Over all a disappointing decision to walk in off the street for a meal.
There was no greeting or smile, just pick up of the menu and shown to our table. My partner was asked if he wanted Jasmine tea and he said no, but I never got asked so we had to call the waitress back.
The restaurant was like an open corridor with tables scattered everywhere. The walls had splashes on them. The wood around the wall was uneven and didn’t join in some places. The art work on the wall was OK but there was no connection it was like it was placed there to fill the gaps. No atmosphere at all.
My partner ordered a lemonade – came in a bottle with a straw hanging out. More like a dairy offering than a restaurant drink. Give the customer a glass.
We ordered beef and vegetables and lemon chicken. Would have been great if the dishes came out together we had almost finished the beef dish before we had to go and ask where the chicken dish was. The beef was quite good, the vegetables were crisp. The dish was hot. My only negative was having great shards of ginger in the dish – did nothing for my taste buds other than to leave a harsh taste in my mouth. The lemon chicken was so bright it would have glowed in the dark. It was more battered offerings with a hint of chicken inside. Two circles of lemon on the plate were tarnished brown so not a pleasing looking. The sauce was very thick and contained three lemon pips.
The rice was reasonable although a bit gluggy.
All up $50.
Wait staff could be more friendly, smile, greet the customer, ask about the meal at the table and when paying the bill and check if we wanted more drinks or if the meal was ok. Didn’t even thank us for coming. For Hamilton’s main street of dining a poor showing of hospitality

Master House started out 10 or so years ago and featured the cuisine of chef’s head hunted by the owners from Hong Kong. The décor is wonderful and very clean with many of the pictures painted by the boss’s wife and family. The food was brilliant, and well priced.

Sadly over time the quality of cooking has gone down hill a bit, and if it’s authentic Chinese cuisine you’re looking for I wouldn’t eat here. The last time we ate there (and it was the first time in two years) we noticed no difference to the highly westernised menu, and can say with some authority there are much better Chinese restaurants in Hamilton.

Reasonably priced authentic chinese meals in a clean and pleasant environment.

Kia ora,

I had read a review in the local newspaper quite some time ago about Master House, saying if a Chinese restaurant is full of Chinese people eating, then it’s good – this could be said about my visit, as there were many Chinese lunching. This signalled to me I was gonna taste some true authenticity.

I liked the atmosphere, clean, tidy and smiling staff who were very hospitible. We drank jasmin green tea while we perused the Yum Cha menu (if you’re new to yum cha, google it). Other Yum Cha places I’ve been to, usually bring the dim sum around in a server for you to pick, I think I prefer menu now, tastes fresher. Anyway, we got shrimp balls, fish tofu, combination dumplings, pork rolls, and sticky rice. Everything tasted freash, and very ‘more’ish’. This motivated me to order some duck, oh, glorious duck! It was absolutely gorgeous. After more fish tofu, shrimp balls and duck and a serving of this delicious shredded seaweed & sesame dish, we tried the pineapple buns for desert, a very delicately flavoured treat, with a quite unique texture that was like biting into a sweet cloud – we thought they’d be nice with a cuppa later, so we asked to take some home!

All in all, we had a wonderfull time, great setting, great service, and great food (which wasn’t expensive, $70 for three) along with great company made for a truly great meal. We look forward to returning to Master House and trying some new dishes along with more shrimp balls and that glorious duck.

Great for a yum cha lunch