I'm not going to mince words here and even though this place is run by Chinese people, it really caters to the non-adventurous, boring, non-Asian tourists and local set of customers. It's definitely not your Chinatown or Flushing establishment. But the food is actually not really that bad. It's just not super authentic and it's horrifically overpriced. It's located in one of the most boring parts of NYC - Midtown East. The decor is the cheesey, "fancy" kind and the environment is the type where the Chinese people get one menu and everyone else gets a different menu (this is actually really most Chinese restaurants). So either go with Chinese people to order for you or really know your Chinese food.
The only reason I was there because some relatives were in town and it was kind of a middle ground for all of us. By the time my mom and I got there, my mom's cousin had already started ordering from the Chinese menu. I'll be honest and say that I don't know exactly what they ordered but we started with the Peking Duck ($50), a sauteed shrimp dish, sauteed pea shoot with garlic ($23), a Fujianese fried rice and a pork dish. While the duck was good, they didn't really serve it in the traditional way that I'm used to. They actually wrap a few pieces in the pancake for you like a mini burrito and then gave us 4 skinny leg pieces on a plate. Usually, I prefer when they carve the duck in front of you and leave all the pieces for you to serve on your own with the pancake, scallion, and hoisin sauce seperate. I felt like they skimped on the duck by either not giving us the whole thing or it was the world's smallest duck. The only plus was that the skin was nice and crispy.
We then got served the rest of our dishes which also pretty small considering they were supposed to be family style. Despite all my ragging on this place, the actual food was pretty decent. The shrimp was cooked to the perfect tender and firm texture with this thick egg white sauce over it. I really enjoyed it over a bed of white rice. The fried rice dish wasn't really a typical fried rice as it has this gravy so thick over it, that we originally thought they forgot the rice (it was at the bottom). It's an incredibly comforting and filling dish and I liked that unlike a traditional fried rice it wasn't very salty or greasy. The sauteed pea shoot tops were great - always a fan favorite and it's really hard to get it wrong unless it's all stem and no leaves. But this dish had a nice mix of the two. The pork dish was similar to a shredded pork in black bean type dish. Usually at this point of a Chinese family style meal, I'm bursting at the seams but I was still hungry here. Sadly, the one type of food Asian people are not good at is dessert. So funnily enough, they had cheesecake and tiramisu on their dessert menu as well as some standard Chinese ones like a fresh fruit plate and hot red bean mochi soup. My mom wanted the tiramisu and it really tasted like a tiramisu that they got from a Costco - which is not a bad thing but not necessarily something I want to pay for at a Chinese restaurant.
In true Chinese fashion there was a huge "fight" as to who would pay the bill and my mom's cousin won out, so I don't really know how much everything was but looking at the prices where most of the entrees were in the $20+ range, they easily spent over $200 on this meal - which I think is absolutely ridiculous. You can easily have a more authentic and more affordable meal in other parts of the city but I do acknowledge that places like these exist for a reason and definitely serve a purpose - it's just not really a purpose that I would usually have.
Photo Credit: 10best.com
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