Bava is one of the more recent additions to the plethora of Chinese restaurants down Gouger Street. The food on offer here is your stock standard Chinese, that has been customised to the Western palette. The decor here is funky and modern, with seating both upstairs and downstairs for about 50 people. The staff here are friendly and the service is above average. With the seating very close together, and very few customers on the night, the atmosphere was relaxed and somewhat cosy.

Tonight, we decided to share 3 dishes; Salt and Pepper Squid, Sizzling Satay Beef and Kong Po Chicken. The dishes arrived 15 minutes after ordering and all meals arrived at the same time.

SALT AND PEPPER SQUID – Squid was slightly over cooked but had a nice light coating. Salt and pepper were lacking in this dish which made it kind of bland.

SIZZLING SATAY BEEF – Marinated satay beef was poured over a hot plate. Beef was tender but only because it was marinated in soda powder. Nice traditional satay flavour that was bland due to the lack of salt.

KONG PO CHICKEN – There weren’t too many vegetables in this dish. I could only see chicken, onion, dried chili and peanuts. Chicken breast was used which is great for the health conscious. The flavours were OK, although once again, salt was lacking in the dish.

This place must really be on a health kick because it seems they forgot to add salt in all their dishes. The pricing here is slightly higher than their competitors but their serving sizes are larger. While I exactly wasn’t hungry when arriving, I struggled to finish off the meals. The food here was OK at best, with some of their nearby competition doing the same dishes a whole lot better.

WHERE: 57 Gouger St, Adelaide