Sigh. I really wanted to like this place. I've been driving past it since they were back on North Street.
I wanted authentic Chinese for my birthday, I ignored the handful of negative reviews & ordered from Peking Chinese Restaurant.
I ordered several days worth of food since we live so far away & who doesn't want leftover Chinese the next day, am I right?!
Upon entering the restaurant, there was an employee polishing the glass on the doors. The restaurant itself was clean and well lit. There were 2 employees behind the counter. I placed my order with a young man, telling him specifically I live over an hour away, & needed everything packed well, to survive the long drive (I've had a Chinese food disaster in my vehicle in a much shorter drive, so....). He assured me it would be. He told me my order would be ready in 15 minutes, I asked if he could make it 30, I needed to run an errand. He said "Your food will be ready when you get here."
I left and was back in 20 minutes. Upon entry, an Asian man, who I didn't see earlier, barked "Your order is ready!" The counter was lined with piles of takeout bags. I said I had to go to the bathroom and I'd be right out.
Bathroom was clean & well lit, but the low-flow toilet needs adjusting. I flushed a normal amount of TP for a #1, it just swirled the bowl & settled at the bottom.
Upon exiting the loo a girl informed me again, "Your order's ready" & pointed to 3 bags now at the end of the counter in front of me. They REALLY want take out taken out IMMEDIATELY. I looked at the bags, girl looked at me asking "Would you like a box?" I said "Yes." I wondered about my order being packed per my request. She returned with a medium size box & carelessly piled the bags in it.
As I left, a very polite employee dashed ahead of me, he held both doors open, which I appreciated.
I put the box on my front seat & drove home.
Unpack was a disaster. Everything was in styrofoam! The styrofoam container of egg foo yung sauce was crushed, split & empty, the entire bag & everything in it was covered w/sauce.
Nothing was packed in any specific manner to endure the trip. In fact there was zero logic, as a heavy order of fried rice was placed on top of a light order of curry tofu, tofu box smashed. I think things were bagged as prep was completed. Zero thought beyond that.
On to the food. Egg rolls were good. Typical size, typical filling.
The veggies in the egg foo yung were plentiful and fresh, albeit huge. Hunks of broccoli were so large cutting 1 stalk into 3 pieces made large bites.
Pork fried rice order was ok. Very scant on egg & peas/carrots.
My husband said his broccoli beef was "just OK," and not something he would want to order from there ever again. He loves broccoli beef, it's his go-to choice, so he KNOWS good broccoli beef. This wasn't it.
The following night I had the curry tofu. I loved the heat & flavor, but it was more like an Indian paneer dish (sans paneer) than Chinese. The pieces of tofu were GIANT & plentiful, but the veggies were almost nonexistent. Literally 2 snow peas. I sautéed my order and added carrots & peas, which made it more of what you would expect an entree to be.
Im heating up the egg drop soup right now. , I'll be eating it tonite. While the amount of egg is OK, (I added another) there are literally 4 green onion slices. I'm glad I have a bunch in my crisper. Soup isn't crazy salty, which I'm thrilled about. Yum.
Now..... The weirdest thing about this restaurant. NEVER have I ever encountered a "Chinese restaurant" that plops the rice in the same container with the entree. Usually everything comes in nice takeout boxes. Not here. Peking uses cheap styrofoam containers for everything except the soup. Entree & side are all slopped into the same container. By slopped, I mean this weird mystery rice is EVERYWHERE. Normally I skip the included rice altogether, or sub glass noodles, but since this was my first time here & I was doing take out, I didn't want to complicate things.
The side rice is absolutely the weirdest rice I've ever seen. It's brown, like fried rice, but doesn't have any fried rice ingredients & doesn't taste like fried rice. It's not brown rice. It's white rice with brown sauce. It was unpalatable, I threw it all away.
Overall, I was disappointed enough that I will not be returning to Peking Chinese Restaurant. I'm not sure who's in back cooking, but they need a lesson in sticky rice for starters.
And whoever bags up the to-go orders needs a lesson in weight and gravity.
Yes styrofoam containers are cheaper than Chinese take out boxes, but they make a huge difference in the transport & storage of take out.
My first time at Peking Chinese Restaurant was my last. read more