self service cutlery and water).

We ordered the BBQ Pork and Shrimp fried rice, Beef Chow Fun, Beef Hotpot and some pork dumplings as a side.

It was all fantastic, with my personal favourite being the Beef hotpot. It was served over a small gas warmer and contained thin slices of fatty beef, fish balls, Napa cabbage, and tofu and came with a side of rice. I was surprised that the simple looking beef broth was flavourful and had some lovely warm spices. I ended up eating up the broth at the end of the meal with the rice.

The fried rice was perfection, there was nothing to change about it. The BBQ pork was tender, the shrimp was cooked so it was bouncy and soft. There weren’t any unnecessary vegetables and just contained the good old basics that a great Chinese fried rice needed.

The best part of Chopsticks 101 is the price. It’s hard to find a cheap but quality dine in restaurant in other cities such as Wellington. But Dunedin seems spoiled for options. Most dishes were ranged from $12-17 dollars and they definitely fed more than one person.

They also do a meal stamp system where every dish you order gets you a loyalty stamp which means with enough you’ll get a free meal after a few visits.

This place is truly the epitome of great Asian...