Tonight myself, along with a group of friends had the pleasure of having dinner at Ling Wah Chinese Restaurant in Hampton Park. Having never eaten here before, but hearing good things from my friends I was unsure what to expect. Lets just say that I was not dissapointed. It was a fantastic dining experience and exceptionally good value for money. This is a restaurant where you are getting city quality food and service at local restaurant prices. The five of us ate until we could eat no more for under $25 a head, and their BYO policy for a mere $1.50 per person is excellent - you can bring along anything to drink, not just wine, and will have it served to you properly. They will even put your wine bottles in an ice bucket, and chill your drinks until necessary.

Service is also excellent, with warm greetings on arrival and attention throughout your meal. Everything you expect in a good restaurant. Staff are only to happy to assist, serving food for you and making sure you are enjoying the experience. They would put many much better known establishments to shame, although service is generally strong at most Chinese retaurants. Another plus is the complimentary extras you receive such as pickled vegetables and prawn crackers before your meal and chocolate dinner mints and glasses of port afterwards. How sweet.

And the food: excellent quality, beautifully presented servings of delicious Chinese cuisine. You will find all your favourites along with a great range of more interesting dishes, and most are under $20 - really tasty food, generous servings and excellent value. And they make excellent special fried rice as well. I seriously believe the food quality of most of the dishes we tried are as good as, if not better than many big name city places. I will definately be going back soon - this food is to good to pass by. Now to summarise the dishes we ate - all dishes were shared which is always good in Chinese restaurants.

Westlake Duck: Tender pieces of battered duckling, sliced and served with a sweet and sour style sauce. A good dish.


Mango Chicken: Another simple, excellent dish. Presented like lemon chicken you get tender sliced chicken breast pieces with a sweet, but not outrageously so, refreshing mango sauce topped with slices of fresh mango cheek.


Szechuan Chicken: A classic Sichuan province dish which was done particuarly well here. Tender pieces of chicken, with seasonal vegetables and cashews are presented in a balanced, but firey sauce with plenty of little chillies. Probably not a good idea to show off and eat to many of these little chillies as your mouth may begin to punish you for this.


Mongolian Beef: Sizzling hot plate. Excellent dish - succulent beef pieces with a light sauce and fresh vegetables.


Sweet Chilli Prawns: Another sizzling hot plate. A generous plate of tender sizzling prawns in a sweet, chilli scented sauce with seasonal vegetables.


Special fried rice - An excellent version.


With these five dishes and rice between us we left completely stuffed, unable to finish some of the latter courses. The food is top class, something you don't generally find in this area.

Dining on a Monday night the restaurant was fairly quiet as well, but the ambience was still there and the service was probably even better as there was no pressure as there is on Saturday nights when this place is always completely full.

Taking into account the great value for money I am pleased to give Ling Wah a score of: 15/20
Food: 7/10 - Delicious, well presented classics.
Service: 4/5 - Polite and proffesional but not intrusive.
Ambience: 4/5 - soft music, nice lighting, nice surroundings, proper nappery, hot towels at the end of your meal - everything you expect in good Chinese restaurants.

And if its your birthday they go all out, turning the laser lights on, along with happy birthday music and a dish of ice-cream with a fire sprinkler for the birthday guest.

VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - Far exceeds all the other Chinese restaurants in the area.

Labels: Ling Wah, REVIEWS: Casual Dining