Forbidden City Restaurant is a Chinese kitchen on Queens Drive in Hutt Central, Lower Hutt, rated 4.3 on its online ordering site. It runs as a pickup-focused takeaway: you browse the full menu at forbiddencity.co.nz, pay securely online and collect your order at the counter, with the option to preorder for a later pickup time.
The menu covers the full sweep of Chinese takeaway favourites, from deep-fried wontons, spring rolls and dumplings through fried rice, noodles and ho fan, then mains across chicken, beef, lamb, seafood, tofu and vegetable dishes, plus egg foo young, soups and tiered Family Combos built for sharing.
A few dishes clearly lead the pack: Orange Beef, Sweet & Sour Chicken, Pan Fried Dumplings and Combination Meat Fried Rice all appear among the site's top sellers, alongside humble Steamed Rice and Deep Fried Wontons. The menu also flags gluten-free, vegetarian, sugar-free and dairy-free items, so mixed groups can order together without fuss.
On Queens Drive in the heart of Hutt Central, Forbidden City Restaurant turns out the kind of Chinese food that Lower Hutt locals order on repeat. Rated 4.3 on its online ordering site, it runs a pickup-focused operation: the full menu lives online, orders are paid for securely through the website, and everything is collected from the shop at 1/44 Queens Drive. You can order for immediate pickup or preorder for a specific time later in the day, which makes planning dinner around work or the school run genuinely easy.
The menu stretches across the full Chinese takeaway canon. It opens with a proper appetiser line-up: deep-fried wontons, spring rolls, chicken wings, crab cheese dumplings, dim sims steamed or fried, pan-fried and steamed dumplings, crispy king prawns, prawn crackers and a side of chips. Soups follow, from creamy chicken corn to the punchy hot and sour, plus a wonton soup for the traditionalists.
Then come the wok dishes. The fried rice and noodle section runs from vegetable and chicken fried rice through Nasi Goreng, Mee Goreng, combination fried noodles and ho fan, the broad rice noodles stir-fried with chicken or beef. Mains are grouped by protein: eight chicken dishes including Sweet & Sour Chicken, Lemon Chicken, Satay Chicken and Gongbao Chicken; nine beef dishes led by Orange Beef and Beef with Black Bean Sauce; and a lamb section with Cumin Lamb, Szechuan Lamb and Lamb in Mongolia Hot & Sweet Sauce for anyone who likes a bit of heat.
There is genuine depth beyond the meat dishes too. Vegetable dishes include Braised Eggplants, Chinese Vegetables in Garlic Sauce and Beans with Dried Chili; the tofu section covers Braised Tofu, Chinese Homestyle Tofu and a Szechuan Mapo Tofu with beef mince; and egg foo young comes in vegetable, chicken, combination and shrimp versions. Seafood picks include squid in black bean sauce, hot spicy squid, king prawns with cashews and sweet sour fish.
Every ordering site has its top sellers, and Forbidden City's list says a lot about what the regulars love: Steamed Rice, Pan Fried Dumplings, Sweet & Sour Chicken, Deep Fried Wontons, Orange Beef and Combination Meat Fried Rice. It is a telling mix of the classics and the crunchy things that make a takeaway order feel complete.
The Orange Beef has earned its spot with that sweet-tangy citrus glaze over beef, while the Sweet & Sour Chicken is the benchmark version of the dish everyone grew up with. The pan-fried dumplings, six to a serve with golden crisp bottoms, are the starter most baskets seem to include, and the deep-fried wontons are the affordable way to start a feast.
For family dinners or a table of friends, the Family Combos do the deciding for you. Combo 1 pairs deep-fried wontons with Beef in Black Bean Sauce and Chicken Fried Rice for a smaller table. Combo 2 adds spring rolls, Sweet & Sour Chicken and vegetable egg foo young to the spread. Combo 3 steps up to crab cheese dumplings, Gongbao Chicken, Beef with Black Pepper and both combination fried rice and noodles, while Combo 4 is the full banquet: a run of starters plus four mains over rice and noodles for a bigger group.
Everything happens through the website's menu page. Add items to your basket, choose a pickup time, and pay with Visa, Mastercard or PayPal through the secure checkout. If you are ordering for a busy Friday or Sunday evening, preordering for a set time is the smart move, because you skip the wait entirely when you arrive.
The menu also carries dietary flags for gluten-free, vegetarian, sugar-free and dairy-free items, so households with mixed needs can order from the same list without a separate phone call.
Timing is worth noting. Tuesday through Saturday there are two services: lunch from 11:30am to 2:30pm and dinner from 5pm to 9:30pm. Sunday and Monday are dinner-only, from 5pm to 9:30pm. Between the lunch close and dinner open each day the kitchen takes a break, so time your pickup accordingly and dinner will be ready when you are.