Eat and Go to the Show (Taipan Oriental Restaurant, Milton Keynes)

Member Name: deehuff

Product:	Taipan Oriental Restaurant, Milton Keynes
Date:	10/08/09 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good value, good food, good service, smiling staff

Disadvantages: none

The Milton Keynes Theatre area is a pedestrian area with restaurants, bars and pubs as well as a club or two. The Theatre itself is at one end facing the shopping centre, with an art gallery right next to it. At the other end of this area, facing the Xcape building (famous for its indoor snow ski slope), are car parking spaces.

The Tai Pan Restaurant is quite close to the theatre, and offers a pre-theatre dinner for £8.50 per person, excluding drinks. On one trip to the theatre I was in a group of four people, and we decided to have dinner at the Tai Pan before going to see the play.

We were greeted and led to our table by an extremely polite and welcoming waiter, who gave us our menus, took our drinks orders, and left us to decide on what we wanted to eat.

We decided to try the pre-theatre dinner option. Two chose duck crispy pancake rolls, one chose prawn crackers (complete with tails), and I chose the vegetarian pancake rolls. We all enjoyed our selections. My pancake rolls were light and crispy and very tasty. The prawn crackers were an amazing sight, with the tails poking out of the toast, and were reportedly delicious.

For main courses, two of us chose beef with onions and black bean sauce, and two chose sweet and sour chicken. I didn't try the sweet and sour chicken, but judging by the reactions of the two who did, it didn't disappoint. My beef dish was excellent. The meat was tender, and the sauce was very tasty with just that fiery hint you expect from a black bean sauce. It came with delicious egg fried rice, and the one person in our party who is allergic to eggs was catered for with eggs-free fried rice.

We all shared a good Argentinean white wine, and our final bill was £51 for the four of us, including drinks. The service throughout was excellent, with smiling waiters and very short waiting times, so that we left contented and in good time for the play we were going to see.

Summary: Excellent value for money