right in the heart of market square, taste gallery does the one aspect right which makes market square such a mecca for chinese cuisine. it does it right, and it does it authentically. by authentic, most of these places are not the best on aesthetics or looks but get a certain chaos with eating in chinatown done down pact. however, there is still room for the more caring, higher-quality, fine dining experiences which the cuisine can offer.
taste gallery aims to have the entire philosophy of chinese cooking present. this is a triangle of diverse colour, aromatic flavour, and taste par excellence. all three must be present all the time. even though it was not a big lot that was ordered, it was all present in the amount that was eaten that night.
i managed to meet up with my friend again, and with some pre-planning i asked her about market square and whether she had been there. the plan was to introduce her to one of the best dining precinct, and chinese cuisine like no other in town. well, she had but this was a good, effective area in the southern part of town for some of the cheaper places to eat. as with any real visit to somewhere here, it was done on the fly - so taste gallery was basically chosen then and there as a crapshoot. like so many places in sunnybank, it provided some good quality fare, that was tasty, exciting and filling. chalk this up as another success.
one of the best aspects of it is the interior design. it is one of those designs where it has a fancy aesthetic which still retains simplicity. a lot of golden light is used against a sleek dark slate background, and the seating is low key. it is a fair deal cleaner and more atmospheric than many of its other competitors. this has the more modern look, maintaining a classic feel not detracting from the basic aspects of fine dining.
the service is a tad better than normal than what you normally get from around market square and its adjacent precincts, though it is still with that sense of lacking the human touch - they take your order, don't really come across as friendly, though ultimately the food is delivered really quickly; something is being done right with this system. you're here purely for the food, not anything else. when going here, everything more or less came out at once - that is something i actually like more so to be honest.
taste gallery does a range of items, a very big lot as usual. it contains a mixture of a la carte and yum cha. as with any self-respecting chinese place, and especially one that does yum cha, it does all kinds of dim sum - all the expected greats are present here. going onto the main dishes, the choices are a range of traditional favourites, diverse and without any compartmentalisation in the categories - there are plenty of seafood options (market price for the most part), and it is mostly based on the cuisine of shanghai. there is also dessert and drinks available - plenty of tea, bubble and hot, yogurt, juices and wine. some places you go for a meal, some other places you go for a good meal, or maybe a night out - this place is the latter. because it was not a very busy restaurant at the time, they probably were not doing yum cha at the time. if it is as good as people say it is, and the quality of the food being any indication from this night - well, then the yum cha will need to be tried out sometime.
starting off, it was drinks as usual. as far as asian places go, this is a bit strange as often the drinks are at the end of the ordering process. regardless, i went for a bubble tea: coffee milk with jelly (pearls were out - dammit). this was not too bad. it was served as the usual style - takeaway cup with a giant straw to suck up the goodies down the bottom. it was smooth, cool and the jelly down the bottom was a mixture of colours and cube-shaped. i can't lie, these drinks are always a treat.
even if it were not during the yum cha period, i still find it a bit of a missed opportunity not to sample at least one or two of the items from the menu under that category. going for a good bet, the selected item was their pan-fried stuffed dumplings. these were filled with the classic combination of pork and prawn, and a few other items i cannot remember. they were fantastic, hot and freshly cooked, plump and with plenty of filling that has natural flavours seeping out.
as for what particular meals to order, it is a small understatement to say that choosing from the selection is difficult. it takes a whole lot of discussion, and with the very different kinds of meals that are available, you don't want to end up with several kinds that are too similar. there is a reason these places are best for bigger groups, and that things are shared.
my friend went for the salt and pepper pork spare ribs, not a bad choice. these were deep fried, and crisp and served on a bed on onion, spices, chili and salt. that was probably purely decorative, but it did add to the flavour a lot. the meat itself was also good. there was plenty of it, and the pork was tender and juicy in a well-done coating. pretty much a dish to be grazed, and due care was given nonetheless.
what i got was their braised new zealand mussels with chili sauce. to make it all the better, the mussels were served in their shells. even though only a few things were tried from this menu, by all means these will go down as a recommended dish. these guys were fairly big, and there were about a dozen of them. the mussel meat was sweet, juicy and tender - none of the slimy or off-taste that some might associate with the shellfish. simply put, the combination was also simple, yet quite effective. more so, the classic way of eating a mussel was more than encouraged.
well, it is hard to say about whether taste gallery can rest among the best and highest quality yum cha locations just on this basis. the few types of food ordered were really good, and made with high quality ingredients which created fantastic and distinct flavours. when it is at its peak time, i have faith that this might be one of the highlights - and there are many - in market square and it is worth a look.