Taste of China

No nonsense service, if you are expecting something else you will be disappointed. The food however is outstanding, especially the Sichuan dishes. They are brightly flavored and freshly prepared. My favorite dishes are the Sichuan fish with vegetables, Dan Dan noodles, Sichuan eggplant, chicken with wild peppers. The food is seriously spicy!

Food was great, service was good.
Started out with soup dumplings, which had plenty fill in them. We each got a vegetable spring roll, they were nice and fresh and crispy with a lighter coating, though we didnt get any dipping sauce for them. Husband had the honey chicken, which was well flavored. I had the dry fried eggplant. This dish is easily one of the best things I have ever eaten. Its amazing. Tons of super crispy eggplant with szechuan peppers and spring onion. It was hot and spicy and packed full of flavor.

Nothing spectacular about this place, except the services provided by one of the waitresses who served us. I found two of the three dishes (see uploaded photos) we ordered tasty. One of the most noticeable dislikes was they did not spell out price charged per dish and taxes, etc. My bill had tea written on it, so they probably charged for it for an unknown price. Now, I am not bickering over such trivial stuff, but I thought what they did was less than honest or ethical. Hope they will cease this kind of unpopular practice. So, future customers, do watch out for that.

I have been here a number of times for lunch, but decided to come for dinner last night.
This is probably the most authentic Chinese restaurant in C-​ville.
The lunch specials here are very good and consistent.
We tried the tofu and vegetables casserole style and the sesame chicken, along with an appetizer of vegetarian spring rolls. We selected the fried rice.
I really like the spring rolls– plenty of cabbage and fried just right.
The tofu was cooked perfectly and piping hot. The broccoli was cooked just right as well.
Many Chinese restaurants tend to undercook broccoli.
The sesame chicken was great as well.
Our server, while did not understand everything we said, was very attentive.
she refilled our drinks a number of times and made sure we enjoyed our meal.
The owner also came over to greet us, which was a nice touch.
I will definitely go back.

Enjoy the food and the crispy beef and all of the hot pots are excellent. Kids love the steamed dumplings. Highly recommend it!

Do not go here if you are vegan!!! I will be honest, this is the first time I have ever been blown away by a restaurant just not understanding what I was trying to tell them. My wife and I explained before we even ordered that we are vegan and can’t have egg, meat, fish sauce, honey. The waitress seemed to understand so we ordered 2 orders of chicken lo mein and an order of sweet and sour chicken for our kids (they’re not vegan) then we ordered general tso tofu and moo shu vegetable for my wife and I. We then ordered vegetable fried rice so we could save it for later.
Our food comes out and the fried rice and moo shu both have egg clearly in it. I let the waitress know and she dissappears. Thinking she is going to fix it, we wait to eat until we all have our food. We wait 15 minutes with these wrong plates sitting on our table before I finally talk to the manager. She immediately gets the moo shu taken care of but the rice continues to sit on our table. I get another manager and let her know about it and she acts like we are crazy for not wanting egg in it. At this point I have to go to the bathroom just to wash my face and cool off. I come back out and my daughter still hasn’t gotten her lo mein. At this point I give up on that and just give her the re-​take vegetable fried rice.
My wife starts to eat her food and can barely eat it. I try it and it distinctly tastes like they haven’t been cleaning there fry pans. Like they put charcoal powder in the food. I go to try my daughters rice and it is the same. At this point I thought it couldn’t get worse, then I try my tofu and something is off about it, I couldn’t tell what so I ate it. Ended up puking my guts out the next morning. Then they tried to charge me for the lo mein that they never brought me. NEVER EVER AGAIN!!! IF I COULD GIVE NO STARS I WOULD.
Lesson learned I guess, if you are vegan go to places that know what you mean when you tell them you are vegan. Royal Indian, Milan Indian, Tara Thai, Thai Fresh, are all good choices.

They have a lot dishes in menu. We ordered fish and another chef recommend. Pretty good!

Soooo irritated with this place! First off… There menu has all set prices for one size which is over $ 10 per item. Normally you can choose entrees or pint size quart size … Well not here. Then I order krab ragoon and they don’t even give me the red sweet & sour sauce, the guy just keeps handing me duck sauce when I’m explaining it to him. Agghhhh!!! I will never go back.

Good food, but overpriced for what I’m used to at a Chinese restaurant.

Food wasn’t that bad, but service wasn’t great and they have drinks in cans and no refills. For a restaurant which offers spicy food, I plan on needing a lot of drink because I like my food on the spicy side. Invest in a fountain soda machine. It will save you a lot of money in the long run and increase your profits and customer satisfaction.

Had to come all the way from Idaho to get some really good dumplings and found them here. The Lo mein was perfect also along with the service. Only complaint is that it was to much food!

