Not your average low-priced Chinese watery, so be prepared to pay up. Our non-wine-paired meal for 4 people came out to about $35-45 per head. Wing Lei is modeled after top-end Chinese restaurants you will find only in Hong Kong, like at the Grand Hyatt or Mandarin hotels there, and a step above The China Club or Peking Garden. Those that aren't familiar with these places may be put back by the prices and presentation, but this is supposed to be a Hong Kong restaurant, not a Chinese restaurant (if you really have to get into semantics).
No shorts or tank tops here, but nice casual. The atmosphere is upscale, as is the service, and i later realized this is the key eatery for high rollers from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The Peking duck salad and fried potsticker appetizers were top shelf. They were so good we asked for another round before the main dishes arrived.
But.....
... that's when it all went downhill.
The main course dishes were nice attempts, but fell far behind expectations. The 'Yung chow" fried rice, which is a Hong Kong staple, and which is almost impossible to screw up, was dismal. My mom said it was a "Chinese dish, but in Japanese portion", meaning it was small, barely enough to feed a single person. Also, the rice was non-stick grain, which I can appreciate as an option for those that like non-stick rice, but the authentic dish has never veered from sticky rice.
The black-peppered beef..... tasted more English than Chinese. Hong Kong is a particular style of black-peppered dish, similar to 'au poivre', but has a blend of bernaise to bring out the flavor. The one here was.... actually hard to finish... it actually tasted like rehydrated beef jerky.
The 3 cup chicken, was ok. Interesting. Tasty, but had a soapy-like taste which is normally caused by too much or poorly-prepared ginger. But it wasn't bad, and I wouldnt' pass on it if I were offered it again, but I wouldn't be the one ordering it.
The spicy shrimp was good. It had a nice garlicky, chili-saucy base, which was probably the only main-course dish that had close resemblence to what this restaurant was trying to achieve.
The desert...... was clearly the blueprint for what you call a map of short-cuts. $10 for two mochi-mango ice-creams sliced in half? It costs $3 for a box of 10 at Trader Joe's! At least try to make it stand out with sauces or something..... but NO...... stupid people won't know the difference (NOT!).
Wing lei's donut with vanilla sauce was actually tasty...... but nothing special.
The coconut ice-cream was good, and definately something I would order again in the future.....
.... but then comes the all-important $63 question... would I come here again?
No. I wouldn't turn it down if it was part of a larger group of invites, but I will never come back here again if I have to take charge.... UNLESS it is just for the appetizers at the bar.
You're much better off eating at Red 8, which is only about 200 feet away near the main casino.