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| - My mother and I came for lunch today. All the smaller tables at the restaurant were taken. Actually, most of the tables, except the ones reserved for large parties, were taken. The lone server gestured us to a table at the front with a large potted plant on it. One of the two chairs at this table was almost fully blocked by a man sitting at the table behind this chair. My mom couldn't sit down until that man moved (the server had to gesture at him to move). The table itself had an expansion that was folded in partially under the table, so there was less space for our legs. The table was not meant for customers. It had cardboard boxes on it prior to our sitting down.
Once we sat down, we requested that the server wipe the table (cardboard box dust and all). We asked in Cantonese and English, and even mimed the table wiping. The server told us she didn't speak English or Cantonese, turned around and left.
Another woman, possibly the owner, thought we wanted to order. We asked her to have our table wiped. She said that if another table opened up, she would have us relocated. Then she and the server proceeded to put our table settings down on the table. My bowl had a bit of dried rice on the side. They never ended up wiping the table or relocating us. We had to wipe our own table. Ah. The plant also never left our table. This caused me more distress than my mother, because the plant was to my mother's left and she is right-handed. The plant was to my right, and every time I wanted to place my chopsticks on my plate, I had to do so carefully as not to touch the plant. I tried sitting closer to the left of the table, but the table extension was in the way. I don't think I've ever been closed in by a table extension and a plant before.It wasn't fun.
They gave us the lunch menus. Lunch menus are applicable Monday to Friday. The menu was entirely in Chinese. I don't read much Chinese, so I needed my mother's help translating. FYI, they have one of the lunch menus in English on their takeout menu. They also have that same lunch menu in English outside of their restaurant on the window. And just another FYI, because this may not be the most obvious thing, their $4.75 lunch entrees do not come with rice. Rice is a dollar extra.
They have a $4.99 lunch menu that I could not find in English. This one contains their fried rice/noodle, soup noodles, etc. This comes with soy milk or soup. I opted for soup after seeing their crusty soy milk pitcher.
The soup was hot and sour soup. It was pretty good, but it wasn't hot enough temperature-wise. It wasn't particularly hot spice-wise and it wasn't particularly sour either. I believe mine had a few bits of raw garlic in it too. That being said, the soup contained plenty of fungus bits, carrot bits, bamboo shoot bits and what felt like egg drop. I quite enjoyed the soup.
What we ordered:
Lamb meat and cabbage soup noodle ($4.99): They say that the soup has been boiling for a long time (making the soup more flavorful). The soup had good color and it was not a clear soup, but a slightly thicker soup, but the predominant flavor was that of white pepper. The noodle base was really good. The noodles were not thick noodles, which is a plus in my book. They were also a good texture. They had some chew, but they were not super chewy. The cabbage was either pan fried until it got burnt edges, or they gave us cabbage with a considerable number of brown bits. Same goes for the slices of garlic and the green onions. All had brown bits. The lamb had some lamb taste, but I wish there was more lamb taste. I also wish there was more lamb. Texture-wise, the lamb was not super tender, but it was also not super dry. Ah. This dish also has a few sliced carrots and black fungus in it. Those were not particularly note-worthy, but better to have them than not have them. This dish had some steam coming off of it when it came to the table, but it could still have been hotter.
Something between a braised and a stir fried vermicelli with shredded meat, dried shrimps, Chinese mushroom, onion, and green onion ($4.99). This came out piping hot and steaming. It was great. There could have been more shredded meat in this, but I found the dry shrimps, and couldn't complain. The portion was pretty good too. This was fairly standard in terms of taste. I would not come back to the restaurant just for this.
Their regular menu has some interesting things on it. They have some kind of diced rabbit, braised frog legs, and some kind of turtle soup.
Noise level: During lunch, some lady was leaving and, standing next to our table, started yelling across the restaurant to others in her party.
Perhaps I will come back with a larger group (as to avoid the table of doom). There are still things I'm curious to try. They have a spicy shredded chicken that sounds good. They also have a Beijing style ja jang myun and a Northern Chinese style cold noodle that sound good.
Total damage for this trip: $12.60 after ta
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