04 March,2009 09:18 AM IST | | Soma Das
This is Indian "Chinees" without an overdose of oil and spice. WHAT'S ON checked outu00a0 Matunga's latest Oriental eatery Little China at Matunga. pics/Soma das Chicken Hunan and Malaysian Fried Rice
Good things come in small packages may be a clichu00e9, but Little China makes you chant it involuntarily. Located bang in the middle of older, more popular seafood eateries, we think it's going to manage to hold its own.
Ambience: They take the Chinese theme very seriously; the walls are red-striped pale pink. The window sills and seats are red too, and lighting casts a reddish glow on the room. Strangely, the poppy overdose is far from repulsive. It would be a good bet for a relaxing evening meal with the family or friends.
Menu: They serve only Chinese (vegetarian and non-vegetarian), with some dishes interestingly-named. For
Instance: Dragon Potato (Rs 70) is a starter, while Spicy Sea Treasure (Rs 70) is a soup. And then they have a variety of noodles and fried rice. But they don't offer much for dessert, except the Honey Noodle Ice cream.
The menu mentions lamb dishes, but they weren't being served when we dropped in.
We tried: The Malga Fish (Rs 150) was a dry pomfret preparation, spicy and tempered with garlic and spring onions. The Prawns Shanghai (Rs 150) gets a thumbs up; giant prawns fried to golden crisp perfection. We suggest you skip the Chicken Hunan (Rs 130) with Malaysian Rice (Rs 195), that we tried for main course. The Moon Fried Rice (Rs 85) doesn't taste very different from the Malaysian Rice, except for a sprinkling of mushroom and broccoli. The fare here is tasty, and we loved that they use minimal oil.
Service: It's efficient, if only the stewards would let guests be instead of insisting on refilling our plates every 10 minutes. They accept credit cards, but the machine was out of order when we dropped in.
At: Padmavati Apartments, TH Kataria Marg, Matunga (W).
Open from 11.30 am to 3.30 pmu00a0and 6.30 pm to 12.30 am.
Call: 24370796
Little China didn't know we were there. WHAT'S ON reviews anonymously and pays for meals.
