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| - Next to the train tracks along Industrial Blvd, in a dumpy little building behind a bar, sits one of the best Chinese restaurants in Vegas: Diamond Chinese. Almost everyone who finds the restaurant in its uninspired building is dubious that the place could be as good as advertised, but I swear Diamond Chinese doesn't disappoint.
I brought a huge group here and ordered 8 or 9 dishes off the menu. Almost every dish they brought out was a winner.
We started with hot and soup soup and pot stickers. The hot and sour soup is the best I've ever had. Most Chinese restaurants focus on the sour flavor in this dish, but that's only half of the recipe. A good hot and sour is supposed to mix sour and spicy. The cooks at Diamond Chinese nailed it. Fresh ingredients and the perfect balance of spice and sour. The pot stickers (pan-cooked pork dumplings) were classic. Not remarkable or unique, but everything that a dumpling should be -- seasoned pork and vegetable filing in a lightly crispened dumpling.
For main courses, we went with baked pork in chef's sauce and walnut shrimp based on the recommendations of Yelpers. They were spot on. The pork was crispy and tender and the chef's sauce was a great blend of sweet and spicy. And the honey walnut shrimp? Order it. I am most definitely not a seafood guy. Doesn't matter. The shrimp is fresh and crispy and the sauce is spot-on sweet -- not overly sugary, not too creamy. Just right. The orange beef also deserves a huge thumbs up. Best orange sauce I've ever tasted. And the beef was crunchy and delicious.
Some of the other dishes were a bit disappointing. I recommend that you stay away from the kung pao chicken. It's a classic dish, but Diamond Chinese's version is surprisingly bland. The chicken was tender and the vegetables fresh, but the sauce was . . . meh. The lemon chicken was also uninspired, but I generally find all lemon chicken dishes to be dull.
The service was a mixed bag. The waiter was friendly and made some good recommendations, but the kitchen was moving at a snail's pace when we were there for lunch. Seems odd since so many other reviewers comment on the speed of service.
Bottom line: 5 stars for the greatness of the great dishes minus 1 star for the dishes that fell flat.
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