From time to time, I get wistful about the lack of a great Chinese restaurant within any kind of a reasonable drive from Vero.
So when I recently got a chance to spend a couple of nights in London, I knew the time had come for another Chinese food fix. And as it so often does, London came through big time.
Our dinner the first night was at a place we discovered 45 years ago shortly after it first opened – Mr. Chow, a couple of blocks from Harrod’s in Knightsbridge. This was the first restaurant in London to combine authentic Beijing cuisine (I think we still called it Peking duck back then) with elegant white-table-cloth service.
In its prime (probably the 1990s), you almost had to be an “A” list celebrity to get in. Today, familiar faces can still be spotted on any given evening – but booking several days in advance, we had no problem getting a reservation.And happily, the dishes at Mr. Chow did not disappoint.
Then the following night, we dined for the first time at Kai Mayfair – a Michelin-starred restaurant since 2009 and in various years rated Best Chinese Restaurant in London both by Zagat and the Sunday Times.
It was an elegant dining experience with breathtaking food as well.
If you have any plans in the New Year to be in London, you won’t go wrong visiting either of these restaurants.
But if you have no immediate plans to fly to the UK (or to New York or San Francisco), and are in desperate need of a Chinese food fix right here in Vero, you might want to try the Shandong Noodle House.
This tiny restaurant, tucked away in the Three Avenues Shopping Center on Miracle Mile, is in a different league than the two we visited in London.
It probably wouldn’t make it into the Best 500 in London, but it is certainly the best in Vero – offering a variety of Cantonese, Hunanese, Sichuanese and Chinese-American dishes, as well as those based on the cooking methods of Shandong, East China’s coastal province.
The Shandong’s wonton soup (small $3.95, large $5.95) is the best around. The broth, while sometimes a bit salty, has a nice aroma and contains thin-skinned wontons stuffed with juicy pork as well as bok choy. The Shandong’s egg drop soup is also a fine rendition of this simple dish.
On our most recent visit, we tried the beef with broccoli ($11.95), the kung pao chicken ($12.95) and the sautéed baby bok choy with garlic ($10.95).
The beef with broccoli was better than the kung pao chicken, which was very light on the peanuts, and lacked the spicy kick generally associated with this dish. The sautéed baby bok choy with garlic ($10.95) was excellent, as are the Shandong’s vegetables generally.
On a previous visit to the Shandong Noodle House, we tried their version of moo shu pork, a dish that some say originated in Shandong. We actually thought the Shandong’s moo shu pork ($10.95) was one of the better renditions of this Chinese-American dish that we have had anywhere.
We have finally reconciled ourselves to the idea that there never is going to be world-class Chinese dining within 100 miles of Vero Beach. That’s the price we pay for living in paradise. But when we are away on holiday, we will continue the search for Great Chinese – and will share our findings with you.
As for Vero, the Shandong for the moment reigns supreme.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at tina@verobeach32963.com.
The reviewer dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.
