Taste of China

If you want fresh authentic Chinese food, this is the place for you. I have been there dozens of times and the food is always consistent and delicious. The owners are friendly and always ready to please when you place a custom order. They make a real nice drink and the appetizers are spectacular. I like may food REALLY spicy and they don’t fall short. Go spend a great night out for a reasonable price.

While visiting Clinton from Chicago for a family wedding this café was recommended to us by my niece who lives nearby. It’s located in a hotel but we easily found free parking on site. Walking in to the retro feeling of this diner had me wondering what the food was going to be like. It was delicious! The portions were large, ingredients were fresh and flavorful. The menu included a great variety of foods from my grilled cheese with tomatoes, to portobello mushroom sandwich and chicken avacado sandwiches.

I love this place!!! It has a great environment and great food! I recommend the pupu platter. You get to grill your own food! The egg drop soup is fantastic also! Delicious!!!

Went anticipating a wonderful meal. Could not have been more disappointed. Food was tasty but way too greasy. Everything was overly salted. Ingredients were fair to poor. Presentation was average but ok. Will never return.

YES. When the spicy red Szechuan peppers start the slow creep to your head, you start perspiring just slightly and then your tongue starts to cry. That’s when you know you’ve picked the right dish! Sounds pretty harmless, «Sautéed chicken», but it’s very similar to «Chongqing chicken» which is only available at their New Haven branch. Yes, there are tons of great non-​spicy dishes as well. This is my favorite Chinese restaurant on the Shoreline, and anywhere in CT for that matter. TOC is one of the reasons I agreed to move here actually since I require a good Chinese restaurant wherever I live. Sorry Forbidden City, Middletown and Golden Palace, Uncasville we have a new winner Taste of China, Clinton. Can’t wait til the new ToC dumpling shop opens up in Madison!

We have lived in Clinton for 10 years now, and the food here just was never consistent, so we stopped going… We decided to give it another try last night, so sorry we did! We were seated and ignored for at least 10 minutes, a waiter abruptly came to our table and said «ready to order?» No hello, Can I get you a drink, nothing… So, we were ordering combo meals which were $ 16.00 each… I simply asked if I could substitute shrimp fried rice for pork fried rice, and I would pay extra… plus I did not want the soup that comes with it… He rudely said NO, like I was asking for something ridiculous… I offered to pay extra…
The food arrived quickly, but with a different waiter, which was just fine by us…
I waited for the offer of another drink, but it never came, no follow up at all!
Next thing we know he shows up at our table and THROWS styro foam containers at us! I was floored he behaved that way… Needless to say he did not receive a tip… But the kicker was when he followed us out to the parking lot and asked if we knew we only left the exact amount for our dinner? Wow…
My husband sarcasticly said «Yes, that was for the GREAT service»…
The owner of this establishment needs to come out from behind the bar, stop catering to the town bar crowd, and pay attention to what’s going on in his restaurant… The service is horrendous, and the food is mediocre… Don’t waste your time! Go visit the lovely people at Golden China, who are sweet, and thankful for your business!

We ordered take out from this place. The packaging was good and nothing leaked. We ordered twice cooked pork (very yummy pork belly), ma la ribs and ants crawling in trees. The food was pretty authentic. I recommend this place if you want real Szechuan food.

I wanted to give this restaurant a second chance in hope that there would be an improvement. Sadly I didn’t see any improvement. I ordered the wonton soup and the broth continues to be the same tasteless recipe with few dumplings. The Vegetable dumplings were just ok, with some ground undefinable mass of green goop inside. The shredded duck with pancakes and scallions was also mediocre at best. The duck meat contained several chunks of inedible grissle that I had to spit out. The sauce was rather bland and the pancakes that accompanied the meal were dry and somewhat chewy. I stand by my previous review that The Golden Dragon down the road is a far better choice.

Had some of the best whole sea bass in my life. Cooked whole with a delicious red sauce, this is a unique dish that is very hard to find in most Chinese restaurants. Service was quite good, and selection of wine and beer is very good. Dining area is clean and fresh throughout.
Expect to pay considerably more than average Chinese restaurant dinner — but worth it!

The chicken tasted like it was cooked in a large batch and then topped with water down store bought sauce. I was surprised based on the good reviews. Also the proportions were pathetic for the large. Nice interior and nice people. Not sure what everyone else found in this place.

Taste Of China is an upscale Chinese restaurant located on Route 1 in Clinton. The food here is higher quality than your typical Chinese takeout place, but is slightly more expensive. (Think more like a PF Chang, less like a Panda Express) They also have a cozy bar area as well.
I’d recommend their lunch specials, as you get a bento box of your entrée, rice, soup, egg roll or spring roll, dumplings, and a side salad for around $ 10.
My only critique is that they need to update the décor. It’s looking a bit dated, and the booth seating is worn out.

Delicate flavors, careful details. This place is a gourmet Chinese food establishment. Great care is taken with every dish. It seems as though even the dumplings are made fresh (NOT frozen) .
Finally the beer menu is outstanding. My friends say they love the obviously curated list. Lest you think I was just enjoying the beer, I don’t drink :-)

Perfect service, our drinks were never empty. This was a huge issue the last two restaurants we visited. Food was good; hot and sour soup was great. General Tso chicken was a little too sweet for my taste, but good cuts of meat.

really really liked it. Its better than all the other Chinese restaurants I have been to in CT.

