China Cottage Restaurant

Great service n prices chicken 88 is by far the best didh ive had there. Its super spicy and flavourful. Asked for it in mild and it was just the right amount

When China Cottage first opened, I’d have to say it was one of my favourite hakka restaurants in my area. But sadly it’s a hit or miss. So much that I stopped ordering there. I decided to go back and order for my family. The crispy beef was very hard and could not chew it enough to swallow it! The shrimp in the green curry was not deveined properly either. The people there are super nice but this review is solely based on the food!

Four stars only because the service is super slow. It takes forever for someone to help you there, which can get annoying. Other than that, the food is good, and the portions are huge. Their lunch time special is amazing, you definitely get a lot for what you pay for!

We came here for the lunch special and the portions was massive! The special included a bunch noodle and rice dishes with the choice of one of the following an egg roll, a soup of the day or a pop. This Could easily feed two hungry people with one portion. I got the Manchurian haka noodles with chicken. Over all they put alot of cabbage and a tad too much soy sauce for my liking. The service was great and the food came out fast. Will drop by the next time I’m in the area.

Love the food here! Even the noodles. The shrimp was my favourite I will definitely order it again :)

The food portions are generous and this new location is beautiful!
We have been going to the Ellesmere location for more than 15 years and have always loved it.
This new location is gorgeous. Same great Chili Chicken and same awesome service.

Great service, good food, I am a frequent customer here and have never been disappointed. The management and servers are always great and their take out/​pick up timing is always on point, would highly recommend!

Great Portions, Great price & Great Food

Definitely my favourite local hakka restaurant. Spicier and more authentic tasting than Fredricks. If you like spicy food, this is the place for you!
Servers are always friendly as well.

It’s better to come for lunch than for dinner because of the lunch special. I came here once for dinner and had to pay more for the same amount as the lunch special.

If you are craving hakka Chinese. This place is it. Delicious food and perfect blend of spices. We ordered tom yum soup which was tasty and spicy. We also got sweet and sour chicken, beef chilli, chicken 88, chowmein and chopsuey. Chopsuey and sweet and sour chicken were my favorite. In soup I love the hot and sour and hubby loves the chicken corn soup. Over all a great experience.

Food portion and cost ratio is excellent. You get well worth your $$ especially when you’re with a group
Taste is reasonable but the noodles just tasted like soy and manchurian eggplant was too bland. As if it was steamed then added to garlic soy sauce?
Hot and sour soup was good more on the sour side

The food portions are always great! We always order the pepper chicken, crispy beef and chili chicken!
Can’t say nothing but great things about the place… hell there staff are amazing and always double and if not… triple check if we need anything despite being busy right now

Do I recommendation this place? Of course. Although I do understand the flavours may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Please read on.
Any food worth noticing? Chilli chicken is quite famous here.
Concise Review: I cannot forget the first time I went to this restaurant. I have never really tried «Indian-​Chinese» food before. Namely, Hakka dishes appear to be quite famous within the Indian community.
Let me say this: bold flavours, wet and spicy sauce, plain white rice, and lots of fried chicken. Don’t expect this to be healthy, but expect more exotic taste ! Great value too.
Detailed Review Below:
1) Overall — Bold Flavours. Great Value.
China cottage delivers strong flavours from its assortment of «gravies» (which is the term used by the Indian community to describe their sauces), and it seemingly has an assortment of flavours for everyone. However, upon ordering more than 10 dishes at this place, you will quickly notice all of the sauces are somewhat homogeneous. They are spicy, and they are very strong and salty flavours.
I know the taste is not for everyone, especially if you prefer lighter tasting foods. However, rest assured, you will get great value for what you pay for.
2) Food Quality & Service —
Food ranges from their famous chicken dishes, to their friend Hakka noodle dishes. I definitely recommend ordering the Chilli Chicken, and Hakka Noodle Dish. I had great experiences with them.
The garlic chicken was very bad, and tasted like a sour and sweet dish with nothing related to garlic at all.
Order for what they are known for, which is their spicy Hakka dishes ! Anything else appears to be a weird spinoff.
3) Atmosphere & Others —
Dim atmosphere. Average seating comfort. The place gets crowded very quickly after 7pm, so try to go earlier if possible.
The service is good, nothing exceptional but nothing terrible. It is simply service you would expect. They will refill your waters, and check up on your tables as usual.

