It can be hard to review Chinese restaurants when their menus are so standard. That’s mostly the case with Taigu, although there are a few unique items served at this Middleton restaurant.
No surprise, the menu is divided into appetizers (e.g. fried dumplings, egg rolls, etc.), meat dishes (e.g. beef, seafood, etc.) and specials. The gems are the homemade noodle dishes, served primarily pan-fried ($9.95), boiled ($9.95) or in soup ($9.95-$11.95).
I ordered the knife-cut (“cat ears”) boiled noodles with pork and eggplant in house sauce. Despite the lukewarm noodles, I did enjoy this ensemble. The eggplant was thoroughly cooked (making it tender), and the bits of ground pork and the sauce generated a lot of flavor. Next time, I’ll probably get the beef chow fun ($11.95), which is pan-fried rice noodles with steak, scallions and vegetables.
Meal combos come with fried or white rice (note the fried rice is barely fried) and two crab rangoons or soda at lunch or fried rice and an egg roll at dinner. The only other dish that caught my eye was the General Tso’s shrimp ($8.35 at lunch, $9.95 at dinner). I liked that the jumbo shrimp was not overly breaded, and the sauce met my expectations.
Be warned that service can be slow. At lunch time, with only three other tables occupied, my entrees took 30 min. to be served (and my soda was served just moments before that).
Taigu is open every day for lunch, dinner and carryout. You may get lucky and find street parking (in angled slots) in front of the building, but otherwise, be prepared to drive up and down Elmwood Avenue.
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