rev:text
| - I wanted some Asian food during my last night in Cleveland, so decided to visit this restaurant after scouting the area out (with Yelp, of course). It's tucked away in a little plaza along with a marketplace, but not too hard to find.
I came in for a rather early dinner so the place was pretty empty when I walked in, but the interior is clean and decently spacious. The host was really nice and promptly got me seated. I ordered the Shui Zhu Yu (Szechuan style boiled fish) for ~$15, which is a dish I fell in love with when I visited China a few years ago. The food came out really quickly.
Compared to what I had in China and a couple other places, the dish itself was not as good. It lacked the strong flavors and the distinctive spiciness of the mala peppers that I really look for (makes your mouth go numb!). However, I really appreciated that the food wasn't too salty (which in my opinion is a big problem in a lot of Asian restaurants), and the portion was pretty generous.
What really made this place stand out was the hospitality and the service. I feel like Asian restaurants often have a bad reputation for aloof and bad service, but this place definitely broke that stereotype. The servers were friendly and checked in multiple times to make sure I was doing okay. They offered to pack my food to-go when they noticed that I had stopped eating. The owner even stopped by to see how I was doing! The real highlight, however, was when I was waiting outside for my uber (it was raining), and the owner himself stepped outside with an umbrella to see if he could walk me to my destination. I think that's really going above and beyond for your customers.
If I lived in the area, I'd definitely go back for my Asian food fix. Looks like they have a big (but not overwhelming) selection of authentic dishes, and it's probably the best you'll get in the area!
|