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China Gourmet, Fairfax - Thai'd.


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Thank you so much for the translations. Do you have a list of what we ate last night by number? I appreciated the photos -- just can't remember everything we ate.

My faves - Five Flavor Beef Tendon #7 - this is a carry-over from Temptasian and a family favorite. I think everybody who likes beef and Szechuan flavors would love this as an appetizer. Cold.

Oil Braised Vegetable #14 - this is new to me. Probably not for everyone due to the texture, which reminds me of fiddler heads (ferns). I liked it. Again, cold, or room temperature.

Smoked Sesame Chicken #1 - very nice cold dish. I was surprised at how many of the dishes are served cold. Indescribable taste in the marinade - a seed oil or nut oil I can't identify.

Beef hot pot - no number? Reminds me of my all time favorite, the fish in basket. If you like the fish in basket and you like beef you will love this. Lots of cumin. This is hot.

Thought I would like the Immortal Duck Soup more than I did. It's good but many other dishes are much better. Has a healing sort of flavor, like it would be good if you had a cold.

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Thank you so much for the translations.  Do you have a list of what we ate last night by number?  I appreciated the photos -- just can't remember everything we ate.

My faves - Five Flavor Beef Tendon #7 - this is a carry-over from Temptasian and a family favorite.  I think everybody who likes beef and Szechuan flavors would love this as an appetizer.  Cold.

Oil Braised Vegetable #14 - this is new to me.  Probably not for everyone due to the texture, which reminds me of fiddler heads (ferns).  I liked it.  Again, cold, or room temperature.

Smoked Sesame Chicken #1 - very nice cold dish.  I was surprised at how many of the dishes are served cold.  Indescribable taste in the marinade - a seed oil or nut oil I can't identify.

Beef hot pot - no number?  Reminds me of my all time favorite, the fish in basket.  If you like the fish in basket and you like beef you will love this.  Lots of cumin.  This is hot.

Thought I would like the Immortal Duck Soup more than I did.  It's good but many other dishes are much better.  Has a healing sort of flavor, like it would be good if you had a cold.

All the numbers and descriptions are included with my pictures that I posted yesterday.

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Thanks for the kind review, Joe!  I'm still working, by the way, on the identity of the mystery vegetable in that appetizer dish.  I now have come to realize that the third and fourth characters refer to a famous historical figure in Chinese imperial history, the great beauty Yang Guifei, who was a particular inspiration for a number of dishes.  Unfortunately, this does not help to figure out what the vegetable is, but it might imply that it's more the preparation that's important than the actual vegetable used.  The search continues.

Those dishes must have some lychee in it. She was known to have a deep affection for lychee and the story was that her lover ( the emperor's adopted son) had to ride the horse all the way from the south to the capitol with her favorite fruit to make her happy.

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Thank you for the photos and translations and descriptions (you know who you are)!

I called today and a familiar male voice took my call. I told him he had graciously delivered food to me on Friday from the Chinese menu and I had enjoyed it. He chuckled. I asked for another delivery. I ordered #7 five flavor beef tendon, and #21 wontons in chicken juice. I also asked for #53, five flavor sesame pancake, which looked tasty in the photos of last night's dinner.

It's a good thing I had viewed those photos from last night. I was able to identify the dish I got as not what I had ordered, but #55 hot numbing beef roll. Luckily, I knew that before I chowed down! This Scoville wimp is proud to report that she consumed 2 pieces of that wonderful roll, in small bites, and saved the rest for Mr. S.

I loved the baby wontons--now on my list of comfort foods, and the beef tendon was almost exactly like I remembered from TAC, and very, very good.

My coworkers in the hospital break room eyed my collection of containers with suspicion, and all offers of tastes were declined. That's OK--more for me!

When my order was delivered, I said to the gentleman who brought it, "You had a large party at the restaurant last night." He asked how I knew that, and I smiled and replied that those folks were friends of mine, and I regretted I couldn't attend.

