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| - In all my years of coming to Las Vegas I never knew really good and authentic Chinese food even existed here. Like others have mentioned, this certainly is a hidden gem.
A couple of friends attending the jewelry trade show at the Mandalay had invited me to a nice quiet high end dinner at the Jasmine Restaurant at the Bellagio when , just as we were about to leave for the Bellagio, my friend received a business call saying their business contacts wanted to invite us for dinner instead.....and were too afraid to decline. All I knew was that I was asked to get in the car and just follow the leader.
Being the fish out of water, I didn't speak a or understand a word of Chinese and had no idea what the plan was. We eventually ended up off the strip at some big stand alone casino across from the Palms Hotel and Casino. As we walked into the casino from the parking garage, my friend whispered to me that the host was taking us to a Chinese restaurant, and if she eats hear you can bet it's going to be VERY good! The host has been living in Vegas for over 30 years so she should know where all the good eating spots are now.....ok, so in we go. This was a medium end casino, and as we walked through it we finally came upon this Chinese Restaurant called "Ping Pang Pong"..... yes, you got that right....just as I've spelled it. Flashbacks of the movie "16 Candles" flashed through my head, but I'll leave that one alone :)
Tucked inside the casino is this very casual, very Chinese looking, restaurant with an open kitchen concept where you can hear the burners blasting away and the woks clanging away. The place was quite crowded, but it appeared our host knew everybody there and I was told she is a VIP guest there. We came to the table and there sat 4 other of her elderly friends already seating and waiting for us. Oh boy.....there goes my hopes for a peaceful and relaxing dinner. Ok, lets cut it short and say that it was a very typical large table seating for a group of elderly folk who enjoyed their meals with loud talk.....the red wine they were gulping down didn't seem to help matters either. Anyway, I did not understand a single word spoken at the table all night, but no worries.....I had food to keep me busy!......good authentic Chinese food at that! And note, when I say this is authentic food, I mean authentic.....PF Chang's and Panda Express are NOT authentic :P
I pretty much left the ordering to the host and her friends since they seemed to know what good Chinese food should taste like. Needless to say they ordered all very authentic dishes that westerners likely wouldn't have known how to order. Without going into too much detail about each dish.....because I really can't remember the names of each one......we started off with lotus root soup which was very good....absolutely delicious, and coincidentally is my favorite Chinese soup! There was a roast duck dish, lotus root stir fried with celery and rice wine sauce, egg white fried rice with dried scallops, stir fried cubes of beef with a dark brown sauce, ginger and scallion lobster over noodles, farm raised chicken cooked with chestnuts and rice wine, some green vegetables with baby abalone and sauce, sea bass steamed with black beans, ............and I think that was it. It was ALL yummy, and I was really surprised at finding this quality and standard of Chinese food all the way out here! But yes, it exists. Yay! :)
All these delicious dishes for 9 people came to about $295 before tips, which was actually pretty good given the excellent quality of the food. If I should ever find several friends who'll join me for a good Chinese meal during future visits, I will definitely bring them here!
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