China Mama - Cairns

We checked out the menu a few weeks before and decided to go for lunch My wife had soupy dumplings which was generous serve and I had beef with black bean sauce it looked wonderful my wife had arrived 6 minutes before the meal looked great sadly the meat was cold (very cold) it made the experience disappointing We will try again in the near future

I stayed in the area for a few days and ordered a few items here over the past few days, definitely worth coming back: All prices in AUD Bubble Milk Tea $4.5 : The right amount of sweetness and the bobs was soft and chewy. I sat here for a couple hours relaxing and the bobs didn 't harden like other places after that timeframe. Wonton in Soy Chili Sauce $6.90 : Well worth it if you can handle the heat. Really good. It was plentiful for a good snack. Ice Lemon Tea $3.00 : It went nice with the wonton. Not to sweet and complimented the spiciness of the wonton. Service: Super nice. English isn 't too strong, but personality and help is great. WiFi: It last until they close at 9pm. Hotspot name is china mama . Current password is lavender . Definitely worth stopping by. :

Earlier reviews were done when China Mama was under its previous owner-management. We liked it then, too, a lot. But in late 2014 the original owners left and the menu was changed and, as we passed by, we could see it just didn 't seem the same at all. Still, we felt we had to try it once again to be sure, and thought we could even be pleasantly surprised. Yesterday was the day. First, gone were the friendly Taiwanese girls. In their place was a sourpuss younger guy and a sourpuss older guy. I mean, they really looked like they 'd rather be doing ANYthing else. We ordered laksa noodles , which bore no resemblance to anything called laksa we 've ever had anywhere in Australia or Malaysia. It was a total toss-out. Then there was a chicken dish that wasn 't much better. We only ate a few bites of this lunch. Meanwhile, just behind the counter, the older guy was trying to make an old stool into a platform for some piece of equipment. He had a big old piece of plywood with jagged edges, so he took the kitchen meat cleaver out to the front next to the street and proceeded to cut the edges off. This would never happen in Taiwan and is typical of what certain dumb mainland Chinese would do. Later, when we were at Bunnings, what we had of lunch went down the toilet as emergency diarrhea. Needless to say, we mourn the loss of the wonderful Taiwanese folks who used to have this place and did everything perfectly. We will never go back as long as the present crew are there. Because they have ruined the place as it stands, if someone else does happen to get it, it will have to be completely changed....new name, new menu, new decor, the works. This is really too bad, because Cairns does not have heaps of Asian (especially Taiwanese) restaurants to point to.

The lack of customers in this small cafe was a concern but Tripadvisor reviews seemed to differ from my hesitancy. It took a minute to get the waitresses attention as she was too busy on her mobile behind the kitchen entrance. Friendly as she was and prompt with processing my order, it came out shortly after as Asian meals tend to. I had ordered the crispy chicken rice bowl accompanied by the chilli won tons. Both where very unique in flavour and I would have to say that the egg portion within the rice bowl dish did not agree with my taste buds at all. I'm not exactly sure as to what they mixed with it but it seemed like a concoction of egg, tomato sauce and some form of unrecognisable seasoning. Having said that, I've never experienced this particular dish before so I may not be eligible to comment on such flavours. Reverting back to the wontons and they were delicious and quite spicy. The crispy chicken was slightly dry but certainly edible. If your an avid critic of Chinese and Taiwanese food, you may have more success with this one. I may need to experience more Taiwanese before I make further judgement. There is limited selection of choices on China Mama's menu but this may be an advantage as they're given the opportunity to master each dish. As I mentioned, a quick and cheap eat for anyone on the run.

I stayed in the area for a few days and ordered a few items here over the past few days, definitely worth coming back:(All prices in AUD)Bubble Milk Tea ($4.5):The right amount of sweetness and the bobs was soft and chewy. I sat here for a couple hours relaxing and the bobs didn't harden like other places after that timeframe.Wonton in Soy Chili Sauce ($6.90):Well worth it if you can handle the heat. Really good. It was plentiful for a good snack.Ice Lemon Tea ($3.00):It went nice with the wonton. Not to sweet and complimented the spiciness of the wonton. Service:Super nice. English isn't too strong, but personality and help is great.WiFi:It last until they close at 9pm. Hotspot name is "china mama". Current password is "lavender". Definitely worth stopping by. :-)