Taste Inn

A quiet place at lunch run by some friendly people. As I was looking at the a la carte menu they said if I knew about the special lunch menu, which I replied ‘I do now’. They then gave me a copy which had some amazing deals on and I ended up going for one of these. Food took a while to come out but seemed lovely and fresh and for such a good price in the offer you couldn’t complain one bit. (Visit — 02/​06/​2014 Lunch)

Zero décor. A dive of a place on a shitty street consisting mostly of Western Union shops and windswept detritus from Lidl.
A literal menu. No cruft here. Just straight to the point words telling you what you’re going to eat and a possible hint at how it might taste. Half the menu is standard Chinese fare, but the other (better) half is Dongbei cuisine, the part of the world where China meets North Korea. Think deep beefy dishes, like the sort of stews an Irish grandmother would cook in March, but using tofu for potatoes and adding an array of spices rather than Guinness.
Especially worth a try is the ‘stewed pork belly with bean curd sheet knots’ and we also totally fell for two cold starters — ‘shredded potato in vinegar and chilli oil’ which was like a non-​fruity papaya salad in a weird way — and the astonishingly good ‘bean curd and preserved duck egg’, a mountain of cold fresh white tofu decorated with onion, sauces and century egg slices.
There’s lots on the menu to make your mouth water or perhaps do the opposite depending on your tastes. I’m not so sure everyone will fall for ‘cold potato starch sheet’ or ‘blood curd and pig bowel’, but at least it’s more interesting than another sweet and sour chicken.

Formally known as Le Wei Xiang, Taste Inn has had a makeover but remains one of the best Chinese restaurant & takeaways in south east London. Caters for both the non adventurous and those who like to experiment with new dishes. Ingredients taste fresh, so far every dish I’ve tried has been well seasoned, oozing with Dong Bei and Szechuan flavours. The small restaurant is bright, clean and cosy, takeaway is available but expect to pay more than other local takeaway offerings.
[AUG/​2014] Under new management, run of the mill menu, was 5 stars now down to 2.

I’ve always wanted to discover a hidden local dining treasure and I think this is it. There isn’t much good dining in my area but this unassuming Chinese restaurant/​takeaway is just amazing.
The menu is effectively split into 2 sections. The front is typical Chinese takeaway fare — fairly unexciting and frankly the staff are fairly unexcited about it as well. The rear half though is as traditional as you can get. There is a good mixture of Sichuan and Dong Bei dishes that really brings new meaning to nose-​to-​tail eating with dishes from ear to trotter via intestine. Some of the dishes are pretty unusual but if you start asking questions the staff suddenly perk up and are happy to recommend and describe anything you don’t understand.
I genuinely had a massive smile on my face throughout the whole meal. All the dishes that came out were packed full of flavour and plentiful. I honestly wasn’t expecting much when I went in but everything just kept surpassing my expectations to the point that I couldn’t fault anything.
The best part is probably the price. 2 of us ordered 5 dishes and a drink each and it came to £25. This included enough food taken home in a doggy bag to pretty much last another entire meal. And they deliver as well! Just a warning that I believe they don’t accept credit cards.
Oh… they’ve just started doing Korean bbq as well.