Chi Dynasty and more

Labor Day Weekend, 2010, and we decided it was time to eat out rather than have BK’s delicious cooking. One day we went to Chevy’s Mexican restaurant in Burbank and had a very good meal. I am not writing up a review of Chevy’s but almost everything I have ever had there has been good. On Sunday they have $3 guacamole made at the table which was quite tasty.

On Monday, we decided to go to a new Chinese restaurant that we hadn’t tried – Chi Dynasty. A few years ago, a new building was erected and it was designed in a Russian motif. It housed a more elegant Russian restaurant upstairs and a café on the first level. They went out of business and recently this Chinese restaurant opened in this Russian looking building. We received a menu in the mail and thought it was a good time to try it out.

The interior is very nicely Chinese with a lot of red and black. The music that was playing sounded like Chinese pop music and was quite nice. We started out with a Chinese chicken salad since it had been voted the best in town. The waiter (all are Chinese and dressed in black Chinese outfits) brought a large bowl and the ingredients for the salad were all in the bowl. He mixed it at the table and then split it into two dishes for us. It was all white meat in small strips tossed with ginger, scallions, ground peanuts, sesame seeds, crispy rice noodles, lettuce and dressing. It was delicious, as good as the best I have had. My only complaint is that there was a little too much dressing but I am one who likes very little dressing on my salads. When I go again, I will tell them when I order that I want light on the dressing. The salad was $7.25 and plenty for two people.

We also ordered the dim sum sampler. This is made up three types of dim sum depending on what the cook decides. The waiter told us what was in the sampler today. We got two pork, two shrimp and two vegetable. Interestingly, the wrappers of each type were different. This was served in the traditional wooden dish and were all steamed, not fried as we see at some restaurants. I really liked the pork and the vegetable. I found the shrimp to be a bit tough. This sampler was $6.25.

As if that wasn’t enough to eat, we also ordered sesame chicken. We were asked if we wanted rice so I rightly suspected that there was an extra charge. I got brown rice and BK got white rice and we were charged for each. Since both of us had a lot left over, next time we could only order one. The sesame chicken ($8.75) was a bit disappointing because it was more like sweet and sour than other sesame chicken we have had in the past. Also, some of the chicken was so small that after frying, it was a bit tough. Other pieces were very tender. We ate all of this as well and it was quite a large amount. We arrived there at 3:15 and found out we could have the lunch menu until 4:00 which was very nice.

I had jasmine tea which was surprisingly served with just a cup of water and a tea bag. It was very tasty but I had to ask for more hot water which cooled rather quickly. Serving a closed pot of water would have been better. BK had diet Coke and was charged for a refill even though it was presented as if there would be no extra charge.

We left there very full and satisfied. I would definitely return, again for lunch because it can be quite pricey for dinner. We had very good service. They deliver with a $3 delivery charge and I am sure we will do that in the future. Chi Dynasty is at 12229 Ventura Blvd. in Studio City. They also have a restaurant in Los Feliz.

After enjoying the Labor Day eating-fest, today we went to the gym. When we came back, BK cooked a wonderful, healthy lunch – angel hair pasta with grape tomatoes, garlic and parmesan cheese, garlic bread made with olive bread and cantaloupe. All I can say about our lunch today was that it was fantastic and I am so lucky to have my personal chef.