It’s been a while since I’ve eaten at Gourmet Kingdom in Carrboro. Their new website lists the same dishes, but no prices. I’ll guess it’s so they can avoid updating the website in the future. When I go there, I feel like there’s a significant level of variance in my degree of satisfaction of the meals. Sometimes they crush it and other times I feel less good about the experience.
Are any of the other Chinese restaurants in Chapel Hill/Carrboro worth visiting? To put things in perspective, I’ve never had General Tso’s chicken and don’t find comfort in Americanized Chinese food. If the restaurant needs to serve that stuff that’s OK, but I want an English version of the menu the server gives to the Chinese patrons. The nice thing about Gourmet Kingdom is that they have quite a following among the local Chinese community.
Tonight, I’m going to try Shanghai Dumpling on Franklin Street. It’s gotten some good reviews on Yelp. They don’t seem to have a website. The kiddos love dumplings and so do I.
Oh please tell me about Shanghai Dumpling I peeked at the menu the day I went to Sawasdee. I really don’t know any other place but then Chinese food isn’t really my thing. I’m entirely happy with a plate of Chow Fun, I’ve enjoyed China Wok for that but it’s Americanized Chinese food, though I do see plenty of Asians there in Timberlyne.
FYI; Ms. Mong has a pop-up restaurant starting at 10pm korean bbqy things
I ordered carry out order from Shanghai Dumpling in Chapel Hill the other night. Overall, I’d say the every thing was quite good and my crowd was pleased. I placed a rather large order and I think some items suffered during the car ride as some of the wrappers were gummy, but gummy carry out food is a pet peeve of mine, so YMMV. On the weekend, you’re also able to order from their dim sum menu, which expands the offerings quite a bit. As a best practice, I’d recommend eating in, so everything comes out at the peak of freshness. The soup dumplings were good, but I prefer Chirba Chirba’s rendition. The bean curd rolls with pork were pretty interesting as were the pan fried pork dumplings.
The Shanghai menu at Red Lotus can be very good. Last time I was there (maybe 3-4 weeks ago?) it was overly salty, but overall as long as you stick with the Shanghai menu (I can’t emphasis this enough) I think you’ll do well.
