Great Taste Bakery & Restaurant — Restaurant in Boston

The service here was okay, and the food came out pretty quickly, but the ambience and flavors of the food left a bit to be desired.

This is one of those old-time, small Chinese restaurants with the mirrors on the walls to make the interior appear larger, where the staff are speaking loudly and yelling at each other within earshot, adding to the old-school "charm". Takes me back to my childhood, but not altogether in the best way.

The big draw for Great Taste is that they serve dim sum all day. They're one of the only places that do, which is why we chose it. We figured if they're making dim sum that frequently, they're going to be pretty good at it after all that practice!

So we ordered many different dishes. Here's the low-down for each:

Deep fried pork dumplings: EXCELLENT. Good, rich, multi-layered flavor, cooked to perfect, mouth-scorching, lava-like temperature. Perfect with dipping sauce and hot chili oil. I could have eaten JUST these and left perfectly satisfied.

Char siu bao: decent, not a ton of filling. Dough was fluffy and slightly sweet, light and airy, but filling was a bit too saucy, even though there wasn't very much of it. Not the best I've ever eaten, but not the worst either.

Bean curd wrapped pork and vegetables: a little bit of a strange flavor and texture - the bean curd was right, but the pork inside was a little too dense, like it had been pressed for a long time.

Chinese sausage roll: GREAT. The dough was beautifully puffed, light, sweet, and delicious - I think same dough as for the char siu bao. It might have been a bit nicer to eat if maybe the lapsung inside was sliced or diced and mixed with some egg and wood ear to make it a bit more umami - it was just the log of Chinese sausage stuffed into each steamed roll, so not a lot of complexity - but overall, this was pretty satisfying, since the lapsung was good quality.

Turnip cake: GOOD, came out light and piping hot after being fried to perfection - be careful and don't burn your mouth like we did with the molten, jelly-like interior because we were too impatient. You will need dipping sauce of some sort for this, as the flavor is very, very mild. More of a carrier for savory sauces of different kinds.

Molten egg bun: very sweet and very runny. Could only eat one, really.

Shrimp and chive dumpling: not good. The flavor seemed a bit off and the shrimp inside was overcooked to rubber.

Steamed taro dumplings: a little odd texture, kind of powdery inside towards the bottom, which I was not expecting, and which made it a bit of an unpleasant experience at the end when I got to the bit, even though it started out promisingly.

Ma po tofu: not made traditionally, flavors were just meh. Had some strange additions like bamboo shoot, maybe some bell peppers? Sliced pork instead of ground, no Szechwan flavor, very one-note.

Service was decent, but would not...

Well as you can see it's called great taste barkery. This place however left me and my partner with a bad one. We went there thinking we could get a quick bite to eat before catching a bus but was met with almost no service and glares. As other costumers came in and were served in almost an immediate fashion. We sat there ready to order before any of them and they kept checking on anyone else but us. Then I realized it's probably because me and my partner aren't Asian like all the other costumers. the waitress even gave us the wrong food which was shrimp dumplings tho we marked on the paper next to the pork which wasn't even next to the shrimp on the menu. Im by the way mildly allergic to shrimp so I mentioned that and they said next time don't order the shrimp and pork dumplings as it was somehow the magical food item we didn't pick but somehow ordered off the "secret menu". She was so rude and didn't even offer to make our order right we were in a rush and we stayed as polite as possible tho they were so rude. When I got the check I didn't want to leave a tip because of this terrible service, but the waitress was like "no tip?" And I gave them a to dollar one and calmly woke out feeling that this indeed was the most maybe racist experience I've had in a long long time . If you are a mixed race couple or not Asian don't waste your time with this place it will only treat you like you never...

Terrible service.

I was supposed to have lunch with my friend there. she got caught up in the traffic and wasn’t able to arrive on time. When I got to the restaurant, there was an empty table for two persons. A few minutes after I sat down and was served tea, the two customers sitting at the table next to me finished their food and left. Suddenly another waitress came to me and told me that I had to give up my seat. According to her, a family of four arrived earlier than I did, and they should sit at this table (since two other customers left and now there are three other empty places at this table). I tried to argue that when I arrived, there was only a table of two, and it was only because the staff were slow in service that I did not place my order by this time. But of course she did not listen. And instead, she rushed me to stand up and asked me to wait at the door.

I waited for a few more minutes until there was another empty table for two persons. Again, one waitress tried to sit me there. Another one soon came and asked me when my friend was going arrive. She told me that I couldn’t sit at this table if I still needed to wait for someone. Considering there wasn’t any tables for one person, I’m just now wondering if they turn down all the customers who come by themselves.

Anyways, it was a very unpleasant experience and I definitely would never...