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Thank you for the photos and translations and descriptions (you know who you are)!

I called today and a familiar male voice took my call.  I told him he had graciously delivered food to me on Friday from the Chinese menu and I had enjoyed it.  He chuckled.  I asked for another delivery.  I ordered #7 five flavor beef tendon, and #21 wontons in chicken juice.  I also asked for #53, five flavor sesame pancake, which looked tasty in the photos of last night's dinner.

It's a good thing I had viewed those photos from last night.  I was able to identify the dish I got as not what I had ordered, but #55 hot numbing beef roll.  Luckily, I knew that before I chowed down!  This Scoville wimp is proud to report that she consumed 2 pieces of that wonderful roll, in small bites, and saved the rest for Mr. S. 

I loved the baby wontons--now on my list of comfort foods, and the beef tendon was almost exactly like I remembered from TAC, and very, very good.

My coworkers in the hospital break room eyed my collection of containers with suspicion, and all offers of tastes were declined.  That's OK--more for me!

When my order was delivered, I said to the gentleman who brought it, "You had a large party at the restaurant last night."  He asked how I knew that, and I smiled and replied that those folks were friends of mine, and I regretted I couldn't attend.

We ate there Sunday night and almost everything was delicious, personally I didn't care for the Cold Seseame smoked Chicken #1 (I think). Just a personal preference thing. We ordered too much food, so breakfast and dinner on Monday were leftovers. I love that I am able to communicate with the servers here, even though Yao did make a remark about me being the "Old Girl". <_<

I didn't know that they delivered, that is great as my husbands office is in the city (Fairfax). I see much Szechuan Boy in my future.

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Took the boys back there tonight because they were miffed about being left out.

Unfortunately left the "cheat sheet" in the printer so had to wing it. The manager came out to make suggestions.

Ben, the son who orders off the Chinese menu, ordered the five spice beef tendon. Unfortunately we did not insist on "hot" so it was mild. Good but not as good as it is when spicy. We need to let them know we're serious.

The manager suggested a beef stew dish which Ben said had a very nice flavor, especially over rice, but the beef was rather soft.

I ordered the cold smoked chicken (great) and the chili oil wontons -- one side slightly undercooked so it did not have the marvellous silky texture that this dish usually has.

For the table, the sauteed spinach which everybody loves.

Nick, younger son, ordered off the American menu. Enough said.

Not many people there, all ordering off the American menu.

Come to think of it, two menus is probably a good business plan if they can carry it off. There is a Chinese restaurant in the Comfort Inn in Fairfax that does that. They get a lot of Chinese tourists coming in busses, and rake in the cash. Most Americans have no idea they even have a Chinese menu.

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I am going by to get some takeout tonight after hearing people rave about this place! I am so lucky relatively close by. After reading everyone's comments, I think I want:

the fried fish, dry w/no salt

the pickled vegetable dish (pat choi?)

pumpkin cakes

smoked sesame chicken

five flavor beef tendon

In order to get these things, do I need to ask for the CHinese menu? Or should I just tell them what numbers they are? Help! I want this wonderful food!

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Pandahugga- perhaps you could just leave a copy of your translations (and suggestions) at the door and we could all just ask for the rocks menu? <_<

That would be helpful at several restaurants, so i don't have to rack my brain remembering what everyone said are "the" things to order. Although, corduroy's pork belly has received so many love poems, I don't think anyone could forget it.

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Where was everyone today? We arrived just around noon and were surprised to not see any familiar faces. The hostess spotted our printout of Pandahugga's translation and handed us their own copy of same, along with the Chinese version. The waiter used the Chinese version to translate our numbering into dish names.

We had:

54, the puffy scallion pancakes. These are more akin to a fried Indian bread than the usual scallion pancake, but we ordered them for the considerable amusement and enjoyment of the 6 year-old. The kid at a neighboring table, somewhere in the 4-6 year-old age range, was also enjoying hers. These come 3 to a plate, but are big enough that 2 people could share.

