Red Peony Chinese Cuisine

Summary

We were around Central Park near the southern side, and this was on my list of restaurants to try. This new-ish Chinese (Shanghainese) restaurant is located where Joe’s Shanghai used to be in Midtown. It’s not too far from the Apple flagship store.

The stir fry snow pea leaf was mighty tasty. You can taste the subtleness of that wine, and the vegetable itself was tender and delicious.

The yang chow fried rice was very uplifting and fresh too. All the ingredients were hot and fresh.

Lastly as a slight difference to what we normally ordered, we ordered a whole peking duck. As you can tell, there is a decent amount of skin and meat. I wished they brought the rest of the duck as I bet there was more meat we could’ve eaten off the duck.

Regardless, I think the duck and accompaniments were very good. The duck skin was crispy and tasty. The meat was very tender.

All in all, I think this place does Chinese Shanghainese fairly well for the dishes that we’ve ordered.

Service was pretty fast and spotty at times. The dishes we ordered aside from the duck came out instanteous. They always kept the glasses full of water. However, I did notice that once people started filling in, the wait staff was having trouble coordinating attention. Some folks were expressed frustration when service wasn’t attentive to them. I think the usual expectation is that Chinese restaurant service would be very prompt.

When I ordered the duck, they kept asking if they should make the wrap for me. I responded that we can do it ourselves since I thought it’d be easier for them. No matter what I told them, they kept asking the same question over and over. Perhaps it was because I chose to speak in English, but later on, I finally had enough and just spoke to them in Mandarin. They them seem to now understand I knew what I was doing.

Price wise, it’s normal Manhattan prices, and it’s probably not as cheap as Chinatown. Still for the area it’s good.

Final Verdict

I think for the growing legit Midtown Chinese restaurants, this is one of them. The quality of the food is pretty good, albeit the service can be spotty at times. I think if you’re near Central Park and craving Shanghainese, this could be a good option.

Yelp Jabs

Just don’t come here for the soup dumplings.

Considering the sheer amount of soup dumpling places, I think there are definitely better options elsewhere.

The food delivery is all in an extremely small portion and I’m sure it’s way smaller than any other dim sum takeout!

Another person gets burned on takeout.