Taste - Downers Grove

Chicken Lollipop Hakka Noodles Chicken Fried Rice Indochinese food is a very unique blend of spicy Indian food mixed with savory Chinese good. A very unique and delicious mix of tastes that meet your spicy/sweet n sour/savory taste bud needs. Taste is just the right place to go for Indochinese food. Their food quality, taste, quantity and customer service are excellent.

I visited here twice with my family to try a new Indochinese restaurant as they are quite rare. I really loved eating here. The baby corn and Gobi Manchurians were amazing and my personal favorite was the chili paneer. We had also ordered the soup and noodles and both were really great. The only issue was that this restaurant was located really far so it is a bit of a drive to get here from the suburbs of Chicago. Definitely worth trying if you are in the area.

My boyfriend and I came here on a Sunday night at around 8PM. The place was somewhat packed but people kept coming in by the batches, but luckily, we were seated quickly. The tables are a bit close to each other, which is a little awkward considering it felt like the next table was actually sitting with us. The menu is what you'd expect out of an ordinary Chinese restaurant with an Indian twist here and there. I ordered the Sweet Corn Soup and the Hakka Noodles as the main. My boyfriend had the Manchow Soup and the Burnt Garlic Chili Fried Rice as his main. The soups tasted really good. The Manchow was a bit too spicy for me but a perfect spice level for my boyfriend. The noodles tasted okay, a little on the oily side. The garlic fried rice was on point. We also had a mix of meats in there (shrimp, chicken and lamb) and that made the dish even more delicious. The portions are huge! I think the dishes are meant to be shared. We had no idea until we saw two huge bowls coming to our table. I wish the waitress would have pointed that out, or else we wouldn't have ordered two dishes and just split one. Either way we got to try new things, food was okay, and the service was efficient and friendly. If we are ever in the area again, we might come back!

Updated review: visited on a Sunday at about 3pm. Empty except for one table. This was not surprising as it was between lunch and dinner. Large dining area. Good for small or large parties... Had booths and tables that could be pushed together. Decor was tasteful. Could use more light. Ordered soup and the lollipop chicken appetizer. Both were delicious. The sauce on the chicken was quite sweet so we opted to wait for the steamed rice that was to accompany the entrees. We ordered the Mongolian Beef and the Eggplant chili honey as our main entrees. We always prefer to order family style. I would suggest you do the same. Both dishes were as good as we remembered them to be. Both were sweet dishes which made them better to eat with the white rice. Positives: The servings were generous, enough to take some of each dish home for a 2nd meal. Big dining area with tables spaced out for privacy. Lots of parking. Professional and attentive service. Also, they gave us a carafe of water and of diet coke. We got out money's worth for the $2.50 fountain drink.

Unfortunately, this place isn't great, but it's better than nothing. If you're looking for solid Indo-Chinese food, check out Chang's Hot Wok in Carol Stream. For vegans, most of the vegetarian dishes are vegan by default, except for the few with paneer or honey but the descriptions call these ingredients out, so it's easy to avoid them). We started with the chili babycorn appetizer $7). I was expecting a dry dish of babycorn tossed with jalapenos, salt and pepper, but instead this dish is stickier with an oil-tomato starchy sauce) and deep-fried. It was curiously bland, despite looking like it would be bursting with flavor. The vegetable dumplings in Manchurian sauce $7 for the lunch special) didn't come together. It consisted of five measly dumplings floating in way too much liquid-y sauce that didn't have the savory flavor you'd expect. The side of hakka noodles add $2 to the cost of the lunch special for these) were pretty good, though, if too oily. The egg roll and manchow soup that come with the lunch special were somewhat better. I especially liked the black pepper flavor of the soup. My parents had the mixed vegetables dish with Szechuan sauce and hot garlic sauce. Neither had much flavor. My parents aren't that picky, but even they were disappointed with their meals. Unfortunately this place doesn't have brown rice, which also sucks. I hate white rice. The service is friendly. The interior is tired and stuck in the 1980s, but what do you expect from a decaying strip mall in the middle of the suburbs? Much of the parking lot seemed to be reverting back into Illinois prairie. Go to Chang's Hot Wok in Carol Stream instead.