Sweet Dynasty II (2007-01-30)
I can't believe it's been over a year since we ate at Sweet Dynasty. Did time fly or were we just too lazy to make that trip to Aoyama (
)? Well anyway, make that trip we did on a
recent Saturday. There was only two women in
line before us when we arrived at 11:20 am but shortly after we joined
them, the line grew quickly. When our table was ready, I figured
there must've been twenty people or so behind us.KL and I ordered their signature wonton noodles, a fried rice,
shrimp rice rolls and a new dessert item on their menu: sticky rice
balls with sesame filling in ginger broth which is our favorite Chinese
dessert to eat in Hong Kong.
First came the colorful fried rice. The serving was quite small which was just enough to fill two small bowls. It had that high-heat induced smokiness which is something I love about Chinese food. Unfortunately it was also very greasy, so much so that there was a film of oil in the bottom of the serving bowl. At the end of the meal, I felt waaaay stuffed not by the amount of food I ate, but by the ball of fried rice grease sitting in my stomach.
Next came the shrimp rice rolls which I remember was at least
passable last time. This time the quality has gone down seventeen
notches. The rice sheets were super THICK and CHEWY in stead of
being slippery smooth and thin. Did they get new cooks who have
no clue about making rice rolls? The shrimps were fresh and
crunchy (thank goodness) but the scant amount of soy sauce was
insufficient which resulted in very bland rice rolls at the
end.
The wonton noodles tasted the same as last time which was
good. The so-so meal however couldn't be saved by the much
anticipated dessert. The rice balls were a far cry from the ones
we're used to having in Hong Kong. The dough to filling ratio was
bad (too much dough, too little filling) and the sesame filling
bland and flavorless lacking any roasted
sesame seeds aroma. The sesame taste was overpowered by the gummy
texture of the flavorless rice balls making this a bad dessert in my
book. I did like the ginger syrup/broth though.
This disappointingly mediocre meal won't see me running back to
Sweet Dynasty any
time soon. I'm happy to give the restaurant another year to
regroup and hire someone who can make rice rolls and proper rice ball
dessert.
Sweet Dynasty Kita-Aoyama 3-5-14. Open 11am-10pm daily. Tel: 5786-1555
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