I haven’t been here in about a year because I’m not up in this area all that often anymore, and I guess Taste of China’s just out of sight, out of mind for me. Regardless, it was just as good as it’s always been and I got my boyfriend hooked as well. I get the same thing (salt & pepper shrimp) whenever I come here because it’s just so tasty that there’s no reason to stray. I’ve tried a handful of their apps, all of which have been extremely good as well.
Service is always attentive, but not overbearing. Everything is brought out in an extremely timely manner, but still spaced out enough that you’re not rushing through courses. Prices are more than fair, especially for the portion size. Worth noting, they also have a location in downtown New Haven, but the prices there quite a bit higher. I understand the prices being a bit higher due to location, but the same meals are upwards of $ 8 more expensive at the New Haven location.
The staff here is extremely friendly and it’s not uncommon for an owner to come around to see how you’re doing. I have nothing bad to say about this place. Food, service, staff, and prices are phenomenal and I’ll continue recommending ToC to friends & family.

Maybe one of these days somebody will tell me what is so great about this place. I’ve been a repeat customer for decades and have gotten take out many times from T of C. Repeat… many times. But for the best of me, I just can’t see what others see in this restaurant. Yes, I continue to go here but it’s mostly out of convenience.
For me, it’s not a matter of authentic Chinese food verses fake Chinese food. Trust me, as somebody who used to frequent all four corners of China on a regular basis, 90% of Americans would not like real authentic Chinese. I’m talking about the actual food that’s served from actual kitchens in China. It’s not the same as traveling to some place like Italy and experiencing authentic Italian food. For most Americans, real authentic Chinese food would be a huge disappointment. It’s the very reason many Chinese restaurants «Americanize» their food on this continent.
OK yea, I get it. They serve Belgium beer. Big whoop-​de-​do. That doesn’t do anything for me.
Perhaps people get impressed by the white tablecloths or spiffy looking waiters. But their food doesn’t match the setting. It’s not OMG food. It’s blah food that makes me waiting for the next dish to be better than the last. But unfortunately it never is :-(

Two years, two moves, and two new boyfriends later, Taste of China still shines. My date and I drove 45+ minutes last night to have dinner here as we both love it and craved it (he: a former Madison boy and me: a former summer turned full-​time Guilford resident for a brief period). Well worth it! It was as great as ever!
Familiar faces greeted us warmly as we settled into a cozy booth in the middle of the restaurant. He ordered a Goose Island Sofie and after I tried a sip I got my own. Perfect to pair with the delicious food to come. For appetizers we ordered the crispy beef, pickled broccoli stems, and Chengdu dumplings.
My date loves the picked broccoli stems but I found them a bit salty and spicy — still good though. The dumplings, which I’d had before, were tasty but the crispy beef was out of this control good. Addictive. His twice cooked pork was a spicy gift from the flavor gods and my salt + pepper scallops were even better than I remembered.

I would like to thank the owners for reaching out to me and making a bad situation good. More restaurant owners should be like Jonathan and Hu Ping. They were quick to respond and I really couldn’t ask for more.
I would without a doubt recommend the Mongolian Beef. It is by far the best I have had. Period. If you pair it with General Tso’s chicken you get a nice variety. The potstickers, Gyoza, dumplings, (whatever you like to call them), as an appetizer were quite good. The atmosphere was great and the servers were quick to refill drinks.
Thank you again. I look forward to enjoying another meal from your restaurant and trying your other restaurant «taste of china» in New Haven.

I really, really wanted to like Taste of China. Elegant, upscale, but somewhat atypical Chinese food? Cool, man. I get it. Very cool.
The menu can be a little intimidating because it really is all over the place. I’d personally call this place «Chinese Fusion» because honestly, it’s pretty creative and not the standard Chinese fare (though they do have a few of those on the back of the menu).
The prices are a tad steep, but the dishes are significantly large and I didn’t feel like I was overpaying. The presentation was excellent.
However, I wasn’t entirely blown away by my dinner. It was pretty good, and perhaps my expectations were a little high, but I didn’t love it. My date had the tea smoked duck, which was flavorful but a little dry.
I had the triple delight which I would’ve thought would pop with flavor but honestly, I found rather bland. The standout was the appetizer: The cheng du dumplings were quite good. Though so slippery I couldn’t hold them with chopsticks.
Honestly you’d probably have to be some sort of goddamned chopstick expert to pull it off.
Finally, the one thing which really annoyed me was that my waiter kept insisting I try their $ 30.00 special, which I wasn’t really interested in. We’d ask for recommendations on specific dishes, which he’d then ignore and recommend the special.
I found it a bit of a turn-​off and one of the reasons I’d award it 3 stars rather than 4.
Overall I had a good experience here and would come back, but was not as impressed as many others seem to be.

Very, very pleasant.
When I’m in the area I make it a point to dine here.
Nicer interior: low lighting, tall booths or tables all repeat w cloth napkins, table cloths, bamboo themed dinner ware, dark wood, small bar, classic Chinese music, art.
Highlights: chicken wing app– Chinese 5 spice powder, rice flour, golden fried but plump moist chicken topped w stir fried scallions, garlic, & chilies. Excellent! Tender flavorful crispy spring rolls. Veggie fried rice was full of chopped veg & egg & a smoky dark color, tangerine chicken was decent w caramelized zest & tender white meat chicken, thin fried strips of sizzling beef, peppers, onions & ginger.
Immaculate restroom, small bar, Private parking lot, nice landscaping.