The Beijing Palace
closed shortly after our last visit, the result of a once promising
partnership gone wrong.
To paraphrase an old
saying, "never judge a Chinese restaurant by its buffet!"
The Beijing Palace's unremarkable buffet had me thinking this was
just another in a long list of terrible Albuquerque Chinese restaurants.
Fortunately I trust and value the opinion of fellow connoisseur Bill
"salt of the Earth" Resnik who touted the Palace as the best
Chinese restaurant in town.
By the time we were
done with appetizers (beef curry Rangoon and pot stickers) I knew we
were in for something special. Our entrees: orange flavor beef
(remarkably crunchy yet moist and highly flavorful), hot and spicy fried
shrimp (round eye style sans head and shell), and clams with Szechwan
sauce affirmed that notion--so much so that I returned the following day
for more pot stickers and among the best shredded duck I have ever had.
The Palace rocks on
Sundays when dim sum is featured fare. Our dim sum favorites
included the shrimp shu mai, steamed shrimp fun gor and the crystal
shrimp har gow, but there were over 30 tempting items beckoning (and we
tried to answer their summons). I even had the chicken feet
(not bad, but the hundreds of tiny bones make them too much trouble to
eat). Not only is the food absolutely wonderful, the service is
first-rate with our old friends from May Hong helping make us welcome.
Minh, the indefatigable
proprietor is as friendly as they come, making us feel like guests in
his home instead of like paying customers.
Note: Please see my review for Ming
Dynasty.
