M L.
Yelp
I came here with some friends to try some of the more unusual Chinese dishes they offer here. Some I never had before and some were great and a few were not so good. I will say the interior is very nice and upscale for a Chinese restaurant. I guess they do Cajun food here too, like the seafood boils, but we weren't here for that. The service here is 5 stars, very clear communication and they seem to know all the answers to our questions.
We started with some appetizers. The salt pepper chicken wings ($14), steamed oysters ($14), garlic ribs ($12) and the giant grilled squid ($17), followed by Sizzling Rice Soup large ($18). Those chicken wings are some of the best wings I've had. They serve all paddles (flats) as opposed to the drumettes. We asked why, cause I guess there's some that like the drums better. The server said they tried the drums long ago and they just came out too dry and the skin wasn't as well presented on that piece. Good, cause I like the paddles better!
The garlic ribs, OMG, are those good. The first bite was terrific, just those flavors explode in your mouth. Not a ton of meat, but this appetizer is all about flavor! The steamed oysters were good too, we got 2 orders since you just get 4 with each. I liked that the foot was detached from the shell so you didn't have to struggle to yank the meat out still attached to the shell. It was served with a soy ginger broth. The squid, don't get this, it was way too chewy, I supposed over cooked. It's spectacular plated, but that's about it.
The Sizzling Rice Soup arrived and the server poured in the rice crispy things and it was sizzling! It seemed more of a novelty thing, the presentation, but the soup was just OK, flavorful but not anything to write home about, sort of small for the price I thought.
For entrées my friend ordered the Halibut Cheeks ($22), sauteed Pea Shoots ($14) and garlic, and a deep fried sweet and sour whole fish ($35). The Halibut Cheeks came out first presented on a sizzling iron pot. That was impressive! Halibut Cheeks are supposed to be the cheek piece right near the gill on the head of the fish. It's a super tender scallop like morsel. The dish was served with tofu and black shiitake mushrooms sizzling in a nice sauce.
The trouble is, with this dish, is that there are very few actual cheek pieces included, but mostly other fish pieces made up of around the collar of the fish, not the actual cheek as advertised! This upset one friend that was really looking forward to the actual cheeks. Guess they need to rename this dish to Halibut collar with tofu and mushrooms!
Next was the Pea Shoots with Garlic. My friend who ordered, has had this dish before, and it's a wonderfully tender flavorful dish, but not at this restaurant! This dish fell flat, as the cook didn't remove enough of the stems to present with the actual shoots (the tender part). The stems created a overly chewy veggie experience adding a bitter taste to the dish. I see this as just lazy on the cook prep of this dish, cause it's better elsewhere.
After the disappointment with the pea shoots, at least we finished on a high note with the sweet and sour whole fish. It was a Branzani species. You had a choice of this or flounder. Beautifully plated and picture worthy. The taste was very good and the sauce wasn't overly sweet like most sweet and sour sauces, like for sweet and sour pork. Definitely didn't come out of a bottle. One sore point on the fish is they charge extra ($5.00) for the sauce! Our host was sort of pissed about that, like no other restaurant EVER charged extra just to have the sauce, it's supposed to be part of the dish! If you don't pay extra, you just get a dry fried fish! Well, at least the sauce tasted good!
I'll say, this Crawfish place does have some gourmet Chinese dishes you don't find other places. Pricy, but worth coming to to try something different.
