We were there last night around 7:00 or so. The space was not crowded and there were no negative issues with service that we experienced. Service was polite, prompt and pleasant.
We had four dishes. For appetizers we had the Hot and Sour Squid and Green Beans with Black Bean Sauce.
The Green Beans with Black Bean Sauce were long beans chopped into very small pieces with black beans and very small chopped pieces of dung gu (sp? dried Chinese mushroom). Given the amount or prep chopping that went into this dish it was a very labor intensive dish. Although it was a black bean dish, it contained none of the gloppy black sauce one often finds in black bean sauce dishes. The sauce was a bit salty but refined and we very much enjoyed this appetizer. The serving was generous. (Leftovers in scrambled eggs this morning.) There was a healthy heat to this dish, but not overpowering.
The hot and sour squid was very tender and done very well. I can't say that I have had a cold squid dish before and we enjoyed this as well. The sourness seemed to be imparted by lemon or some other type of citrus.
For the main course we ordered the Empress Fresh Chili Crab and the Pork in Garlic Sauce. The crab was cooked perfectly and came in an abundance of red peppers and Sze Chuan peppercorns. The dish was notated with two hot peppers on the menu menu and was not overpowering. The heat and the taste of the Sze Chuan peppercorns built in a pleasant sensation as we ate. The legs and the claws of the crab were presented uncracked, which did present a bit of a challenge to eat with chopsticks. We were not to be deterred and basically went primal on it. Hopefully nobody was watching. The crab was very sweet and was balanced by the heat of the hot peppers and the spice of the peppercorns in a very pleasant way. We really enjoyed this dish.
The Pork in Garlic Sauce had a sour note to it which I didn't anticipate but enjoyed. This was very good, but was the least remarkable of the dishes we had to our taste.
I ordered the Jasmine Ice Tea which arrived in a can and was sweetened. That was the only negative and I won't order that again.
The meal was excellent and we will be back to try more from the very large menu.
There was a rather odd mixture of background music including some country music and some techno and jazz. For us, it neither added nor detracted from the meal, and was notable only because it was an unusual mix.
We are very happy to have a place of this caliber closer to our house.
"I live on good soup, not on fine words." -Moliere