I read the few reviews on this place in hopes that maybe these were tough reviewers. Everyone has their own opinion on how these restaurants are and the following is my own opinion and with my own palette's tastes- so feel free to try for yourself or read on if you want to know my take on it. I'm going to go through most of what we ordered and break it down like that. I don't know about the comment about the rice, on another review here, white rice is white rice is white rice in my opinion when getting Chinese take-out. But we usually order from another local Chinese food place, which evidently either is on it's way out of business or has some issues going on with their location. But that has nothing to do with this place, we decided to order our usual dishes- the typical take-out- sesame chicken, steamed dumplings, chicken with broccoli, veggie lo-mein, egg rolls, and a few other dishes. This was all ordered for delivery, so I cannot say I would see anything on dishes- it all arrived in plastic or aluminum containers or the take-out boxes. No styrofoam (we didn't order any combos nor anything off lunch menu.)
The rice was not the issue. At all. In fact the only complaint about the rice that I have is that they did not include enough of it- they only include rice in a specifically marked combo meal/lunch deal, or for the chef specialties it looks like- because I ordered a fair amount of food and only received two small containers of rice for 4 main dishes. I realize there's probably a difference in how much rice people eat with their meals- varies from person to person and certainly culturally there are differences as well, but we would have liked more rice. And not to have to pay for it because main dishes should come with it, as like with most other Chinese food establishments.
Dumplings- they seem "over-boiled." Not steamed. I feel like I have to let them sit out for a bit to get rid of some of the moisture out of them. Also the dipping sauce with them has no chives in it (just something i've noticed in other dumpling dishes) and is a very sour or tart taste to it that doesn't seem to belong- not quite like the dipping sauces for dumplings at other Chinese restaurants. The filling was OK... but a bit loose, wet and bland. Noodle/casing definitely a bit mushy.
Egg rolls- not impressive but they are your standard egg rolls. Kind of hard to mess those up but these are just a bit bland for my taste. Usually you can see the difference between the various veggies inside the egg rolls- I couldn't really tell what was what in there it looks almost like it was all ground into a paste or something. Or shredded a little too finely.
Spare ribs- cut fairly thick, your basic caramelized spare ribs. Sauce used is good, fairly sweet. I prefer them cut very thin and with less fatty bits on them. I know the fat is hard to exclude and cut down on, as it's translucent during cooking and while the food is still hot, but these were fairly fatty spare ribs. I found myself picking through a lot to get at the meat.
The main meal dishes we ordered- from Sesame chicken to Chicken & Broccoli, etc, were all quite bland. one was extremely greasy tasting to each bite of chicken, seems like the chicken absorbed the grease but not the flavor of the sauce or spices used, and others were just not flavorful.
I would unlikely order dumplings from here again, and may not order anything else from here either... It just wasn't worth the money, in my opinion. And the pricing is not bad at all for Chinese food on this menu, just, again, not enough flavor for me... Everything was cooked well enough, nothing raw, no weird things found in the food, as of yet (we are still eating through leftovers,) just... sub-par taste. But that all depends on what your palette likes. And I'm not a fan of spicy flavors, in fact, my significant other likes to tell me I eat everything super bland.... but this food was just really bland, even for me.
The service was fine- I had ordered online and had some confusion as the order, after I had selected "pay by card" had stated I was paying cash, after ordering. So I called and the lady explained that the delivery driver would have a card reader. They called back a few minutes later to let me know it would be about an hour / hour and a half wait, which was fine for us as that is typically what we expect to wait when ordering that amount of food. Delivery driver was very polite. Service was fine. The food is just not up to par. I hate having to leave sub-3-4-star reviews but I just can't do any better on this one.
If you made if this far through my review, thank you and please leave me a feedback or response or something. Hope this helps you make your decisions on Chinese in Bradenton, FL easier! I know it's really hard finding places with good delivery down here! read more