The unfortunate thing is that you're almost guaranteed to be in a queue for a table here at meal times, and tonight was no exception. We should be thankful it was only half an hour wait. and the effort of keeping up with the girl yelling out numbers and colour of tickets was enough to make my head spin.
Ordering food though was a piece of cake. Our guest in town did not like squid, tofu and couldn't eat pork, so that made everything very simple. The pre-paid, compulsory appetizer was chilled chicken, so we forfeited the drunken chicken and went for the cucumber and ma la bean sheets. The cucumber was properly "smacked" to soak up the flavours, but it wasn't spicy as described on the menu, just lots of chunky garlic. The bean sheets were not the ma la spiciness you get in a proper Sichuan dish, but it had a good kick to it, which was complemented by the cooling cucumber slices.
For mains we ordered the Peking beef with sesame pockets, spring beans, fish in wine sauce, vegetarian dumplings, a Shanghai stir fried thick noodles, and a dan dan mian. Everything was tasty without overpowering the sense, and I particularly liked the dumplings which were massive and freshly steamed. The dishes were a tad oily but overall acceptable. The only down side was that the dishes came in rapid succession in random order, so the dan dan mian was served first, then everything piled up, and I had to interrupt the conversation to make sure everyone ate their dumplings before it cooled down. But you can't fault them for speedy service, that's for sure. Dessert was fried dough with red bean paste, and sesame glutinous balls in rice wine soup. Both very refreshing and not cloyingly sweet. Just enough to finish off the meal.
Each time I come the food has been consistent, the environment is nice especially if you get a booth, or if you're lucky you get a view of the chefs making the dumplings. And a very reasonable price too for all that nosh.