James Y.
Yelp
For someone who sort of grew up on Chinese food and eating at Chinese restaurants, flags of skepticism immediately were raised when we stepped into Uncle Yu's. It didn't look like a Chinese restaurant to me, it looked more like a steakhouse. With hundreds of bottles of wine used as the restaurant's "wallpaper", dimly lite atmosphere, staff all nicely dressed in clean crisp white or black dress shirts, this is a steakhouse serving Chinese food?
Alas, we sat down and opened the menu to see what offerings there were. The options looked quite good. From their use of wagu beef and scallops to unique twists on classic Chinese fare, the food at least seemed promising. So we ordered, the following:
Pumpkin Dumplings with Hokkaido Sea Scallops & Wild Shrimp;
Kung Po Three Combo;
Mongolian Beef (Fresh Wagyu 7oz); and
Fried Rice--Pork.
The Pumpkin Dumplings were uniquely made. Flavors were nice and subtle. We were told that they were made to order, so the Pumpkin Dumplings actually came out after our other three dishes, which we were OK with. This starter came with a really nice classic Chinese hot chili oil sauce with hot mustard tossed in, which added a nice horse-radishy kick to it. I liked it. I do, however, think that the stuffing should have been blended in better. It was a bit too chunky for a dumpling. If the stuffing was mashed together better, the flavors may have complimented each other better.
The Kung Po Three Combo was nicely made with what seemed like fresh and tasty and juicy ingredients. I just wish they didn't drench the ingredients in your, what seemed to be, black bean sauce. It made the dish way too salty and I lost sight of the great flavors of the individual components within that dish--disappointing.
The Mongolian Beef is made in a classic sense, with those classic vibrant onions (green and white) and peppers littered around. But like the Kung Po Three Combo, it was too much sauce, which over powered the flavors of the individual ingredients, not allowing them to shine or work together. The crispy rice noodles were just drenched in overly salty sauce and the fragrant vegetables just melded together in saltiness. Tragic.
The Fried Rice--Pork was fine, looked like it came from Panda Express, honestly. Nothing special, nothing flashy, just pieces of cut up ham (not even chunks of pork) fried up with the simple and basic rice, eggs, and some vegetables. You're not missing out on anything if you have a Panda near where you are.
So yes, the food was disappointing. Quite, actually. But the service was pretty great. You have steakhouse service at this establishment. It's just quite disappointing that the food could not live up to the service.