Lao Sze Chaun



The 2 sides to our hot pot (yes red is spicy)

Ok so this is going to be our last experience going to Chinatown for a while.  It really is just kind of a pain for us to get there and find parking at a reasonable cost. But we ventured there this time for Lao Sze Chaun.

Plate of veggies, tofu and seafood

Now Natalie didn't tell Nick until we were there that this place is affiliated with Lao Beijing where we went in January (because we really didn't have good service there). The reason Natalie wanted to come to Lao Sze Chaun is because they offer hot pot.

Crab Rangoon

Hot pot is pretty much a Chinese version of fondue where you have raw meats, fishes and vegetables and you cook them in hot liquid until they are ready.  Then you eat the cooked items with various dipping sauces.  It was a neat experience (and since they brought out all of the food at once we didn't have a weird service issue either like we had at Lao Beijing).  The pot had 2 sides to it - one side had non-spicy liquid and the other side had spicy liquid.  We stuck more with the non-spicy side but did try the spicy one a few times. 

We did the deluxe package ($18.95 per person) so we could try a lot of items.  It came with a huge plate of beef. Then there was another plate with 4 kinds of seafood, tofu, and veggies and then another bowl with noodles. (We didn't know what all of the seafood was but we were adventurous and tried it all.) We had 7 different dipping sauces to come up with quite unique flavors. It was a fun experience and we definitely felt like we got our money's worth.

Plate of beef - so much we couldn't quite finish it all

Various dipping sauces, noodles, seafood and veggies

We had also ordered a crab rangoon appetizer just in case we weren't going to like any of the food.  Although hot pot was fun and unique we probably don't need to do this again because it is a pain to get to or park in Chinatown.  Also if we want a similar type of experience we'll just go to a fondue restaurant where there is a much more subdued/romantic atmosphere.  But Natalie has wanted to do this for a while.  When she was in Beijing many years ago she didn't get to try it there.

We were glad service wasn't too much of an issue like at Lao Beijing, but we did have to wait 25 minutes to get a table (even at 2pm on a Friday). The restaurant has a relatively small interior. 

If we were to go back to Chinatown we would probably go to Triple Crown for Dim Sum - the only problem is that dim sum is only available until about 2pm every day so it would be difficult for us to find a time to get there together.

Lao Sze Chaun has a location in the suburbs so we could go there if we really wanted to - but that location doesn't have hot pot so that is why we went to Chinatown for it.


Final thoughts on Lao Sze Chaun:
Food - the hot pot was a different experience for a Chinese restaurant.  A lot of people walked by our table staring because they didn't know what it was
Service - aside from the wait to get a table, the service was good.  But remember once all the hot pot items were on the table we were pretty self sufficient for a long time.
Atmosphere - it is in the heart of Chinatown. The space inside the restaurant is very small so fortunately it was an okay day outside because that is where we waited until a table was ready.





Lao Beijing

Wonton Soup

We went to lunch in Chinatown at Lao Beijing. This was different than our dim sum experience from a couple of months before. It had a huge menu with some things we had heard of (Americanized versions of Chinese food) and some dishes we had never heard of (or wanted to every try-like salt and pepper squid). We tried to stick to items we had heard of.

Steamed Buns

To start we had Wonton Soup.  It was a little bland for Nick's taste in wonton soup, but it was a good dish to warm us up on such a cold day.

We had ordered some pork steamed buns at the same time as the soup and would have preferred them to come as an appetizer.  Instead they came out after all of our other dishes.  They were tasty, but we definitely prefer the the ones we had at the dim sum restaurant - they were more fresh and lighter.  But these steamed buns did have more more meat filling.

Pineapple Chicken

We ordered three different entree type foods so we could try more things and knowing we would be taking a lot home.  The pineapple chicken was kind of like a sweet and sour dish, but made even more sweet with the pineapple in it. The Honey Crispy Shrimp was the best dish we had.  It was sweet, spicy  and crunchy all at the same time.  Lastly we had noodles with pork.  This dish had an overwhelming amount of garlic that was too much for Natalie but tasty for Nick (so he got those leftovers).

