Apparently the Zhe Er restaurant at Kennedy Square next to Moji has been here for 6 months and replaced the old vermicelli restaurant. Never noticed it before so decided to give the place a try. The restaurant specializes in Qingdao/TsingTao style cuisine. The servers were extremely friendly and helpful, the food came quickly, and best of all, the food is good and reasonably priced.
We ordered the pork bone soup with black fungus and winter melon. Very meaty and delicious. Very similar to the Korean pork bone soup minus the heat.
The Tsing Dao style fried clams was also very tasty, although on the slightly saltier side and a few were sandy. But still plenty of clams and delicious.
The abalone was quite small but of excellent quality. Came still in the shell and was quite tender, so I assume it was frozen and not the dehydrated type.
The house style cooked butter fish was the only dish I didn't particularly enjoy because it was too salty for my taste. The fish itself was decent, but the soy sauce was too over-powering. Guess this is typical with northern-style Chinese cuisine.
Finally, the house style eggplant was awesome! They are basically eggplant french fries! Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and covered in a slightly sweet and tangy sauce. This was the first time I've had eggplant cooked like this and it was delicious!
Overall, really enjoyed this place and was much better than I was expecting. Will definitely come back to try some other menu items.