Got seated right away around noon on Saturday. The ordering system was new to me: they have laminated menus, write the table number on one, and you mark what you want with dry-erase markers.
Very good. Cooked whole (indication of higher quality), server cut them with scissors.
Went for a traditional Jewish Christmas dinner. When we got there around 8:00 the kitchen was clearly deep in the weeds, the first two dishes we got were things we hadn’t ordered. One large party left, I overheard them complaining that they’d been waiting for two hours and still hadn’t gotten all their food. Nevertheless we ate well once they got our order sorted out. We were by the pass and saw a lot of excellent-looking stuff from the live tanks going out: lobster, king crab, whole fish, etc.
I wouldn’t usually order mu shu pork ($10), but my dining companion had had a completely wrong version at a bad Chinese restaurant in rural Sacramento County and wanted to try a good one. Lots of wood ears, wok hay, good flavor and texture. Wrappers could have been better. I should try Great China’s version sometime.
The menu said “salt & pepper fried head on shrimp” ($15), but as you can see, the heads got lost somewhere. It wasn’t a great version of this dish. I suspect on a normal day the kitchen can do better, though I prefer S&P squid, and they have no squid on the menu.
“Beef chow fun with XO chili sauce” ($14), could have used some more XO sauce, but simple and good, nice textures. Left me in the mood to find a first-rate version with all the expensive ingredients.
They comped us some potstickers (normally $9), huge and juicy. We ordered one dish that never showed up, but that was fine since we were full, and it didn’t show up on the bill.
Baked Portuguese custard tarts were excellent, much better than the last time we tried them, to my taste better than that place people line up at in SF’s Chinatown.
Also got some Chinese broccoli and turnip cakes. I’d order everything except the taro shrimp dumplings again.
Was going to try Ming’s Tasty but the line outside was too long so went to Pacific Lighthouse, where we got seated immediately with a nice view of the marina.
