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| - Made it here for Pittsburgh Restaurant Week Winter 2016, pre-name change. Our party of 6 sat in a mostly empty dining room on a Sunday night.
We had the KIMCHI and PORK BELLY BITES off the dim sum menu, the MORTADELLA STEAM BUNS and CHICKEN WINGS from the small plates menu, and FLANK STEAK RICE NOODLES and VEGETABLE RAMEN for entrees. Across the board, our appetizers were delicious, while our entrees were extremely underwhelming.
The kimchi, made in house, was wonderfully executed, a well-spiced blend of napa cabbage, daikon, and carrot. I could understand the hype behind the pork belly, which was well-cooked but toothsome, and the aioli pushed the dish over the edge. The mortadella buns were my favorite dish of the night. The authentically soft steamed buns tasted like my childhood, and the mortadella surprised me with how well it complemented the Chinese-style bread, especially topped with the bread and butter pickles. A truly delicious bite. And the chicken wings didn't particularly stand out but were no slouch.
I wish we had stopped there (and ordered more appetizers), because both our noodle dishes were so lackluster I could barely believe they came from the same kitchen. The primary taste of both dishes was simply salt. The flank steak completed lacked flavor, as if all the taste of the meat had been simmered for stock and boiled away. And the broth from my ramen, which is the test of a great bowl of ramen, simply tasted of sodium and nothing else. As a salt junkie who frequently overseasons my food, I was surprised by how disappointing I found the dish.
I'd perhaps return to give G&G another try post-rebranding. After all, the space is beautiful, and buns are definitely worth repeating. The direction they chose to take the restaurant surprised me, as I wouldn't have expected them to shift towards a heavier reliance on more authentically-Asian dishes. It just didn't seem to me like their strong suit. A true dm sum menu should be much more extensive than 4 or 5 dishes, and ramen broth, even vegetable ramen broth, should taste as if it has been stewed with aromatics for forever. Hopefully, these deficiencies that feel like huge shortcuts will be finessed as they continue to streamline their menu.
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