Finally a worthy contender

On your guard Tea House! A formidable adversary has just been spotted prowling the arena - Little Szechuan of St. Paul MN.

Regular perusers of this page would remember that we Gushed Over Tea House, rather unabashedly a while ago, and while we still stand by all those proclamations of love-at-first-taste, our hearts went aflutter at the overtures of this new contender for best-Chinese-food-in-town. The food is great and immensely flavorful, the portion sizes are decent, and especially the lunch specials offer all that you would want in an a la carte meal for a very puny sum.

Shalini had been to the restaurant with some co-workers of hers earlier and her high recommendations sold me as well. So, a few days ago, we made it a lunch date there. From outside, the restaurant looks like a warehouse with a nondescript entrance, but don't let this self-deprecating reticence fool you. The dining room is spacious and the decor while not very outstanding is still trendy and smart.

Our server presented us with the menu cards and looking at the dinner menu, I was swamped with the plethora of choices available. Lamb and beef dishes alongwith tantalizing seafood and chicken delicacies. Fortunately, the limited choice lunch menu saved me from the trance induced by indecision.
We decided to order Chicken Lo-mein and Beef Kung Pao and as is usual with us, we share each other's food :-)

The appetizers were - an egg-roll and egg-drop soup. Both were wonderful. The soup being surprisingly hot and the egg-roll meaty.

I took a Pinot Noir to accompany the food and it turned out to be a great choice - rather dry with a medium body and mild spicy notes. The wine went very well with the beef.

Beef Kung Pao was served with a bowl of steamed rice and oh! what succulent and delicious a dish it was. Dominant flavour of smoky blackbean with the heat of dried red chilli-peppers. The meat was cooked just right - tender and suffused with taste.
"Thish ish good ...." Shalini managed to mumble with a mouthful of the beef while I was attacking the chicken lo-mein with gusto. Needless to say that we both had our forks across the table in the other's plate :-)

They offer desserts as well, but mostly of the European kind. We tried the Tiramisu and it was good. But likely sourced from an outside bakery.

Delightful company, Great food, good ambience and a nice wine made it a beautiful date indeed!

And now for recommendations: ***** (yeah five big fat sparklers)