First Taste Restaurant

First Taste Restaurant

604 Station Street, Boxhill

(Ph) 9890 8788

I had been to First Taste a few years ago with my parents - they're famous for their double-boiled herbal soups and claypot rice dishes. The door is a big heavy wooden door - not very friendly looking, but inside is a typical Asian eatery jam packed tables.

How does 頭啖湯 translate to become First Taste?! Nothing related at all lol

P and I decided to get a double boiled soup each and a claypot rice each - we were starving =P P got the Dry White Cabbage Stew with Pork $4.50

It was super delicious and full of flavour - I really like cabbage in soup and the pork was so soft and tender. We couldn't get enough of it - wish there was more liquid and less "stuff" in the soup.

I decided to get the Ginseng & Herbs Stewed Chicken Soup $5.90 - thought I should get something with lots of goodness =P

Maybe because we're not used to drinking herbal soups, but the ginseng flavour was too powerful and there was too much herbs in it made the soup really bitter =/ bitter stuff is usually good for you right? I kept wanting to swap soups with P - his was so much tastier =P

P's claypot was the Black Pepper Beef Fillet with Rice $9.50

His beef was so ridiculously peppery and there was wayy too much sauce it nearly drowned out the rice lol.

I got the Plum Sauce Spare Ribs with Rice $8.80

And mine lacked in sauce =( why can't they get it right?! The plum sauce spare ribs were quite flavoursome but it was quite dry and there was definitely not enough sauce to go with the massive bowl of rice. There was quite a bit of crusty rice on the bottom but it was a bit too dry that it became difficult to chew - not sure if it was sitting on the stove top for too long or something 'cause it's meant to be crunchy not chewy =/ At least it's not burnt?

Food~
5.5/10 - double boiled herbal soups are a definite must, but get something that you know you'll like instead of try be fancy like me and get ginseng when you know you don't like it =P maybe next time I'll try their other dishes instead of claypot rice

Service~
2/5 - soups came out very quickly, we thought maybe they have like 10+ pots brewing in the kitchen? or maybe they're all precooked and just reheated in the single soup cups?

Atmosphere~
2/5 - quite loud and typical of Asian eateries, was surprised to see Causasian people in there!

C.
xo