Peking Restaurant & Tavern

This is a tourist area, so you cant expect much to begin with, but this is the worst Chinese food I ever had. The server was very nice, but service time was very slow, food was flavorless, and meat tasted like sawdust.  We ordered 4 dishes, and they all came fried in the same, flavorless sauce: starchy, brown sauce.

Also, the sign outside the restaurant said Cantonese and Szechuan style food.  In less the meanings of Canto and Chuan food have changed to mean fried, flavorless pieces of poo, I consider this sign to be false advertising.  

Once I ate here, and was very disappointed.  This video comes to mind when I think of this place:
<a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fgothamist.com%2F2011%2F06%2F16%2Fvideo_japanese_scientist_makes_and.php&s=15e74161eb0b05976aa56ac92da6221ec40ab98ae17b05c5822e6716f94641e6" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://gothamist.com/201…</a>

Definitely not a big fan of the food. First of all, the food is not $, it is $$. No main dish is below $10.

The restaurant was entirely empty when we arrived and there's a reason for it.

We order one soup and two dishes. The soup tasted like msg+water with huge blocks of tofu and overcooked meat. Our first dish, shrimp in lobster sauce looked disgusting. The sauce was brown in color and the shrimp was very unfresh. Basically I lost my appetite upon seeing the food. Our second dish mushroom with chicken was very weird. From the mushroom to the chicken, everything was burnt and tasted like ashes.

To be fair, the service wasn't bad. The waiter was very nice. The first thing he asked us was where we are from. Why? Because no locals would come here.

On our last night of vacation, we decided to have Chinese food as a change of pace. I was very happy that my parents didn't want to eat at any of the chain restaurants in the tourist area on Clifton Hill.

Peking Restaurant is a little off the beaten path. The neighborhood wasn't great, but nothing I considered to be unsafe. Maybe that's because I'm from Detroit. ; )

We arrived at about 7:30pm, and the restaurant was practically empty. I think there were a couple of tables with patrons. We were greeted by a less-than-enthusiastic gentleman, with a dry personality. He let us know we could sit wherever we wanted. We sat down to look at the menu. They have a HUGE menu. There were so many options! They also have a full bar! They had a menu of mixed drinks & cocktails, as well as a wine list. As the gentleman returned, he joked about the extensive menu & told us there would be a quiz later. Again, his delivery was so dry and emotionless, it was funny! He also informed us that all entrees are served family style. After he took our order, he never returned & our server was the other woman in the restaurant, who was very nice. She also had quite a dry personality, but smiled & joked a little more than he did! I'm guessing that he was also the chef!

My husband & I chose the Dinner for 2 Special for $36.
It came with the following:
2 BBQ Pork Egg Rolls: I have no idea what part of it was BBQ or Pork. It was an egg roll, and fried well done. The plum sauce w/ a little bit of hot mustard was delicous though.

2 soups: We ordered Hot & Sour w/ Pork and Chicken Corn Soup. Our waiter scuffed his feet out to our table, shoulders slumped, and said they were out of the Chicken Corn Soup. It was as if he was anticipating revolt from us, but I said I was fine with the Hot & Sour soup, which put a smile on his face. The soup was great! I burned the shit out of my tongue, but I still enjoyed it. It was different than the only other Hot & Sour soup, so I'm not sure if this is traditional or not. They served fried rice noodles along with it, which was a nice addition.

1 Rice Dish: We ordered the Chicken Fried Rice. It was different than any fried rice we've had. It didn't have much (if at all) soy sauce on it, and much lighter. The flavor was really good.

2 Entrees: General Tso's Chicken, and Chili Mongolian Chicken. Both were delicious! Again, we found ourselves comparing the dishes to what we've had before. First of all, the chicken had very light breading. The Chinese restaurant we order from at home is heavily breaded, and fried. The Chili Chicken had a lovely sweet sauce with a little kick. The General Tso's Chicken was also very enjoyable, and even more kick to it! I've never had any Chinese entrees that have heat to it. Both dishes were a huge hit amongst the four of us.

My mom ordered the Vegetable Lo Mein, and met her expectations. There was a ton of crispy, perfectly cooked broccoli in her dish. My stepdad ordered Almond Chicken. It was good, but that's not one of my favorite dishes anywhere. He really enjoyed it though.

We started to talk about the differences with the wondeful food we were eating, and what we typically get when we order the same dishes at home. So, I asked our waitress about their food. She was great about it. She laughed and said, "First of all, there is no General Tso. I don't know where he came from or why this dish is named that. As for the way it's prepared, this is just our recipe for these dishes."

We really enjoyed the food, and took it home with us! We were so glad we decided to stop here for dinner. Even though we ate way too much, we didn't feel like we were going to enter into a food coma afterwards. Service was slow & a little weird at times, but we kept a sense of humor about it. The meal was not cheap by any means. It was $80 for the 4 of us. I realize things are more expensive in Canada. Also, the portions are nothing like they are in the States, which is not a complaint. It was interesting to compare though.

Next time we visit, we will definitely be back!