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| - I have been to Miu's twice now, once with a group of friends and once with my husband. The best thing about both experiences was walking in seeing all Chinese customers. That is always a good sign.
The first time, they did not have a Canto chef yet, so we ordered all Szechuan and we were super impressed. We love our food spicy, and they are certainly not afraid to spice their food! The bean thread noodles in spicy/sour sauce is my favorite. We left wanting to go back once they had a Cantonese chef on staff.
Fast forward to Labor Day weekend - we decided to go back and try their Cantonese dishes. While their bean thread noodles were still awesome, I was extremely disappointed in their Cantonese dishes. We may have just hit it on an off weekend, but to me, it seemed as though the Szechuan chef was just learning how to cook Canto style. We ordered the Crispy Pan Fried noodles, Wor Wonton Soup, and although it's szechuan, the Mapo Tofu.
Let me preface this by saying, I am Chinese, from a Chinese family, raised in the East Coast, many family style dinners in NYC with lazy susans, bad service, and sketchy locations. I was also brought up cooking Cantonese. So am I harsh on my ratings? Probably. But, some things I feel are just unacceptable.
I couldn't call the Wor Wonton Soup wonton soup because there was probably only one whole wonton in the entire bowl. Granted, a small soup was enough to feed three-four, it was mainly all broth with a bit of napa cabbage. I make wonton soup a lot, and to me it seemed like they boiled the wontons way in advance or let them sit in the broth, thus they all fell apart. The meat had all fallen out of their wonton wrappers and everything was just floating around. There was nothing cohesive about this soup. That's kind of a big deal. Or possibly they did not take the time to actually fold and seal them correctly. But the broth seemed cloudy and starchy which leads me to believe the wontons had been sitting in the broth for a long period of time. Also - it was not worth the cost to order "Wor" wonton style because other than the above mentioned ingredients, there was maybe one slim piece of char-siu and chicken. What makes Wor wonton special is the additional ingredients.
Onto the Pan Fried Noodles (hong kong style). This dish was confusing to me. Were the noodles yellow? Yes. Were they crispy? Yes. But that's about it. The "gravy" did not taste like pan fried noodle gravy. And, the dish was 90 percent peppers and onions, with a couple slices of Char Siu. $11.95. Not worth it. PLUS, I have never had red and yellow peppers/onions on top of pan fried noodles. Ever. Again, another reason I think they were passing their Szechuan chef off as a Cantonese one. Not worth the price. I have no problem ordering this dish at even $14.95 if the gravy is good and the toppings are fresh and plentiful. $11.95 for peppers and onions on top of noodles is not worth it in my opinion.
Last, but not least, Mapo Tofu. It was decent, but again, not a flavor profile I had ever experienced for this dish. The first time we had eaten at Miu's, we had ordered the water boiled beef. The Mapo Tofu had the same exact flavor as the water boiled beef sauce. A very strong, almost over bearing flavor of anise and lemongrass. Also missing was the ground pork, which is standard for Mapo. It gives the dish flavor which it so badly needed. $8.50 for a meager dish.
Overall, we left feeling incredibly cheated and deceived. Besides the high price point for substandard food and quality, the deception of trying to pass a chef off as Cantonese left a bad taste in our mouths. It almost felt like they had run out of everything and were trying to skimp to make what they did have last. We would've been happier if they had said "don't order from the Cantonese menu" so we would know that we shouldn't.
The reason for the two stars is A) I can't fault the service. The girls that helped us were extremely nice and accommodating. Sure, you have to ask for everything, but, they at least brought you what you needed with a smile (not like in Chinatown where they throw your plates and utensils at you;) And B) their bean thread noodles are still something I would go back and order again. $3.95 I believe (maybe $2.95) for a large bowl of glass noodles and spicy/sour sauce is still worth it in my book.
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