Joanne Witt
Google
We had a lovely warm welcome. Too bad the food we had didn't live up to the hype and apparently the menu changes, so the one that I had looked at a few weeks ago is not the same menu they're using now. What my dining companion and I encountered wasn't a dinner menu, but more of menu with small dishes, a snacky kind of meal and we went to have dinner.
This was my second visit here, the first time we got there an hour after they opened and they were out of most of the food. At this meal we arrived a half an hour after opening and they were only out of two dishes.
One enters the restaurant and orders food from the front counter. I never received a receipt from the restaurant or even saw an itemized bill and none was emailed or texted to me. I said something about it and I was told that it would be emailed to me but it didn't ever arrive. Frankly, I don't know if I even paid a tip because not having seen a receipt, it was hard to tell.
We began eating and I completely forgot to ask again about the receipt. But I did check my credit card and it was charged.
I ordered a pot of tea that was supposed to be for two people but it wasn't even enough for one and the water was never refilled. I didn't have enough to drink to go along with dinner. I could have easily gone through two of those pots.
We ordered four dishes, none of them were memorable and the meal just wasn't satisfying. There weren't any dinner entrees on the menu and the menu only had one vegetable appetizer and one vegetable dumpling. The dishes offered were much less vegetable forward then I'm used to from an Asian restaurant.
We started off with a cold Bang Bang Chicken Salad. The presentation was uninspired, just some brownish chicken with green onions on a plate. I could taste some sesame paste, which gave it a creamy texture and chili but like all the dishes we ate at this meal, it lacked a harmony of flavors and textures. The dish came unadorned, which is normal for a small plate /appetizer. The stringy Bang Bang Chicken tasted flat with the sauce coming across as if it was an afterthought and dolloped on. Perhaps had there been more acid in the dish and it sat on a bed of cellophane noodles, or some rice or even some shredded cucumbers the contrasting textures and brightness would have punched up the dish and made it memorable.
We ordered two different dumplings. Unlike my experience in most Chinese restaurants, despite the fact that they were all steamed, they did not come out in a bamboo steamer, but on a plate, already sauced or seasoned, six dumplings per order. There were no condiments out on the table. Although I did request some black vinegar and it was promptly brought over to me.
The first dumpling we tried, was Toothpick Beef. They were dry and rather than tasting beef, my first bite presented the taste of chili, and the experience of eating it was just a mouthful of spiciness. Surprisingly the next dumpling we got Zhong, dusted with a chili powder tasted very similar to the previous dumpling as all I tasted was spice and my dining companion was asking me what the name of those juicy dumplings are that I make at home. Because both dumplings have a mouth feel , it could only be described as the opposite of succulent.
The final dish we ordered was Old Beijing Noodles. It was an uninspired version of this dish. Rather than experiencing the vibrant flavors of this warm noodle and pork dish with slivers of cucumbers and carrots, that I am used to, it just never quite came together, but it was the prettiest presentation of a dish because of the colors, that we had for dinner.
As I said previously, I loved the warmth of the staff plus the way the restaurant is set up, with various types of seating areas, including where we chose to sit, which was right in front of but with a wall separating us, from the kitchen, where we got entertained by the banter of the chef and his assistant.
It appears the restaurant is well received as there was a constant flow of customers and they slowly ran out of most of the menu while we were eating.
