We rarely go to a Chinese restaurant because I have confidence that I can do better. In order to fit foreigners' appetite "Chinese" food in the West tends to be cooked very sweet--ouch! But once in a while I am curious to check things out when passing by a restaurant packed with people. Sammy in Civic seems to be always busy so today we decided to give it a shot/bite.
The first thing you notice in Sammy is how fast waiters and waitresses move. They almost run instead of walking: our orders were brought to table within five minutes and I was even more impressed when they took away our dirty dishes the minute we finished.
Food was very good. I ordered "Kong Pao Fish" which is a renovated version of "Kong Pao Chicken", a classic dish that probably every Chinese knows how to make. I was curious to see which nut they used to go with the fish. The answer? No nut. In fact if I didn't order the dish myself I could hardly relate it to "Kong Pao Chicken". Still the fish was quite taste though you don't see much of the sauce--I think that is the highest level of cooking.
It got a bit crazy when we were above to finish. 95%, if not all tables were occupied and I saw a couple of waiters nearly bumped into each other. Obviously things like that happen all the time judging from the waiters' smile. Luckily we were there early; in fact, next time we probably go there a bit earlier--MM waited for five minutes before paying our bill.
To sum up:
Name: Sammy's Kitchen
Location: Civic
Price: OK, median price $15 for main dishes
Pros: Food quality and serving fast
Cons: Crowded
Peculiarity: fast-moving waiters, fun to watch but probably not so good for digestion
Whether go back: yes.
1 comment:
The bad Chinese food in the West is mainly on the US East coast (and probably Europe) as well as in small towns in Australia. In the big cities on the US West Coast and Australia where there are significant Chinese populations the restaurants are much better in my limited experience :)
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