47 Pearl Tofu Balls. Who knew you could make tofu into gefilte fish? Honestly, the tofu and onion mixture inside reminded me of a certain Passover tradition, but in a good way. The spouse declared that they wouldn't possibly travel well and finished them--and I pretty much never see him get enthusiastic about tofu.

11. Immortal old duck pot. This is served bubbling atop a can of sterno. The rich broth is chock-full of bamboo shoots and duck chunks on the bone. The 6 year-old loved the bamboo shoots; the duck meat itself is a bit tired and has clearly given the best of itself to the broth. There are small red dried fruits of some sort floating in the broth, which are both sweet and a bit gritty.

16. Pork in Garlic Mud. Either we lost something in the ordering, or the naming was too poetic. This is pork belly slices (think uncured bacon meat) in a chili oil, covered with slivers of scallion. I'm pretty sure I've had that dish at Joe's. Yummy.

1. Smoked Sesame Chicken. We ordered this because the smoked chicken slices at A&J are one of the 6 year-old's favorite foods, anywhere. She enjoyed these but wasn't as enthusiastic. The smoked flavor was pretty subtle, and I'm not convinced that the sesame oil added much other than calories. A&J's is better in my opinion.

We ordered 12, Sichuan Pickles, but they did not arrive, nor were they on the bill. Considering how stuffed we were, we didn't fuss over it.

I'm not quite sure how we managed to avoid any cumin or sichuan peppercorns, but somehow we did. We're already planning another trip for next weekend, but with another family. A lot of the dishes were sized so that they would have shared nicely among 4 adults.

The dining room to the left of the entrance was filled with a private party. The main dining room was not more than 1/4 full by the time we left. We were the only table of round-eyes with the Chinese menu; most of the tables in our section were filled by Chinese families, all of whom were using the Chinese menu.

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Pandahugga- perhaps you could just leave a copy of your translations (and suggestions) at the door and we could all just ask for the rocks menu?  <_<

Y'know, actually, perhaps we should approach them with an offer to do an annotated English menu (with commentary, stuff to get otherwise greenhorns to maybe order some of the good stuff) in exchange for, I dunno, free beer or something.

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for city slickers who traded in their mules a long time ago, china gourmet turns out to be remarkably accessible by public transportation, easier than temptasian to which we would bum rides and then get accused by our drivers of luring them into a fear factor episode. you get off at the vienna metro and can get there by green and gold george mason buses that spend their days driving in circles, clock and counterclockwise. the catch is they don't run often, but you have four to choose from, and i believe that you want to go with a 2, which gets you there in less than 10 minutes. if you go on a 1, which travels in the opposite direction, you will arrive at the right address eventually. (i hope i don't have the numbers mixed up.) in any event, once you know how to get there from the metro, you can easily walk back. you can also catch a metro bus to ballston, but we never saw one 15 minutes on either side of the time it was scheduled to appear.

anyway, the place was jammed on saturday night by the time the sun was skidding below the highway, though not too many diners seemed to be aware that they were sitting in a potential szechuan boy. our request for the requisite chinese menu was accompanied by the pandahugga translation with the don rockwell web address running along the top of the page, and it made ordering as easy as a fortune cookie.

taking things slow, the chicken juice wontons, sichuan flavor shrimp and pumpkin cakes are all on the safe side of the menu, and as hillvalley has pointed out there is even more here that will please finicky eaters. they all walk on the mild side, but each rendering subtle pleasures all their own that you may or may not find seductive. the hot and numbing dried beef (listed as an appetizer but about the size of an entree) provided the hottest trail of szehuan pepper from the items we ordered, though i would want a lot more spice before using this as the prelude to a root canal. we are working our way up to the high dive and i am sure it will only be a couple of weeks before we are demanding it full force. if i had been alone i would have jumped right in, even from the shallow end of the pool, and not worried that much about the consequences; i don't know about you, but for me there are invariably consequences once the fire settles in the belly. next time, i will go with the numbing rabbit, and insist on becoming numb. garlic flavor pork shreds were also hot, not quite blazing; the ginger was more pronounced than the garlic, but then there are many flavors here working harmoniously together.

it's all too easy to lose interest in chinese cooking around here these days. i haven't had enough of peter chang's food to be able to tell anyone who has eaten it anything about it they don't already know, but he definitely has commanded my attention. physically, this latest space seems to be a big step up from temptasian. they even have mai tais. so what is the story with peter chang, anyway? what's he doing in a place like this?

