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| - Went to dinner here on 12-29-2011. The place was jumping, and we had to wait a few minutes. While waiting, we watched one of the chefs expertly making hand-made noodles. We were excited to eat hand-made noodles.
Unfortunately, the food did not live up to the anticipation. The noodles were overpriced and small in portion, compared to what you would get in Chinatown. I had the Lan Zhou noodle. I lived in Monterey Park, CA, for a number of years and was used to high quality Chinese noodle dishes. The handmade noodle at Beijing No. 9 tasted good and was properly cooked. However, the broth it was swimming in was weak and lacked punch, and perhaps cooked to appeal to broader tastes.
My partner had a noodle salad dish that was overpowered by Hoisin sauce and ruined by tough tiny chunks of beef that resembled cat food. The Lan Zhou noodle came with thin meager slices of beef that was quite flavorful. We shared the Hainanese chicken dish. I've had this dish in Southeast Asia, and it is one of my favorite chicken and rice dishes. At Beijing No. 9, the rice was dry, the chicken slices were pathetically nonexistent and bony (and did not include the breast meat with skin), and they did not serve the dish with a side of chicken broth like other restaurants do. Awful dish for about twenty dollars.
We went to this restaurant because it was highly recommended and they received rave reviews from Bon Appetit. We would not have minded paying the higher prices if the dishes had been remotely good. However, only go here if you're trapped at Caesar's and can't get to Chinatown. If you can get off the strip, go to the myriad noodle places and Chinese restaurants in Chinatown for superb noodles at less than half the price they charge at Caesar's.
Finally, I'm wondering how wise it is to put so many goldfish in the tanks; they seemed to have no space to move around. There's no reason to subject the goldfish to such overcrowding.
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