Chinatown Restaurant is a restaurant in Naples that serves New York-style Chinese food. What is this, you, the discerning reader, may ask? New York-style Chinese cuisine is Chinese food that has been Americanized.
By this, I mean Chinese meals that incorporate ingredients never used in Chinese cooking. Western broccoli (beef and broccoli), uncooked greens (Chinese chicken salad) and wonton strips are great examples of foods and dishes never seen in traditional Chinese cuisine.
Many food writers and journalists love to highlight new restaurants for their readers, and rightly so. However, there is much to be said about the restaurant veterans and stalwarts that seem to continue to thrive almost in perpetuity.
Chinatown Restaurant has been serving food since 1997. I have said this before and will say it again. A restaurant’s longevity is usually an excellent predictor of both the food and service one will experience. Chinatown Restaurant is just another example of this.
I had not eaten here in many moons. My dining companion and I decided to try a number of Menu Items. The menu on the previous link is not current as to prices. Expect around a 10% increase.
We were served fried wonton strips and duck sauce gratis, straight out of the New York-style Chinese food playbook. Nothing remarkable here, we were hungry and we were happy for the snack.
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| Fried wontons with duck sauce |
The first menu item ordered was teriyaki beef.
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| Teriyaki beef |
This is a Japanese dish. Teriyaki is a sauce as well as a cooking technique. The sauce typically consists of sugar, soy sauce and mirin, the latter a sweetened rice vinegar. The cooking technique involves basting either grilled or broiled foods with the sauce. It was really good, conveniently served in a four piece portion, excellent for splitting between two diners.
We then sampled the house special noodle soup.
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| House special noodle soup |
The soup is served in a 20 oz. portion, was ok and the perfect size for two (ask for extra bowls to split) The broth was very delicate, and there was a combination of chicken, shrimp and pork along with a variety of vegetables. The noodles here were Rice Vermicelli Noodles, similar to the next dish we ordered. I thought this was an odd choice for soup noodles. This was not the best dish of the evening but was not bad either.
It had been a while since I’d eaten this, but we were anxious to try their Singapore Curry Noodles.
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| Singapore curry noodles |
Chinatown’s version was excellent. It had the usual suspects of chicken, shrimp and Char Siu, bbq roast pork. The curry was moderately spicy, blending well with the rice noodles, vegetables and protein in this dish. Highly recommended.
We finished with one of their dinner specials, a classic New York-style Chinese dish, General Tso’s Chicken
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| General Tso’s chicken dinner |
There was never any General Tso, and as with many classic dishes, there were claims unable to be authenticated as to its Origin. The dish is a sweet and spicy stir fry of breaded chicken. The dinner came with pork fried rice, and the usual refried frozen egg roll typically served with Chinese takeout dinners. The egg roll was totally unremarkable and overcooked. The chicken was good here and so was the pork fried rice. I have always thought this menu item was too caloric.
Although not asked for with this meal, in the past, they have substituted General Tso’s shrimp for chicken/pork for a nominal fee, which I felt was a bit less caloric. Whether they would still do this, I do not know, but being in the, “if you don’t ask you don’t receive” category, will ask next time.
The total for all this food with tip came to about $50. There were even leftovers, enough for lunch for one which I brought with me to work the next day. The food served at Chinatown Restaurant is classic New York-style Chinese fare and very old school. It was for the most part good to very good, and I would come back here without hesitation.
They also deliver to a very large part of central Naples, and I was sure to grab a paper takeaway menu on my way out. I live about 5 miles from the restaurant and look forward to getting takeout from here in the very near future.
It’s a wrap for another post on Forks
Chinatown Restaurant
2059 Pine Ridge Rd.
Naples, FL 34109
(239) 513-9881
Open Monday-Thursday, 11AM to 9PM, Friday- Saturday, 11AM to 10PM, Sunday, 12-9PM; All major credit cards accepted; Dine-in, takeout and delivery service available.
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This article originally appeared here and was republished with permission.
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