Dalian

There is an amazing restaurant called Dalian (Dalian is the largest city of the northeastern region of China). This Chinese restaurant specializes in Dalian regional specialties such as seafood. But Dalian also focuses on the 'Dongbei' cuisine (known to be a rougher cuisine & heavier in terms of flavour and quantity due to the harsh winters).

Dalian is in a shop house, its interiour is long and narrow. Very white and clean. The restaurant is run by a Chinese family. The father is the chef, the mother is taking orders, and the rest of the family sit at the round table closest to the tv eating and watching Chinese television (satelite). Like the majority of restaurants in town, the decor is basic but the food is the star. The family and staff barely speak English and Thai but they are very accommodating and friendly. For example, they let us bring our own wine glasses because they do not carry any.


The first dish was a typical dish from the northern area of China. Dumplings stuffed with pork. We always order the dumplings at Dalian. They are always fresh and steaming from the bamboo basket. The liquid and the stuffing of the dumplings are always so tasty. The skin is always thin. Just lovely. Dalian has several types of dumplings to choose from.











The next dish was a favourite of ours. Deep fried pancakes stuffed with chives. An unbelieveable dish. Perfectly fried and the stuffing of chives and scrambled eggs is light but tasty. Just becareful not to smile right away after eating the pancakes. You always have green chives stuck on your teeth.


The next dish was fresh fish with Sichuan sauce. An unbelievable dish not only for your eyes because it was prepared beautifully but for your taste buds as well. The fish was cooked perfectly, almost raw at the bone. The fish meat was so tender and flaked off easily. The sauce was perfect, adding wonderful flavours to the fish but not over whelming it.




















The next dish was sauteed green beans. A fantastic tasting dish. So simple but I have no idea what they do to make this dish so tasty. The only disappointing I had this time was that the green beans were cooked too long. They lost their slight crunch and were too soft & limp.


The next dish was mutton with cumin seeds. The flavour of this dish will hit you right away. The mutton meat was tender and the flavour of the cumin seeds were powerful. A very unique dish and went very well with our red wine.










The last dish was a favourite of mine; glazed and sauteed aubergine. I always order this dish. The aubergine is fresh; and due to the cooking, they come out sticky and very tasty.


Dalian is one of those rare finds in Bangkok. It is a very unique restaurant because they serve Chinese food from a region that is not well know in Bangkok. Cantonese is the dominate Chinese food in town. I am not sure if there is another restaurant in town to compare with Dalian. But for now, I am very happy to have Dalian as a choice for great Chinese food.

10/3 soi 40 Sukhumvit; 02-7135288