To top it off, the Chinese food in Italy is at least twice if not thrice cheaper than in the UK! For a plate of fried noodles in June 2022, I would only pay €3 to €5 (S$4-7). In contrast, in the UK, I can’t find anything cheaper than £6 (S$10). I once paid £14  (S$24) for a plate of Vegetarian Cantonese Yee Mee. It was delicious but I doubt I would ever step foot into that restaurant again. 

This is another reason why I will be flying back to Italy soon. If you are a traveller who is looking for budget meals, Chinese food in Italy is a good alternative as the pricing of a plate of freshly-prepared hot meals can be equivalent to or even cheaper than the ready meals in the supermarket. 

I will definitely recommend eating Chinese food in Italy if you are on a budget. 

If you have relatives who are reluctant to travel to Europe thinking that they will not get Asian food, then you can debunk their myth with what I am going to share with you below. I will be reviewing the 5 Chinese eateries/restaurants that my family and I tried. My favourite out of them is Capitale Della Cina 京都大酒楼 that we tried in Florence. 

1. Rosticceria Cinese Chinatown (Venice) (Rating: 3/5)

This eatery is located just 15 mins walk from the Mestre station. 

2. Ristorante Cinese Yixinge 怡心阁 川味小吃 (Florence) (Ate 2 times) (Rating: 2.5/5)

This restaurant is located in the heart of the tourist hotspot in Florence, near Santa Maria Novella Station. This place does not charge customer table charges for dining.

However, I personally do not find the food that great. I was upset that the waitress lied about their dumplings / Ravioli being handmade when in fact they were just factory-made frozen dumplings. The noodle soup was also not great as it was too bland and I did not like the noodles they used. 

 Nevertheless, I may return just to taste their Mala Hotpot dishes as I do not see them often in other places in Italy. 

3. Capitale Della Cina 京都大酒楼 (Florence) (Rating: 4/5)

This restaurant is the best that we had tasted in Italy and it was not too expensive too. My favourite was the hot and sour soup which I requested for a vegetarian version. The hot plate noodles were good too.

4. Ristorante Cinese Piccola Hong Kong (Rome) (Rating: 2.5/5)

The chef and the waitress in this eatery are really friendly and nice. While the ambience was not too great, their friendliness gave us a great experience. 

However, I find that the taste of the food is not great and only the fried vegetable roll was nice. I ordered the hot and sour soup and fried noodles and the taste was passable. 

5. Duo Wei Zhuang (Rome) (Rating: 3/5)

The chef and the waitress in this restaurant were also very friendly. When we arrived for dinner at 6 pm, they were still cleaning the restaurant and they shared that customers usually only start streaming in at 7 pm.  

They have just renovated their restaurant when we showed up in June 2022. The interior looked drastically different from those images found on google reviews and we were pleasantly surprised. They have also turned it into a more Japanese-centric restaurant even though they were run by Chinese. They still preserved their Chinese and Thai menu. You can opt to have a buffet/all-you-can-eat in this restaurant.

I ordered the usual suspect which is Hot and Sour Soup with the addition of Thai Tom Yum Soup, Pad Thai and Tofu with vegetables. The food was decent, but not great.