Mr. K's

Whenever I write about Chinese food, I always preface my remarks with the caveat that my knowledge of that food isn't quite the same as my knowledge of Italian, or especially French, food. All I can do, really, is make a sort of guess as to whether what I'm eating seems right - but other people with more familiarity should always trump what I say.

Anyway, Mr. K's is a visually beautiful restaurant, everything a light shade of a delicate pink. The chairs are comfortable, the room airy and light - the physical plant of the place is completely unimpeachable. The same is true of the elaborate service - silver bowls are brought out for the rice. Starts are sauced and served at table side. Peking duck is handled the same way. All these things, of course, are positive.

Alas. For the food is entirely uninteresting, except for the decent enough duck (with thankfully crispy skin). The stir fried beef with orange was too soggy, for some reason, as were the seasame crusted shrimp. The lo mein was oil logged, in a mockery of the worst suburban chinese. Eggplant and chicken dishes were hardly spiced - though the former did go well with rice. As always with Chinese restaurants, the desserts were largely uninteresting - the peanut (butter) ice cream I had was tasty, but it could have well been from Baskin Robbins. I don't see why Chinese restaurants don't serve their own, admittedly esoteric, desserts. Anyway, Phoenix Garden is clearly much better, and I'm sure restaurants in Chinatown are as well. For over $40 a person, I wasn't all that impressed.