Eastern promise fulfilled at Tong Lok
Tong Lok 136 Problem Mkhize (Cowey) Road, Greyville Phone: 031 3093467 Mon - Sat: 11am to 10pm, Sun 9pm. STRANGE how some places are so much part of the landscape that one hardly notices them. This was the case for me with this venue, until my wife suggested we give it a try. It was a good call.
We went early in the evening and ours was the only car in the parking lot behind the restaurant.
We chose a table for two, next to a window looking out on the street. We were the only customers. Drinks were ordered, sparkling water (R14) and a Tsingtao beer (R29).
As with many Asian restaurants, the menu was long and varied and we did not even see the sushi menu, although I believe there is one.
Needless to say we had the full attention of the waiter and sent him away with our starter orders: a prawn spring roll (R35) and chicken spring roll (R32), to give us more time to go through the main course choices.
The menu boasts of having authentic Asian dishes, which explains to my confused mind why there was a choice of vegetable, chicken, beef, prawn or fish curry dishes on the menu.
Other categories included sweet and sour, chop suey, chow mein, foo yong (omelette with rice), pineapple, specialities that included peri-peri chicken and steak, fried rice and a miscellaneous selection of dishes.
Our spring rolls arrived, thoughtfully cut into three sections. There were no chop sticks offered so we tackled these with forks. The fried spring roll wraps were superb: large, wonderfully crunchy, and the fillings of chicken or prawn meat with vegetables was very good. We recently travelled to Vietnam and fell in love with the cuisine there, so for my wife to compare these spring rolls with those we had in Vietnam was a real compliment.
For mains my wife chose the stir-fried chicken with black bean sauce with rice (R86). I chose the sweet and sour pork with noodles (R89).
Several other parties of diners arrived, taking up most of the tables in the nonsmoking area and a steady stream of people came to collect takeaways.
The staff do not mess around and our main courses arrived fairly smartly. My home-made sweet and sour sauce was one of the better ones I have tasted, a touch more sour then sweet. Again, the wrapping around the individual pieces of pork was crunchy and the pork well cooked and tasty.
The chicken and black bean dish was also good, slightly salty, but pleasant.
After the spring rolls we could only get through about third of our food and the waiter transferred the remains to takeaway containers.
We finished with a cup of Chinese tea (R20) and Five Roses (R16) for me, enjoying the Chinese music playing unobtrusively in the background.
We enjoyed our outing and could see from both service and food why this is a popular venue. Ratings (out of five) Food ★★★✩ Service ★★★✩ Ambience ★★★