(most gas stations have cleaner ladies rooms, i was told.)

this is turning into an unusually late night at the office for me, and running off to this site certainly hasn't helped, but as soon as i get home i am going straight for the leftovers and doing it all over again.

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Our request for the requisite chinese menu was accompanied by the pandahugga translation with the don rockwell web address running along the top of the page, and it made ordering as easy as a fortune cookie.

Seriously? Anyone know when this happened? Dayummmm! <_<

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And I wonder who the "food mafia" might be?

Fugedaboudit!

(Or perhaps it should read "Foodgedaboudit"--sorry, the devil made me do it))

And BTW I'm sure he had a copy of James' translation with him, but of course he wouldn't say it 'cause, after all, he needs to put himself in the shoes of the hoi polloi diners who will be read his piece and start showing up.

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I wonder if the menu that Tom got really was the restaurant's translation, or if it was mine...

Apparently, as of 2 days ago, they were using a printout of your translation, PandaHugga, so Tom probably go that one.

our request for the requisite chinese menu was accompanied by the pandahugga translation with the don rockwell web address running along the top of the page, and it made ordering as easy as a fortune cookie.

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I wonder if the menu that Tom got really was the restaurant's translation, or if it was mine...

I suspect he had a printout of yours with him (see earlier post #74). But he couldn't say that in his piece, so he phrased it differently.

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When ordering takeout does one need to specify the numbers are from the Chinese menu?  What are the chances I'll get what I order and not Happy Family?

HillValley,

I ordered delivery for the third time today. This time, I only had to talk to two people before I ordered. I did get what I asked for, as well this time, which suggests that the order-takers are becoming more comfortable, familiar, conversant with the Chinese menu.

Yes, you do need to specify that you are ordering from the Chinese menu. You do have to give the numbers. To complicate the issue, the numbers are repeated in appetizers and entrees, so say at least a little of the English description, and get confirmation from the person taking your order. (Last week I ordered #53: five flavor sesame roasted pancake, and instead received #55: hot and numbing beef roll--fortunately I recognized the error before taking a big bite.) Be patient, and flexible, and realize that there might be errors, but that whatever you get will be tasty.

I have not gotten anything from the "regular" menu except when I ordered something for a coworker (General Tso's chicken, pronounced deeeelicious by the recipient).

Today I ordered the Golden sand braised spareribs and the #53 pancakes. I shared the latter with coworkers who made faces of ecstasy when they tasted them. I never got a lunch break, so came home and warmed up the ribs. After eating a few I have to conclude that PandaHugga mistranslated the description. It should read "braised spareribs covered in crack." That crumb/sesame seed mixture is amazing!

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PandaHugga and I lunched here today...sorry, weird meat-eaters, the "Husband and Wife Lung Slices" come from the rib area, not from any part of the respiratory system--they are gelatinous and meaty, similar to the tendon slices (and the sauce is similar)--super yummy! Also the aforementioned spareribs and the #3 fish entree, which again showed Zhang's unbelievable grasp of delicacy within this fire-hot style.

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During our lunch today, I learned that the restaurant is about to rework the menu, with new numbers and everything (no, this is not part of a plot to keep my translating business running). Waiter Yao has asked for my business card so they can get the new menu to me for translation. No indication yet that I'm in line for a lifetime of free meals, though Jake did come through with a free lunch for me! Thanks Jake!

