Taipan — Restaurant in Central Milton Keynes

The service was unacceptable. It was an extremely busy New Years service which I take into account when writing this review. I understand the immense pressure you were under and many other people must have been in a similar position waiting for their food. However, the food came 1.5hours later than it said it would arrived. I would have been fine with the wait if you had told me this would be how long I would have to wait in the first place. The original delivery time was 8:50pm, which then changed to 9:20pm. Okay fine. It’s busy. Come 9:30pm. I try to ring the restaurant. Constantly engaged...fine. This is expected but then when it does ring there’s no one picking up the phone. 10 minutes of this and eventually someone picks up. The lady tells me the food has been sent out for delivery driver and the driver is making their way round. She tells me she reckons 15 minutes until my food arrives. Come 9:50pm. 1 hour after original delivery time. Still nothing. It takes me another 10 minutes to get through on phone again. The guy tells me sorry for delay we are really busy. And he tells me these words ‘my food has just left the building and the driver is just delivering it now’. So why did the lady before tell me it was already on the way??? She lied to me or was there some kind of mistake? The guy tells me the driver is delivering now. Be about another 15minutes maybe. Fine. 10:10pm arrives still nothing. Another 10 minutes of trying to get through on phone. The dude apologises again. Tells me the driver should be there soon. Finally at 10:25pm the food arrives. Lukewarm at best. AND they got my order wrong. Gave me char Sui pork instead of crispy belly 😱. Tried to ring back for around 15mins after this. By 10:45pm I gave up! Like I said. If you had told me there would be a 1.5 hour plus delay in the first place I would have accepted this. However, don’t lie and say my food is nearly there when it clearly wasn’t. I know this for a fact because the last time I got through on the phone the same guy tells me he will add a bottle of wine as compensation. If my food left with the delivery driver ages ago...how can he still over me the wine which came with my food 1.5 hours later??? I didn’t want the wine told him to take it back. That whole ordeal was a joke and taipan should not be taking orders if they can’t cope. Food that did arrive was really nice if not a little cold. Terrible...

Like a previous reviewer, we were concerned at the 1-Star Food Standards rating! This rating was given in August '18, almost a year prior to this review.

Initially we decided to go elsewhere for a Sunday early evening meal (Banana Tree). However, after a poor service, no beer on tap available (that they advertise in their menu), and exorbitant prices for a 330ml bottle of beer (£4.50), we promptly left!

Concerned with the rating, but aware it was a year previous and the reviews are generally very positive, we thought we'd tempt Taipan. We're glad we did.

The food was very tasty, the meat was succulent and not overcooked, and it all tasted very fresh. There were an awful lot of Chinese customers which we felt spoke volumes about the authenticity and flavours of the food.

Pricing was fairly steep in my opinion. We were a couple with a toddler and between the 2.5 of us had:

1x bowl of crackers (pre-drinks/starters) 3x (cans?) of 330ml beer 1x Coke 1/4 Duck (Starter) Chicken Satay (Starter) Chicken Sweet & Sour (Main) Lemon Chicken (Main) Chicken Curry (Main) 1x Egg Fried Rice

The total came to £73

As mentioned, the food was great - none of us had any feelings of being unwell after the meal or this morning, not even the usual 'msg hangover'. I can only assume that the food preparation standards have increased since the poor review.

The staff were friendly and attentive and we'd certainly attend again, but only for 'special occasions' rather than as a Sunday evening treat as it's pretty expensive. Opposite is a more buffet-style chinese restaurant, which no doubt would have been both less expensive, but most likely much less tasty. I think the satay and lemon chicken dishes at Taipan were as good as any we've ever had anywhere!

So in summary, 4-stars, not 5-stars as the food standard rating is still low and the...

I always go here whenever I find myself in Milton Keynes, and I can usually find an excuse to go once every month... seeing I live some 35 miles away! Ikea is some 10 mins drive away and of course you have several Milton Keynes malls nearby.

Taipan is a traditional Cantonese lunch and dinner restaurant which means the menu serves steamed/ fried and deep fried dimsum during lunch. At night, steamed/ stewed/ stir-fried/ grilled dishes.

Of course you can also order the crowd-pleasing, British-Chinese takeaway staples as well like deep fried seaweed, sweet and sour chicken, beef with blackbean sauce during both lunch and dinner... But honestly I reserve these for my cheeky local and I only ever come here for an authentic taste of Hong Kong!

If you are a Cantonese diner like me or you have spent time in Hong Kong, you'd know that the chef here is the real deal, making the ever time consuming and skill demanding dimsums for lunch, and perfectly authentic, wholesome and nostalgic Cantonese dishes.

My favourites are the deep fried Yam croquettes (woo gok), yellow skinned prawn and pork dumplings (siu mai), roast pork sweet Pastry (char siu so), preserved winter vegetables and belly pork stew (mui choi kao yuk). The deep fried steamed egg (yuk tsz tofu) dishes are good too.

What I like about this place is that it is no frills: Good food, no msg (or so little that it eludes my palate), clean, attentive and efficient service. For two people, we usually spend about £50-60 per meal, and we do order generously.

Another plus is that it is easy to find a...