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| - As the great Homer Simpson once said: "Hello taste?? Where are you?!"
Okay, I was definitely drawn in by the promise of unlimited noodle refills. And I'd heard that this place is legendary in China. But what I had was....flavorless and boring. I hate to say it as I had high hopes and was expecting big things, but there was nothing to it. The noodles were okay, but they are the rounded rice noodles that when put into a soup just make it a sloppy mess, and that's essentially what this was, so I stopped at two bowls of them. Got the pork bone soup. Pork was tough and the soup was very plain, just nothing to it taste w
Got a side of the crispy fried chicken bits, which were good. They taste like popcorn chicken but with a cinnamon twist to the flavor. This is good.
The service was slow, but the waitresses were friendly. Prices were not outlandish, but with the lackluster overall quality, I'll pass on coming back
UPDATE:
Second time's a charm, it seems! After my first review I was invited back to give the restaurant another try. It seems that the customer service rep, Dora, had read my review and she reached out to me to ask if I would give them a second chance. I did, and I'm happy I decided to do so! When a business cares enough to invite you back to try out their other menu items, that shows that they genuinely care about their customers and their experience there and I consider that above and beyond.
So I arrive at the restaurant and ask for Dora and she quickly pops out of a booth to greet me along with the restaurant manager who goes by M (I think that's right) It also seems very James Bond, although I assure those reading, there's nothing cloak and dagger about this meal experience!
We sit down to talk and briefly go over my first experience. Flavor seems to be the obvious topic as I found the first time to be lacking. They bring out the red carpet: Two bowls of soup (Sour and Spicy flavored soup with Xiang Xe pulled smoked beef and Original Crossing the Bridge). The sweet and sour broth is not my favorite but is flavorful, robust and tasty. Spicy but not overpowering and as soon as you've had the broth the sour element disappears almost immediately. The smoked beef is tender and flaky and it's aromatic qualities are readily apparent and blend well with the rest of the ingredients. I discover there is a technique to properly eating this soup, to which Dora and M are happy to help me with. They sit intently as I eat my meal. The Original Crossing the Bridge soup has multiple layers of flavor as well and I find it to be my preference. It's subtle but salty, has the right amount of oil which helps retain the temperature of the soup as it layers the top of the soup itself, and the pork is tender and the other ingredients such as sausage and fungus add to a broth that is not singular in its depth or dimensions.
They also bring out appetizers: Salty Crispy Chicken and Crispy Pork Filet. I enjoyed the chicken immensely before, so they indulge me again, to which I am grateful. Both are quite tasty.
Then come the drinks. The bring me three: Super Fruit Tea, Cheese Strawberry drink and Strawberry Yakult (yogurt). All three are amazing, but the last one is my favorite of all of them. The cheese drink is amazingly not cheesy which is a good thing, meaning no flavor overpowers the others, it's a balanced palate.
Last but not least, the desserts: Brown Sugar Sticky Rice (resembles a large French fry) and Deep Fried Pumpkin Pancake with Red Bean paste. I'm not a huge dessert guy, but both are good. If I had to pick, I'd definitely go with the Brown Sugar Sticky Rice cakes. A really nice balance. The Pumpkin Pancakes remind me of sugar coated donuts but without the sugar. More demure but still good.
So that was my second visit with the good people at Dagu. Beyond caring that I'd had an initially not so great experience, they were just super nice people and showed me another side to their food.
It does pack plenty of flavor, it is worth going for and most importantly, I will be back! Thanks Dagu, for a great day!
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