Tangerine was recommended to me by my Tamil friend who said it was an awesome Hakka restaurant in the Whitby/Oshawa area. For those who don't know, Hakka is a style of cuisine from China that the Hakka people cook. They have traditional dishes but they're popular for their Indian style Hakka food which combines Chinese dishes with Indian spices. My dad is Hakka so I've had my share of the traditional dishes but don't get to try the Indian style ones very much unless we go to a restaurant. Some Asian friends of mine were going to be in town/convinced to come and wanted to go for some Chinese so I thought it was a great opportunity to try it. I actually don't know any good primarily Chinese restaurants near me so I really had high hopes for this place!
+Stanley and I arrived first and got a table for five. It was pretty full and we just waited a few minutes as they cleared a table for us. The restaurant is about small-medium sized with a hall upon entering that spans the length of the dining area taking you to to the waiters in the back with a small waiting area there. There weren't any Asian customers but I guess that isn't very surprising as it is in the Durham Region. As we waited, we checked out the menu and saw that a pot of Chinese Tea was $2, which usually should be free. +Stanley also wasn't impressed that they didn't have chopsticks on the table, only forks and knives but I expected that. They had a lengthy and wide-range of Asian cuisine from Thai to Indian and dishes were reasonably priced as if they would be in a typical restaurant in Scarborough/Markham.
After everyone arrived, we ordered a soup and four dishes from the waiter that took our order. He also assumed that we wanted White Rice and we weren't sure if he was going to charge us but it was actually free! We started off with a Large Seafood Hot & Sour Soup for the five of us. We served ourselves and waited a bit for the soup to cool down! I was impressed on how much seafood they actually packed in this soup. It included the regular items you would see in hot and sour soup like tofu, bamboo, and wood ear, but also had shrimp, imitation crab, scallops etc. (ie. the seafood part) It was a great addition the soup and added nicely to the flavour. The hot part was spot on but I thought it could have been a bit more sour.
To pick what dishes to order, I actually looked on Foursquare recommendations and literally everyone said to order the Mango Chicken or the Bombay Chicken (both which were also on the Chef Recommendations part of the menu). We of course, got both. The Mango Chicken ended up being my favourite dish of the night and I'm actually still craving for some now. The sauce was sweet and packed with flavour but it wasn't overbearing and thick. The chicken was crispy and the mango was ripe. I couldn't get enough of it! The Bombay Chicken was a dry dish and had a lot of spices added to the chicken. It was also tossed with some onions which were cooked perfectly. This dish had more Indian spices and flavours to it but I didn't find it spicy at all.
We also wanted to order calamari and were debating between the appetizer dish and a main, but we ended up getting the Spicy Deep Fried Calamari main dish. I found this one pretty greasy (deep fried of course) but the calamari itself wasn't bad. I found that certain pieces were saltier than others but the overall flavour with the onions, pepper, and garlic was great.
Our last dish was a Seafood Hakka Noodle which was in a huge bowl and was the only one we were too full to finish and had to take home. The noodles were cooked nicely though and there was a nice mix of vegetables and seafood in the dish. I thought the flavour was a bit bland and probably could have done without this one.I was very impressed with Tangerine overall, the food came timely after we ordered and being in a group, our food was pretty cheap after we split everything. It's probably the best you'll get in the Durham Region hands down. Usually you see many small, sketchy take-out Chinese restaurants but this place is actually legitimate and presentable.
Food: 4.5/5 - Delicious flavour, huge portions and reasonably priced.
Decor: 3/5 - Clean but very standard and simple.
Service: 3/5 - Nothing spectacular but servers were attentive.
Willingness to go back: 4.5/5 - Yes, totally taking anyone who wants to go for Chinese in the area there!
Overall: 4/5
Website: http://www.tangerineasiancuisine.com/
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