Dong Fang Restaurant Review, Hongdong, China

Dong Fang Restaurant is a Cantonese Chinese restaurant located in industrial Hongdong, China, about 500km from Beijing. The restaurant is affiliated with the East Holiday Hotel next door. The cooking style is really more of a fusion between Cantonese cuisine and the local Shanxi cuisine, to appease the locals. They serve everything from ultra expensive shark’s fin soup to low cost everyday dishes. Decor, Vibe – Lots of private rooms, many with TVs for extended meals and get togethers. Nice clean modern Asian decor although the details are a little shoddy. Many locals, with some large parties, were eating lunch when we were there. Menu Pictures (Click to zoom into any picture)

Full menu

Picks:

Cold Jelly in a spicy sauce with peanuts and cucumbers is not really a Cantonese dish, but a local one. Very Spicy to keep the locals happy.

Fried Squab (38¥) were 2 birds cooked Cantonese style. Not in the top of its class, but pretty good this far inland. Dry meat, crispy skin.

Butter lettuce (8) with peanut/sesame butter sauce were rolled up greens in a thick sauce. Beautiful and tasty, but watch those raw vegetables.

Eight treasure rice in a pumpkin was an impressive dish. Lots of stick rice with chunks of meat, preserved veggies, and candied fruit. It tasted as good as it looked. Pumpkin itself was naturally sweet, fragrant and good too.

Zha Jiang Noodles were simple and well done. The sauces were way better than Old Beijing’s.

Whole fish was a steamed fresh fish from their tanks. Simple and delicious with its soy sauce and green onions. Lots of bones.

Sweet potato wrapped in candied sugar with home made cereal was something new. Crunchy and sweet, hot and soft, kinda of like eating kid’s sugary cereal with a toffee candy bar. Awesome!

Pork Dumplings (12) were large dumplings filled with meat, preserved vegetables, and mushrooms. Very heavy flavor from all the meat. Nice exterior dough bun. OK:

Three mushroom soup had a lot of mushrooms but the broth was overly salty. It was long boiled at least.

Cold spiced Beef has a big batch of cured meat with some five spice flavor.

Green Salad consisted mains of arugula with a lite dressing. Pretty Simple.

Vegetables (8) of the day were fresh and simply sauteed. A little on the greassy side. Pans: Dong Fang Restaurant had fair service. A server was dedicated to us but was pretty slow in getting everything going. We saw how they washed cups. As they say, sometimes the less you know the better. Prices are cheap by USA standards, making this a popular place with the locals. This place is deep in the heart of China, so there is no English on the menu.

$25 Dining Certificate for $5

Overall Rating: (Good 2)

Come Back?

Food Rating:	(Good)
Service Rating:	(Average)
Atmosphere Rating:	(Very Good)
Value Rating:	(Good)

Guide: 0 = poor, 1 = Below/Average, 2 = Good, 2.5 = Very Good, 3 = Excellent , 4 = Extraordinary

Alcohol:	Beer, Wine
Attire:	Casual
Parking:	Street
Reservations:	Yes