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Taste of Grand China

BY PETE TITTL | Wednesday, Sep 02 2009 06:38 PM

Last Updated Wednesday, Sep 02 2009 06:40 PM

Contributing columnist

Earlier this year, there was quite a ruckus when Grand China on Ming Avenue, a successful, long-established business, was pushed out of its location by a rodent named Chuck E. Cheese. It seems the pizza/playground chain was so successful it needed Grand China's space, and the Grand China regulars were incensed, sending me e-mails.

Reader David Koeth kept me in the loop of the real-estate maneuvers, and Mike Downing broke the news to me when the restaurant relocated to the old Hong Kong restaurant on Chester Avenue, across from Weatherby's Furniture Guild. "We have eaten at the Grand China for years and think it is the best Chinese food in town," he wrote. I also heard from Charles Sowards who is struggling with forgiveness on this issue. "I'd also like to see more people head over there to eat than at the mousey pizza joint that ran them out of their old home!!)"

So we headed over to Hong Kong, which has new menus that will look familiar to the Grand China regulars, even though the cover says "Since 1964." I must say I didn't really patronize the old Hong Kong because the food seemed to be stuck in that era, but Grand China will undoubtedly change that. (We called and spoke to a woman named Kimmy who said the Grand China cook and staff have moved to Hong Kong. "It's more like a merging of the two restaurants," she said.)

Our initial visits were a bit mixed. Possibly they're getting established in the new territory, but some of the old standbys we liked on Ming Avenue are still great. This is my favorite place in town for Moo Shu pork (outside of maybe the Peking Palace), and what we sampled on one of our dinner visits ($6.50) was excellent, with fresh vegetables and tender Chinese pancakes encasing the whole mix. Also worth recommending off the a la carte lists were the orange chicken ($7.95) and the kung pao shrimp ($7.95). The chicken was not thickly battered or greasy, and had only chicken and the inedible red peppers in the mix. The shrimp was perfect with green onions, peppers and peanuts. I might have liked a bit more vegetables in the mix, particularly some water chestnuts, but meat lovers will undoubtedly find this version a bigger value. (Order a side of vegetables and mix them.)

We also enjoyed the pot stickers appetizer ($6.25), which had not a speck of grease on them, crispy and brown on one side and soft as a pillow on the other.

On the negative side, I thought the hot and sour soup was a bit brackish, the kung pao two kinds (chicken and beef, $7.75) to be a muddled mix of no real flavors other than maybe mushrooms and the honeyed walnuts and shrimp ($9.50) -- virtually inedible. Before the shrimp were brought to our table we were reminiscing about the excellent version served at Great Castle and P.F. Chang's among others. What was presented had nice jumbo shrimp, few walnuts and a thick white sauce that reminded us of mayonnaise. We vowed on the spot to get over to Great Castle for a portion within a week. We had never ordered these at Grand China before, but it was a rare misstep by the usually sure-handed kitchen.

The service from the familiar faces was perfect in its timing. I have to say that on both visits there was only one other party in the dining room despite the "new owners" signs outside. Grand China regulars, you can now get your fix.