Taste of Chengdu 成都味道 — Restaurant in Orlando

Taste of Chengdu 2030 W Colonial Dr., Orlando, FL 32804

5 Stars

As I was in O-town on other business and hungry, I popped in some parameters to my trusty random name generator and was greeted with a Taste of Chengdu blinking back at me. For those unfamiliar with Chinese geography, Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province. You know it's going to be spicy!

I arrived moments before the regular lunch crowd started piling in and, without an ounce of folie du doute, got to work perusing the menu. Glancing up, I noticed the place filling up with Asian patrons, speaking what I assumed was Chinese. This is a good sign. If you are in an ethnic food joint and the diners are all of that ethnicity, you know the grub is going to be tasty!

Joy was my waitstaff today, and not to get all cheesy, but it was a joy to be in her section, as she was outstanding in every way possible. I asked for an order of their pickled cabbage soup, diced rabbit, pork dumplings, the House dry wok, and some slow-cooked pork belly. As Joy removed herself to place my order, I relaxed in the welcoming atmosphere.

Before too long, Joy returned with my foodstuff and forcing myself to snap some pictures I dug in with great anticipation. Everything looked and more importantly, smelled out of this world. I started my gastronomical journey today with a sample of their Pickled Cabbage and sliced fish filet with traditional Chinese cellophane noodles. While I did find this somewhat lacking in flavor, it was prepared correctly. It just might be not to my taste. Turning my attention to the diced rabbit, I promptly loaded up a forkful and plopped it in my mouth. Savoring the flavors like a sommelier sampling a Williams and Selyem Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, I took my time as the flavors dribbled around my palate. This was outstanding! The rabbit was tender, and the Sichuan Mala sauce was abundantly flavorful, with just enough heat to remind you of whence it comes. Kudos!

Taking a bite of the pork dumplings, I knew I was in the right place. These were fresh, made to order, and again, outstanding! What a treat! The dumpling was perfectly cooked and nestled in an ambrosial sauce. The same can be said for the last item up for review today, the slow-cooked pork belly. This was thinly sliced pork belly, slow cooked and served with cucumber in a minced garlic and chili sauce. I am sure all sauces are made by their own Le Saucier and whoever it was on FIRE! This sauce, like the others, was complex, flavorful, subtle and hot all at once. I am in awe.

The Big Boy says, “Tely's is damn close, but Brevard will NEVER have a Chinese restaurant this good as we just don't have the demanding clientele...

I’ve been to this place three times before and never had any issues. However my husband and I went here last night as we just got home from a business trip and were craving Chinese food. We got there at 9:55pm and they close at 10:30pm. My husband ordered the usual things we always order and we always make it spicy as we both enjoy spicy foods. The older woman who has taken our orders before kept telling us to not order spicy foods as it is bad for our stomach and bad for digestion… uhm excuse me? I didn’t ask to be lectured and I’m the customer if I want something spicy just make it spicy. End of story. My husband had to repeat it over and over that we wanted it that way as she wouldn’t listen to us. She said the pork belly can’t be made spicy even though they have done that every time we went there prior to this time. Then she kept pushing him to order other things other than the things we wanted to order which was so bizzare. Like if I want to order food let me pick out my own food I’m the one paying! Not you! She also judged us for ordering so much food (I mean if I owned a restaurant I’d be happy to have someone order $200 worth of food) but I digress. She kept loitering constantly around our table and asking weird personal questions. She asked if I was white to my husband in Chinese and didn’t ask me that😂 then she asked if I was American to my husband again and kept asking if I really like spicy food many times. LIKE YES I LIKE SPICY FOOD EVEN THOUGH IM WHITE! Extremely racist! We felt very uncomfortable to say the least. We finished the food before they closed and waited for them to give us to go boxes so we could leave before closing but they didn’t come over till 10:30pm. It took them 2 minutes to box up the food and we were out the door by 10:32pm. On the way out she said to my husband in Chinese that we should “come earlier next time”. I thought that was backhanded and rude as we actually were finished before closing but they were taking awhile to box up our food and give us the check. Also we literally would have came sooner if it wasn’t for our flight that was delayed due to a huge thunderstorm so we didn’t really have a way to work around the timing. Either way it was disrespectful and I wouldn’t come back here. I don’t go to a restaurant to get lectured and for them to ask me personal questions as well as telling ME what to order and I kept repeating saying “no I don’t want that” but she wouldn’t listen. Very...

I would rate this place zero stars if I could. When we walked in, it reeked the scent of urine, which immediately puts me and my family off.

However, the most appalling part of this entire experience is when the waitress guided us to our table, and we asked for a booth instead. She seemed confused and was like okay! have a seat anywhere you want. Keep in mind, we were the ONLY table there, so we took our seat at a random booth as a table of four. As we sat down and opened our menu, we suddenly hear the waitress, in very loud Chinese, tell another other waitress "I told the customers to sit at table 13, but they refused to no matter how much I asked" . For the Chinese readers out there, the actual translation is " I told that table to sit at table thirteen, but they rather die than sit there."

I was so appalled when I heard that I had to turn to my sister who was there as well to confirm what I was hearing, and she was equally wordless. We ordered, and when the food came out in 2 minutes, I knew something was wrong. The food was most likely microwaved, because there was no way some dishes were done in two minutes. Im not even exaggerating. 2 minutes. The cold dishes tasted okay, but the hot ones? 100% microwaved.

At the end, my father paid for our meal and tipped 18%. It was 18% too much in my opinion, but he hadn't heard what the waitresses said originally and wasn't aware. The way I look at it, the 18% is our pity tip for the day for them, since they were literally dead when we walked in.

As someone who has worked in the restaurant industry for years, I cannot imagine a better place to go for poor service.

The biggest laugh we got though was when after the waitress complained about us to the other worker in Chinese, and she came to take our order, only for my dad to order in Chinese. She was shocked. Luckily he didn't hear what she had to say.

Moral of the story, don't tell customers to sit wherever unless you don't mean...