The Husband was tasked with picking a restaurant tonight 11/20/24, and chose Spicy Kitchen (he…read morechose it only because he said that it had a rating of 4.8). When I choose a restaurant, I read other reviewers' comments and their recommendations, then I look at the restaurant's menu online as to what else is offered.
I can't do spicy, but because I'm a trooper I made the best of a difficult situation. I chose the following two dishes that sounded "safe": Spring Onion Protected Beef, and Yu Xiang Braised Eggplant. Also, you can't have Asian dishes without the requisite bowls of rice (I ordered a bowl each for us in lieu of ordering a fried rice or fried noodle dish).
The Spring Onion Protected Beef was flavorful and delicious, and came with lots of sliced white onions and 1-inch pieces of spring onions (looks like green onions). This was right up my alley because I looove onions (red/white) and spring/green onions.
The Yu Xiang Braised Eggplant was ABSOLUTELY divine. It kinda reminded me of eggplant in garlic sauce that you'd get in other Asian restaurants, but much tastier. Make no mistake, this dish came with TWICE the amount of eggplant that you'd receive in other Asian restaurants.
It was a good thing I didn't order a third entree because these 2 dishes were just the right amount for 2 people - otherwise, a wheelbarrow would've been needed to wheel me home!
When the bill came, I noticed that the eggplant dish was called "Fish-flavored Eggplant". I thought that that was a mistake because the eggplant did not taste fishy or have any fish taste at all. Later on at home I compared the Chinese characters on the bill/receipt to the Chinese characters on the paper menu I asked our server for (to take home), and the dish is correct. So keep in mind that if you're vegan, this eggplant dish does have some kind of a fish ingredient in it.
The great thing about this restaurant is that its cuisine is VERY flavorful in comparison to Cantonese cuisine.
The only drawback is that unless you speak Mandarin and/or can read and understand the Chinese characters (with English directly below the Chinese characters) on the menu, you'd be clueless as to what most of the dishes are. This is because there is absolutely no description for each of the dishes. For instance, there's a dish called "Millionaire" - I have NO idea if it was a meat or vegetable dish (or for that matter what kind of meat or what kind of vegetable). But if you're the daring and adventurous type, go for it!!! Let it be a wonderful surprise - or let it be a stupendous letdown for you haha.
The restaurant was very clean and well-lit, and our server (attractive young man with glasses) was awesome. If you're in the mood for Chinese but are tired of the same-old, same-old Cantonese dishes, come here and treat your taste buds to a glorious adventure - because the dishes are flavorFULL - yes, emphasis on the FULL!
In the end, I'm glad I came here and will come back to try other dishes!!!
Advice for the restaurant when updating your menu in the future:
It would help your customers to: 1) give descriptions as to what each dish is, or the ingredients involved in each dish, 2) separate the dishes into categories - for example: cold dishes, chicken dishes, beef dishes, pork dishes, lamb dishes, seafood dishes, dry pot dishes, house special dishes, fried rice/noodles dishes, soup dishes, other dishes (such as frog, intestine, duck blood, kidney, lung) and lastly, 3) pictures of the dishes (this is especially important).
Regardless, based on my experience tonight, this restaurant rates a 5 out of 5 stars