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My friend called in an order last night and I am happy to say that we received everything he ordered. He ordered 8 dishes for the two of us, a delicious decision I am blaming on his exhaustion. Most of what he ordered has already been discussed so I won't go into much detail. At one point while we ate he declared that we were eating one of the best meals in the city that night. He's right.

The tofu pearl balls are the perfect accompaniment to spicy dishes. The salty pickled vegetables play nicely against the husband and wife lungs and beef tenderloin with lemongrass. The husband and wife lungs were described as 'beef surrounded by tripe.' That pretty much fits the description. I can't say that I would order it again, but it was worth a taste once.

The salty duck slices caused the most confusion. We started out thinking it was the beef with lemongrass because we tasted (or at least we thought we tasted) lemon grass in the dish. But then there was an extra entree and we couldn't figure out what it could be. After a quick check of PandaHugga's menu on the thread we figured out that the mystery entree was in fact the beef tenderloin with lemon grass and what we thought was beef turned out to be duck. Either way, both were delicious and will be reordered.

The beef tenderloin with lemon grass is exactly that, although I could not taste any lemongrass. My friend swears he could taste lemongrass in the gelatinous cubes that came in the dish but I think that was the exhaustion talking. Regardless the dish had enough spice to keep the taste buds dancing without masking the flavor and the lemongrass cubes added an usual texture that put it on my must try again list.

Today at school my 9th grade girls fell in love with the dish, although they wouldn't try the lemongrass cubes. I promised them the leftovers tomorrow but I am going to add the condition that they try the cubes. The pickled vegetables were a hit as well, until I couldn't identify any vegetable except for broccoli. One step at time I guess.

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The husband and wife lungs were described as 'beef surrounded by tripe.'

I used to go to an Armenian deli in LA (while in high school) where Homsi, the owner, made a wonderful lamb lung stuffed with rice, mint, mystery meat in a lemon broth. Yum! I had visions of actual lung in chef Ciang's hands. If it says lung I want lung!!!!!

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At dinner at CH last night I passed my business cards to the management for them to forward the new menu to me when it's available. I will, of course, make the menu available to the community as soon as possible.

Incidentally, we WAY over ordered, but we determined that the husband-wife lung slices and the hot-and numbing beef are essentially the same dish, with additional variety meat in the former (and no, it's not lung). There were no dud dishes, though the beef with bean noodles was really great.

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So I just placed my delivery order -- a little frustrating!! They are out of the the #13 braised ribs and #33 chicken, the things I have heard raved about the most! I hope what we end up with is good- the lady taking the orders and I had a hard time understanding each other. When I first called, she kept trying to match up the numbers with items on the American menu. I finally convinced her we wanted items off of the other menu, but it took awhile.

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THIS SUNDAY AT A VERY SPECIAL $20 DOLLAR THURSDAY

Dinner at China Gourmet ie Szechuan Boy April 2 at 6pm at 9901 Lee Hwy

Fairfax, VA 22030-1703 (703) 293-9898.

Barbara +1

cucas87

Dean and Kay

Danielk (guest)

Lackadaisi +1 (Jlock)

LydiaR +1

mdjordy

PollyG +2

Bougouni (Penelope)

Scott Johnston

StephenB

ustreetguy

18 right now

We have three tables reserved at this point and a chef that is awaiting our return. We will only need 2 tables in case I am not the first one there,

Scott

siamo venuto

abbiamo visto

abbiamo mangiato

we came, we saw, we ate, we ate and we ate some more. One table showed restraint. Our table did not. We had amazing ma po fish and tofu, boiled peanuts, schezuan pickles, beef shank, pork in garlic mud, sesame cake, hot pot (which we did not order), fish in a bamboo basket not on the menu no sauce (the fish from Tempt Asian). The pork with pressed bean curd was good but nothing special. The Ma po tofu without fish was so so. I am not a fan of their won tons and continue not to be. Crystal Shrimp (another dish we don't seem to remember ordering) was pretty standard, good but not wow. WIth 10 beers, the 9 of us put away a ton of food for $250. Small animals were harmed in the production of this meal, but all in a good cause. A warm group indeed!