3.5 stars*
Since the first time I went to Taste of China, the food quality has somewhat declined. I’m not going to comment much on service + interior since those have remained pretty much constant (typical Chinese restaurant).
Taste of China has a huge menu with lots of variety, whether you want authentic or Americanized Chinese food. My go-to’s are usually the bubble pancake, soup dumplings, dry fried eggplant, crispy beef or duck, and some type of seasonal vegetable.
The soup dumplings have definitely taken a turn in the wrong direction. The first time I came here, the skin was thinner and you could definitely tell there was soup inside. The past two times I’ve went, you could tell the skin was really thick and dry on the outside, and when you bit into it there was minimal to no soup. The eggplant is still pretty solid, but they use a heavier hand with the salt than what I remember before. Other items I’ve tried are all pretty good, but the soup dumplings/​eggplant were the biggest draw for me to come here.
Overall, I would still come here since it’s probably the most authentic Chinese food in Charlottesville. There are still a couple things on the menu like the hot pots that I haven’t tried so I’ll see how those are if I go back.

After finally learning how to eat soup dumplings correctly, I was thoroughly disappointed to find no soup in my soup dumplings. I’ve been here before when there was soup in the soup dumplings, so I’m just hoping that our order was just a fluke. However, no soup spoons were provided for the soup dumplings nor was ginger present in the sauce, making me question the validity of the restaurant as a provider of authentic soup dumplings.
In addition to the soup dumplings, we also ordered the dry fried eggplant, garlic eggplant, combination fried rice, baby bok choy with tofu skin, and basil shrimp. It was more than enough food for the five of us. I recommend the dry fried and garlic eggplant dishes, but I must warn that they may be a little salty. I didn’t believe my friends when they said that the dishes were salty because they weren’t the last time I came here, but on this occasion everything was noticeably saltier-​especially the tofu skin. The combination fried rice was disappointing and tasted more like American Chinese fried rice than Asian fried rice. It was salty and looked like soy sauce had been poured all over it. The basil shrimp is not as good as the basil chicken in my opinion but it does have the basil flavor.
Other dishes I would recommend from previous experiences are the crispy beef and double-​cooked pork. The double-​cooked pork was not good the last time I ordered it though-​another hit-​or-​miss. In addition to the non-​traditional traditional fortune cookies provided at the end of the meal, Taste of China also provides complimentary orange slices at the end of the meal, which I always enjoy. However, due to the soup dumplings not having soup, I will now be going to Peter Chang’s instead whenever I need my Chinese fix.

Awesome beef hotpot! Tender and authentic Sichuan flavor!
Prom steamed Dumpling is not that authentic but juicy enough~

It was lack luster and just ok.

The restaurant was clean. The staff was nice and professional. My husband and i went there and had dinner. It was pretty nice but their dishes could be spicy so if you order something and wasn’t sure, make sure to ask to see the level of spiciness. Overall, everything was good.

Growing up in Queens, I love good, authentic Chinese food. I have enjoyed everything here but my new favorite is Sautéed shrimp in fresh garlic, one of the chef’s specials. It is full of plump shrimp, mini corn, water chestnuts and crunchy pea pods. There is plenty of sauce and it is still great the next day!

Have been here many times and it never disappoints! This place is definitely on another level compared to your standard Chinese restaurant. Don’t expect great service from here, or any real authentic asian restaurant, but the food alone makes this a 5 star experience.

Two words: soup dumplings. They are soft and gooey, and full of hot, flavorful soup (along with your standard dumpling filling). There is almost nothing better on a cold Sunday afternoon.
I had never tried them before stopping in Taste of China last year while visiting my boyfriend in Charlottesville. Now, every time I visit, it goes without saying that at least one meal will take place at Taste of China.
Every time we go, we try to order a different entrée or two to go along with our soup dumpling appetizer. Sometimes we’ll ask the waiter for a recommendation, sometimes we’ll pick something random off of the menu. Everything has been delicious, and most have been quite different than your typical Americanized Chinese food entrees.
My mouth is watering thinking about those soup dumplings. Definitely try Taste of China — you won’t be disappointed!

This was my go-​to Chinese restaurant in Charlottesville. Back then, I wasn’t too familiar with famous chefs so while I knew it was Peter Chang’s restaurant at the time, I didn’t know the extent of his fame.
My favorites here were the scallion bubble pancakes (葱油泡饼); hot & spicy beef rolls (麻辣牛肉卷); sliced beef and beef tripe with hot pepper sauce (夫妻肺片); roast fish with green onion (竹塔烤鱼片), which is fried fish sautéed with onion and chili powder and ground cumin; braised beef with tomato in hot pot (蕃茄牛腩锅); and braised beef fillets with chili sauce (成都水煮牛). I love Sichuan food and enjoyed most of their Sichuan dishes. There was subtle heat in the Sichuan dishes that I liked.
Not sure how it tastes now since Peter Chang’s departure but I definitely thought this was one of the best (if not, the best) authentic Chinese restaurants in Charlottesville.