Tsing Tao, a Chinese restaurant housed in the Colombo Racecourse promenade, provides their guests with an authentic Chinese gastronomical experience. Tsing Tao sets the ambience for a sophisticated dining experience, coupled with the most exotic tastes and flavours.
Once you walk into the restaurant, you are faced with an ivory and gold-clad interior, adding to its charm and grandeur. The outdoor dining space of the restaurant provides an excellent view of the rugby ground, and allows access to the tiered seating where it will be possible to watch the action in the middle. Tsing Tao even relaunched their restaurant a while back to provide its customers with an even more impressive fine dining experience to ensure that no guest leaves dissatisfied.
The menu at Tsing Tao features a wide array of dishes originating from all over China, and have been recreated to suit Sri Lankan taste buds. We dined on a selection of dishes picked out by the chef that’s said to be crowd favourites.
Their drinks menu has a range of cocktails, mocktails, and fresh juices to pick from; we had the virgin colada, which is a pineapple and coconut drink, and a Ceylon sunrise, which had a delightful combination of citrus fruits, from their mocktail menu.
We had the Thai-style seafood fried rice as our main carb; the rice alone wasn’t too flavoursome but the flavours from the side dishes worked together to complement the otherwise blandness of the rice. Next, we tried the diced chicken with dry chilli and cashew nuts; the dish wasn’t as spicy as we’d thought it would be, in fact, it seemed to be more on the sweet and sour side, but the combination of flavours was interesting nonetheless. The chef commented that it’s prepared only mildly spicy to keep to the Chinese palettes.
Tsing Tao specialises in seafood dishes, thus the menu has an extensive array of seafood to choose from. We were presented with the opportunity to try a few. The Hot Butter Cuttlefish dish was incredibly aromatic when brought to the table; it tasted as good as it looked. The cuttlefish wasn’t too tough, and the batter was just the right amount of crispy, and was brimming with flavours; the chef informed us that they add a special seasoning to the cuttlefish made with a combination of spices to give a rich, salty flavour.
Next, we sampled the fried prawns with hot garlic sauce; the taste of the garlic wasn’t too overpowering, and the sweeter elements of the sauce cut through deliciously giving it a tongue-tingling taste. Despite having been soaked in sauce, the fried prawns still retained its crunch which gave the dish an interesting edge.
The star dish for the day was undoubtedly the steamed garoupa with chilli XO sauce. XO sauce is a spicy seafood sauce that was developed for Cantonese cuisine. It is made of roughly chopped, dried seafood, including scallops, dried fish, and shrimp, and subsequently cooked with chilli peppers, onions, and garlic. The fish was soft and tender, and melts in your mouth; the addition of the sauce only elevated its taste.
This dish worked best with the Thai rice we picked – the sauce mixed with the rice heightened all of its elements and enhanced its flavours. The fish was presented beautifully; as a whole, with the sauce drizzled eye-catching on top, the bright red colour made it look mouth-watering, and we can assure you, it tastes even better than it looks!
Although their menu has a larger focus on seafood dishes, they do have many choices for a vegetarian meal as well, with dishes ranging from bean curd to various types of vegetables. We had the Szechuan-style mixed vegetables with mushrooms from their sizzling menu; the dish had a combination of baby corn, cabbage, mushrooms, cauliflower, and a few more. All the veggies were fresh and had a delectable crunch when bitten into. This was served in a small wok, with smoke wafting from the heat of the dish, and the fragrance was equally as tantalising.
For dessert, we tried the longan with vanilla ice cream; this fruit is quite similar in taste to lychee, but is less sweet. The combination of the sweet vanilla ice cream worked well with the longans.
Overall, Tsing Tao is a wonderful restaurant to indulge in your Chinese cravings.