Love this place! Can’t say enough good things about it. There’s a great lunch special for $ 6.75 that comes with a massive portion and your choice of pop, soup, or egg roll.
We usually get the chicken or beef 88 and schezwan fried rice. Beef or chicken 88 are their speciality. It’s super red and flavourful from all the spices that go into it. It comes with rice, too. The schezwan fried rice is super yummy, too. It’s also really red and flavourful. They are both a bit spicy, but I love spicy foods! They also offer a variety of fish, chicken, beef, and thai foods. We have tried their pad thai and green curry. Both were delicious, but we are partial to our regular order.
It’s always busy there with people dining in and taking out. Service is consistently friendly and courteous. The owners are very nice people, too. Quiet and sweet. I used to serve them and their entire family at my old job and they were always incredibly nice.

Decided to come eat here since I had tried their other location. Very nice and cozy restaurant. There were not a lot of people eating in the restaurant but a lot of people came in to pick up orders. My wife ordered the shrimp in lobster sauce and I had the orange beef. The shrimp and sauce were a bit salty and spicy. The orange beef did not really taste orange and it was quite crispy and dry. The portions were decent and the prices reasonable. Not sure if I will return since we were not that impressed with the food.

Yum! Dropped in here last evening on the way home because traffic was bad and I had been meaning to check it out.
Friendly and helpful (and cute) waiters, modern and welcoming décor, delicious food. The Hakka Vegetables are kind of like tempura — breaded with a very light touch, deep fried and a bit spicy. SO tasty! Great value for the prices.

I go there for the lunch special very frequently.
Its great. You get more like a dinner portion for under $ 7.

Went here for a friend’s birthday lunch to celebrate with some Hakka food at low prices and generous portions.
We came as a party of 16 and the thing with our party is that a lot of people don’t like spicy food, while only a handful of us including myself like the heat so this reflects the rating.
I ordered the spicy Chicken 88 which looks like a cross between tandoori chicken and a dry stir fry of chicken breast with chillis, garlic and coriander. I was in spice lovers heaven with a sweet burn in my mouth as I wolfed down the generous portions. Friend beside me ordered the spicy cashew chicken which was also delicious.
My friends who didn’t like spicy food didn’t fare so well. While the Manchurian chicken rice and noodle was reported as good, I heard a lot of disappointment from those that had the non spicy stir fry noodle dishes, and the sweet and sour fish. Looking at their menu, it looks like they cater to the clientele that likes spicy food, so make sure you order their signature spicy dishes and not their poorly done non-​spicy ones!
Oh, prices at $ 6.75 for lunch specials including either an egg roll, sweet and sour soup, or pop is an absolute steal, with most of our party getting takeout boxes for afterwards.

I came here for dinner a few days ago.
We got the fish pakora as a starter. It was very spicy for me (I can’t take heat) but it wasn’t spicy at all for the rest of my family. It came with a sweet sauce (perhaps plum sauce?) so the heat was bearable. The fish was very tender and everybody enjoyed this dish.
For one of our entrees, we got garlic chicken. They gave us a generous portion so there was more than enough for the four of us. It was a bit bland in my opinion but it didn’t taste horrible.
Next, we got the manchurian fish. Again, the portion was huge and the fish was very soft. I enjoyed this dish more than the garlic chicken.
Lastly, we got the sweet and sour shrimp. This was my favorite this because it wasn’t spicy at all and there was a lot of sauce which was perfect for the rice. The portion wasn’t as huge as the other two entrees but it wasn’t unreasonably small either.
The rice costs $ 1.50 for a big bowl for the whole table.
Overall, this place was good. The service was great and they cleared our empty dishes very quickly. I would like to see them add some curry dishes to the menu and they’ll be perfect!