TOP Kitchen – Wellington

Word on the street that TOP Kitchen has taken over KC Cafe as the best cheap eat Chinese in town I feel that this is a huge call, as I think KC is bloody good. So was willing to give this place a try and make my own decision. The place seems really busy and always has Asian students in their eating so it must be good right?

Spring Rolls

I was surprised to see the size of the spring rolls, especially for the price you pay. They were still really hot even though I wanted a good 5 minutes for them to cool down. I later discovered why the filling was so hot and that was because of the thick skin of the spring roll. The skin was crunchy on the outside but was also quite chewy and that was because they use a lot of pastry to wrap the filling in. In the filling was cabbage, carrots and fungus; wood ear. Overall, tasted good but did take a bit of effort to eat it.

Fried Dumplings: Pork and Chives

I decided to try these for an entree as you could get a plate of four. These were not what I expected. They were quite oily but the filling was the disappointing part. Inside was some pork, cabbage and some carrots. However, there were no chives. Plus it tasted if there was lots of MSG in the dumplings to add flavour to them. Overall a real disappointment and I won’t order these again or order any other form of dumplings here.

Hainan Chicken

I can never go past a Hainan chicken so when I saw it on the menu I ordered it. Firstly the soup was really nice and actually tasted home-made not the packet stuff you usually get and it had some chicken in it as well. With the dish, it was really interesting to see cooked lettuce, which I like but surprised to see it there. However, it was nicely seasoned. The rice was reheated in the wok with shallots, spring onions and some garlic added in. It tasted really nice and was like a fried rice. The chicken was nicely seasoned. However, was slightly overcooked, which I think was down to it being reheated too long. The chilli sauce they use was an oil based one and not typically found with Hainan chicken. However, it was really good and went well with the dish. Overall, an interesting interpretation of a Hainan chicken dish but was good.

Curry Laksa

When this came to the table, I was instantly disappointed. There was just so much soup in the bowl and all the other ingredients were drowning in it. Inside the laksa, was some, squid, fish balls, tofu, prawns, a small amount of bean sprouts (which was surprising) and egg noodles. The soup was quite watery and didn’t really have substance. Overall disappointing dish.

I may be ordering the wrong dishes, but I was overly disappointed with this place. The food is pretty poor and I would prefer to go to R & S  Satay Noodles House or KK Malaysia if I was eating in that area of town. The service is not bad and the decor is typical Asian style.

Address: 127a Cuba Mall, Te Aro, Wellington

Facebook Page: TOP Kitchen