Since realising just how poor value for money Firecracker in central Kennington has become, we’ve been looking for a new Chinese takeaway. What’s been on our radar for a while is a Chinese joint in Elephant called ‘After Taste’. We have to childishly admit that what peaked our curiosity was the name, as ‘After Taste’ are usually the words that come after ‘unpleasant’ or  ‘I have to brush my teeth as I’m getting a bad____’. But our new find is pleasantly none of these things. In fact quite the opposite. 

The first thing that strikes you about After Taste is the size of its menu. At 260 items (say what?!) you’d be hard pressed to find anything they can’t throw your way, and there are a few surprises. My dining partner had one such surprise and it was the deep fried smoke chicken  (number 9 on the dizzying menu). A starter of mains sized proportions, it was ladled liberally with Sichuan peppercorns and was both smoky and blow your head off hot. For the mains the dining partner had Szechuan chicken with egg fried rice (153). It was hot but just this side of sweet, with plenty of dried chilis for added kick (and consumption if you’re feeling dangerous). 

Your more gastronomically cautious scribe started with some very dandy prawn dumplings called ‘Prawn Ha Kow’ (1). A bit on the small side but meaty and steamingly hot. For the mains I had the king prawn chow mein (140). Lots of noodles, sprouts, and so many huge prawns they had to be eaten on their own. For all this Chinese goodness we paid the princely sum of £22.62. We walked up to get it, but it is also available on Ubereats and Just-Eat. On the value versus taste continuum, we think the place punches far about it’s weight.  Its at the top of Newington Butts, near Theos Pizza.

If you are a purist when it comes to your Chinese cuisine and instead of Lo mein your desires veer towards aorta, brain and intestines, then we suggest the almost haltingly authentic Sevini restaurant in Lambeth North, which we reviewed in 2019.