Chinese Siu Mei is an Amohau Street restaurant centred on Chinese roast meats, but its current menu travels well beyond the carving counter. Visitors can dine indoors or outside, make a booking, pick up food, or request delivery. Its casual scale makes the food accessible for a single rice bowl, while the breadth of soups, stir-fries and shared dishes can also carry a longer table meal.
The restaurant's name comes into focus most directly in the roast-meat rice section. Diners can choose roast duck, honey-sauced barbecue pork or crisp pork belly, each plated with rice and vegetables, or combine two meats in one generous serving. The compact format keeps the focus on texture: lacquered duck, sweet pork and crackling-edged belly each land differently even though the rice-and-vegetable foundation remains constant without becoming repetitive.
Dumplings and noodles broaden the meal in another direction. Pork-and-carrot dumplings, sweet-and-sour pork dumplings, siu mai, prawn dumplings and fried wontons give a table several small plates to compare. Noodle soups can be topped with barbecue pork, crisp pork or braised beef brisket, while larger dishes include spicy boiled beef, cumin lamb from the sizzling section and gentler soups built around seaweed and egg or cabbage and tofu.
The rest of the menu spans seafood, tofu, vegetables, fried rice and rice noodles, making it possible to build a meal without ordering roast meat at every turn. Drinks are unusually extensive for a compact Chinese restaurant: fresh milk teas, fruit teas, coffee, smoothies, frappes and milkshakes sit alongside bubble waffles for a sweet finish. This combination of roast-house staples, dumpling snacks and modern drinks gives Chinese Siu Mei a character that is both specialised and wide-ranging.
Address: 1159 Amohau Street, Rotorua 3010, New Zealand
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