Veronica V.
Yelp
You know, I REALLY REALLY wanted to like this place. I now live very close to it (less than a block away), and quite frankly, don't know of too many Chinese restaurants with a patio, let alone a heated one. While there are some excellent aspects to this place, it only gets 2 stars because based on two dinners (one dine-in, the other take out), the price does not justify anything more than two stars.
I also want it said that I do not believe Chinese food should be "cheap" - China has an amazing culinary history that most North Americans are oblivious to, and do not know the breadth of flavours, quality and techniques that is available to explore outside of the the typical "Western Chinese" dishes that people are accustomed to.
Ok, first the good parts:
Service 5 stars: excellent, courteous, knowledgeable and friendly staff. Absolutely NO complaints. Our waiter gave us a great recommendation for an EXCELLENT bottle of wine that went great with the food, and in fact did NOT try to up sell us, which is always appreciated. He also recommended the best dish, which was to pay the extra charge for getting our second course of the Peking Duck done as the cumin deep fried dish.
Patio gets 5 stars: honestly, a gorgeous patio, heated, beautiful view, especially at sunset. Very romantic!!
The sautéed Chinese celery with dried shredded tofu was 4 stars: during our dine-in dinner, this vegetable dish was quite good. And at $20 for this small dish, it amounted to a bargain.
Peking Duck second course (only) - deep fried cumin duck carcass was 5 stars. Honestly, it was stupid good. Highly recommend.
Now, for the less than great aspects of it:
The Peking Duck was 1 star - ok, if you're gonna charge $98 for just the FIRST COURSE, then maybe: the meat shouldn't be bone dry; the meat should have flavour; the cucumber and green onions should NOT be completely DRY and old (like as if it's been stored open in the fridge for days) and maybe you could put some effort into the sauce. We have been fortunate to have travelled to China for work in our past, and have had numerous Peking Duck experiences in Beijing over 10+ years of regular travel. The only good part was that they did not cheat us out of the Duck we paid for - we definitely got the WHOLE Duck, and the fatty skin was ok - not great, but ok.
The pea tip in garlic dish for the dine in dinner was merely adequate. For $28, I think it could have been better.
Now for the abysmal take out: we wanted to believe that maybe our first experience was an aberration so we ordered take out. Now remember that we live less than a block away, so long transit time is not an issue....
Twice cooked rack of lamb ($58) was zero stars. Against my misgivings, my husband insisted on ordering this. WOW. Basically, take a nice rack of lamb. BOIL THE CRAP out of it until it is dry and has no flavour left. Then put it in really goopy batter, and deep fry it in too low a temperature oil so that the goopy batter soaks up ALL that oil. That's the dish. The best part was the cumin salt dip that came with it as that was actually really tasty and I used that the next day on my eggs. I didn't take any photos.
Healthy vegetable mixed ($22) - well, ok it was sort of edible so I guess it gets 2 stars.
Pan fried pork and chive dumplings: this actually was ok, but probably got made first and sat while the rest of the order was prepared, which affected it. But for $23, it should have been amazing.
So yeah. We're not going back unless we hear that they have a change in management or kitchen staff. But gotta say, we both fantasize about that deep fried cumin duck dish - it was seriously delicious. But for the incredible prices they charge, it needs to get much, much better.