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Review content:
The first time we tried Wong's King Seafood Restaurant (not to be confused with the other Wong's King outposts) we were intent on picking up a late dinner on our way home. We sat in the bar and were absolutely underwhelmed by the chilled ambience, and somewhat disinterested service. There seemed to be a meeting of some kind going on away from the bar with thirty young people around one central speaker, speaking in Chinese. There seemed to be a couple of individuals acting as semi-guards, it was all quite intriguing. The group was certainly not drinking or dining. The barstools were all occupied by guys smoking up a storm and the smoke was not pleasant at that temperature for some reason. I've nothng against smokers, mind you, but a little ventilation in a new building isn't asking for much. All that being said, our menus arrived and they were brown leatherette binders with dozens of enticing offerings, many with color pictures. We ordered King's Ribs, a shrimp fried rice, Salt and Pepper Calamari and a vegetable dish. We left, poring over the trophy cases near the entrance which housed awards the owners had won in an international competition, whetting our appetite for what was to come. We've grown tired over the years of the inconsistency of the some of the city's Chinese restaurants, the General So-So's chicken, mixed vegetables dominated by sharp tasting and unfresh ingredients, fried shrimp that are fileted in half lenghtwise before breading, etc. We arrived home and made preparations for a meal with fairly high expectations. As we sampled the Calamari, we looked at each other in surprise, this was fantastic! Long a proponent of Alexis stellar Kalamarakia, this actually was as good. Different, but every bit as exciting and well executed. The King's Ribs were astounding, apparently deep fried and sprinkled with dried garlic, laced with fresh cilantro. I've returrned many times for dim sum, takeout, lunch and clearly, Wong's King is King.
Pros: Superb and varied dim sum, efficiently offered, unreal lunch plate #1 for $6; killer salt and pepper calarmari
Cons: Parking lot almost always full, bar nothing to write home about
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