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We had our first China Gourmet experience last night and it was GREAT! We ordered takeout without a hitch, by immediately telling them we wanted to order from the Chinese menu, and giving them numbers and the name of each dish. As we usually do with Chef Chang's food, we ordered way too much. I guess we got one of the last orders of the ribs, Chen Cang beef, hot and numbing beef rolls, boiled peanuts, dan dan noodles, and szechuan pickles. Although we had been to China Star and Temptasian many times before, this was our first time ordering the Chen Cang beef. We weren't sure how many buns to order (we ended up with 6, which was good), but the dish was awesome! I added some of the szechuan pickles (foreign-to-me veggies, in a salty, spicy, oily brine) which made a great flavor combo. The ribs too were great, though the bread crumb topping really needed to be recrisped in a dry skillet (which I did today with the leftovers!) The peanuts were interesting -- I guess I wasn't expecting them to be in a huge container of liquid. The dan dan noodles were the best I've had in the area; though it was a smaller portion than Temptasian, the noodles were thinner, and the broth more flavorful. Hot and numbing beef rolls were slivers of spicy and oily beef, with cabbage and other veggies, rolled in what seemed like a deflated scallion pancake. Pretty tasty, but I think I'll order the hot and numbing beef next time, for more meat, less oil, and more numbing.

As an aside, I thought it was really funny when we came to pick up our order, and the host (owner?) excitedly said - "Hey, you ordered the Chinese food!" Like their americanized menu completely didn't count as chinese food. <_<

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Though I couldn't make the $20 event, we ended up stopping in early for dinner before the Arlo Guthrie concert. Upon arrival, the host pulled out two regular menus. I said, no we'd like the Other Menu. He looked surprised and reached for PandaHugga's translation! When we arrived the place was empty. We placed our order and asked to hold onto the translated list... slowly the dining room began to fill up and a request was made for us to release possession of PandaHugga's list... we did so willingly. A legend probably has been born...

Oh... dinner. We had the noodles in the hot chili sauce. The noodles and presentation were different than TemptAsian but still good. I LOVED the boiled peanuts. Our entrees were okay. I need to consult PandaHugga's list... It was a bit overwhelming... next time I'll order some starters before placing the order for our entrees.

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Do not forget the Golden Powder Braised Ribs! These were one of the highlights of the evening!

FYI we did not see Don Rockwell there

Yes.... those truly were amazing! I am not a fan of the breadcrumb topping but the ribs themselves were tender and full of smoke and flavor. Lucky for me that, despite ahving 8 ribs for 9 people, Scott and Cuscas87(?) split one rib otherwise there might have been bloodshed!

BTW thanks for getting this together!

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Although posted already in the $20 post...

The golden powder spareribs were sublime. Also incredible was an interesting hot pot with bony duck parts and good crunchy and chewy root vegetables. The sesame bun was a great sop for the hot sauces left behind. Wonderful beef shank (though a triffle drier than Hollywood East's). Ma Po Beancurd with fish is amazing! As usual the schezuan pickles are a must. Hot and Numbing beef rolls= too much rolls and not enough hot & numbing. Crystal Shrimp, Ma Po Tofu were just so so and the pressed bean curd and pork a little above average. I am still non plussed at the won tons. Wheaton is won ton heaven!

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The restraint shown by the our table was not by choice. The service was horrible! The other table was a little closer to the door so I think the restaurant did not forget about them quite as much. We were extremely forgotten. Two and a half hours into our dinner, we still had not received all of our food, and it was time to go. The kicker was when, at 8:30, we inquired as to the whereabouts of our last dish (ordered along with everything else at around 6:30), they said that they had just run out. Not that we really wanted it anymore, but come on. After we insisted, they were kind enough to remove it from our bill.

The server summed it up as we were leaving when he said "don't come on Saturdays, we are too busy." I don't really plan to return at all.

But, the company was delightful!

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