| rev:text
| - I came here on a Thursday night for a surprise 50th bday dinner in the private room. First impression when I walked -- very formal and elegant for a Chinese restaurant, wait staff distributed around the restaurant ready to serve the patrons.
We experienced some difficulty communicating with the hostess (her English wasn't great) when we gave her the name for the reservation. When she finally figured out which reservation we were with she gestured in the direction of one of their party rooms. She didn't escort but shouted to another waiter where we were going as we were walking over. Not the best first impression, service-wise.
The party room was very nicely decorated with crown moulding, upholstered chairs, even fake props on the bookshelf. Each person was served a glass of ice water-- a sign of things to come!
Somebody else from our party ordered so I can't comment on what was on the menu but here's what we ate. The first several courses came all at once: A dressed green salad (not bad, dressing was quite good), mashed yam mounds with blueberry sauce which looked identical to soft serve ice cream with blueberry sauce (okay), lotus root stuffed with glutinous rice (quite good), chicken in brown sauce (very good), tureen of rib soup (great flavour and spice), braised pig knuckle (okay), lobster (standard), spicy shrimp with cashews (really good!).
I liked that things were unexpected but well balanced. The dishes started on a sweet note, gradually moving to more intense flavour and spice. I particularly enjoyed the chicken and the spicy shrimp.
The next set of courses: Peking duck in 2 courses (skin only and then the meaty slices) with pancakes and condiments, steamed whole fish, trio of vegetables, frog legs stew, fried rice, Vancouver crab with chilli and Szechwan peppercorns. For dessert, fried pear shaped red bean dumpling. Everything was very good but the highlight was the duck for sure! Dishes were quite spicy and intensely seasoned... Lots or water glasses bring refilled and some people started tapping out!
|