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| - When I review on yelp, I try to consider all aspects of the experience - the cuisine, of course, is front and center, but other aspects of the experience, such as décor, or ambiance, or service, are also hugely important.
That is why I appreciate businesses such as the brand-new Orient House on Park St., who invited us to sit down and eat despite the fact that we'd wondered in, like jackasses, about 10 minutes before they were to close. In spite of offering to get our stuff for take-out, we were instead taken to a table in the front of the house and our food - crab ragoon, veggie and regular egg rolls, egg drop and sweet and sour soup, and pepper garlic beef, arrived quickly, hot and delicious. The food was absolutely excellent, and the egg rolls were clearly handmade. The egg drop soup, often easily mistaken for warm snot at most crappy Chinese joints, was rich and flavorful, and the sweet-and-sour was brimming with mushrooms and tofu and spicy hot. The beef dish was amazingly fragrant, the peppers, garlic and black bean sauce combining in a wonderful aroma that worked in harmony to flavor the tender beef. All of this ten minutes before they closed. We couldn't believe it.
We look forward to visiting again and trying items off the not-so-secret "Chinese-only" menu they have. For now, the stuff on the menu they give to everybody is pretty awesome.
The ambiance is a bit lacking, but at normal dinner hours with a full house I'm sure things are much better. We noticed that the clock in the shape of Vietnam must be a holdover from the restaurant that occupied this space up until recently.
Thanks, Orient House! You won two more fans.
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