Final thoughts on Lao Beijing:

Honey Crispy Shrimp

Food - It was a good but not great meal.  The honey crispy shrimp was the best, but not enough to draw us back there in the future.
Service - we experienced some very poor service.  There seemed to be some confusion over who was our server.  We placed the soup and steamed buns order with one waiter and the other items with another waiter.  It took at least 30 minutes to get other food after finishing our soup.  We figured they just forgot about the steamed buns.  But we saw tables all around us getting food.  So maybe it was because we weren't "regulars" that we didn't get better service.  Who knows.  We just felt we were sitting there for a long time and the restaurant wasn't even completely full.

Noodles with pork

Atmosphere - the space is small and clean, just not as "Western" friendly as other establishments, but we are in Chinatown after all.

Triple Crown

We went to Triple Crown in Chinatown for dim sum. Natalie's parents had been here a while ago on a Chinatown food tour and we wanted to check it out.

Steamed BBQ Pork Bun (Bao)

On the weekends this restaurant does the official dim sum thing with carts of food wheeled around the restaurant. But during the week you just choose from a menu with pictures. Since we were there on a Friday, Natalie had looked at pictures of the options online so she knew what to get. There were some very exotic options including things like chicken feet so we wanted to steer clear of them - we are somewhat adventurous eaters but not that much.

It appears we chose well with this restaurant in general because we were the only non-Asians in the restaurant for a long time  usually this is a good sign that you are eating authentically.

Inside of steamed custard bun (bao)

The dim sum is served between 9 am and 3 pm so we were there at 10:45 for a brunch of sorts. In fact they wouldn't let us order anything from the lunch menu because it wasn't 11 am yet.  Good thing there were plenty of dim sum options to tempt us.

Steamed BBQ Pork Bun - Bao, to us this is the quintessential dim sum dish. We could keep ordering this. They were warm fluffy steamed rice buns surrounded with warm savory Asian BBQ,  They were sweet with a hint of spice.  What's not to love! But these can fill you up fast.

Steamed Custard Buns (Dessert Bao)

Steamed Custard Bun - dessert Bao;  same exterior as the BBQ but inside lies a gooey sweet dollop of vanilla custard

Shrimp Dumpling - with a scalloped dumpling shape; The dumpling shell itself was almost translucent so you could see the filling.

Potstickers

Shrimp Dumplings

Pork and Shrimp Dumpling - Nick enjoyed these dumplings. They were filling with a nice "meaty" filling and cute cup like pouches.

Pork & Shrimp dumplings

Pan Fried Pot sticker with pork - you can get this dish at almost any Asian restaurant but it seems different when it is served out of a steamy container.  These were better than your local restaurant.

Custard Roll - cake with custard in it, this was served warm; fun to eat dessert for brunch.  This was one of Natalie's favorite. This roll was more of a spongy cake encapsulating yummy custard in a pinwheel shape

Egg Rolls

Custard Cake

Taro and Pork Egg roll - nice and crispy outside, it was served extremely hot so it almost burned Nick's tongue

Fried Sesame Balls - with red bean paste in the middle.  These were a little intimidating as to their size but once you bit into them there was a burst of flavor from the sweet red bean paste. To our Western ears that doesn't sound sweet and tasty but it really is.

Sesame Balls

Inside of a Sesame Ball

What menu looks like

Final thoughts on Triple Crown:
Food - we enjoyed all of the dim sum options we ate and would go back to eat any of them.
Service - The service was very quick. The items came out to our table as they were ready.  We got to the restaurant at the very beginning of the lunch rush; it sounds like it can get very busy here on the weekends.
Atmosphere - This restaurant is right in the heart of Chinatown. From the table we sat at we could see across the street to a very impressive building with wonderful architecture. As we said before we were some of the only non-Asian customers so apparently we were in the right place.

Sign outside restaurant