China Yuan: Second Stop, Second Rate?

The last restaurant I went to called, Yummy House, was yummy indeed. It lived up to the hype of the people blogging about it and giving it praises (except for the interior and the service, of course.) My next place to criticize was another place that I’ve read was fabulous. It’s also a Chinese restaurant located on Armenia St. near Busch Blvd. The place is called China Yuan.

This place was a little hard to find just because of the fact that Armenia is such a narrow road and you can see so many entrances to apartments and buildings and the like. My best friend just noticed a plaza and assumed it was there. Alas, he was right. Good job. You deserve a pat on the back. Okay, I guess you deserve a good meal for finding the place too.

Parking was not a hassle at all since it was a good-sized plaza. From the outside, China Yuan looks like a legit restaurant, with many customers’ cars outside. Great! A lot of people usually mean good food. I got excited.

As soon as I got in, I noticed the welcoming atmosphere of the place. On the right, there were fish tanks of fish to be caught and cooked fresh. And right beside it was like a booth where all the hanging peking ducks were. The lighting was bright, in a mellow way. If I’m not mistaken, the tables and chairs were made of wood, making it feel kind of like home. There was even a dragon ornament hanging from the ceiling. I was born in the year of the dragon. There were a lot of tables occupied. We were sat nearly at the back corner. I didn’t mind.



Our menus were set in front of us. This time, I didn’t really see any typos. Thank, God. Their menu confused me. Not because I couldn’t understand what was written, but because there was a vast selection of everything. I saw it as a good thing. There were appetizers, barbecue, soup, sharks fin and sea cucumbers, lobster, crab, fish, shrimp, oysters, clams, hot pots, squid, vegetables, meats, congee, fried rice, noodles. The list can go on and on. They even have a selection of frog meat.

I would have ordered a frog dish, but it wouldn’t be in my price range anymore. I have already tried it though at a different restaurant. It tasted good, actually. The only thing is it was pretty bony and muscular. There wasn’t that much meat to chew. Well, duh. What do I expect from frogs, right?

Our first dish was Shrimp Wanton Soup. It was the special request of my best friend since he wasn’t feeling really good. It looked very simple when it was served to us, a couple of wantons and very young Chinese pechay in a stock-like kind of liquid. It smelled heavenly though! I took my first slurp. Nothing. I took my second one. Nothing still. I didn’t really taste anything. It was so bland I had to put some soy sauce in it. Thankfully, it tasted better. The greens weren’t that good either. They were not very bite-able or chewable. They were like huge pieces and they cannot definitely fit in one’s mouth. The wantons were a different story though. They were so luscious and the shrimp inside was just a burst of seafood heaven in your mouth.


Shrimp Wanton Soup

We ordered Salt Fish and Chicken Fried Rice and Honey and Garlic Chicken. I was looking forward to the previous due to the reason that there was a review by Brian Ries that I read, which describes it as such: “Each bite is an explosion of intense salt, spice, garlic and oil, carried by the otherwise delicate wokked rice.” My first bite and I already begged to differ. I did not taste anything at all, not even the rice itself. It was a mountainous spoonful too. I gave it a second, and a third chance. A little bit of flavor whenever I would bite into the fish or the chicken, but that was it. All the other ingredients, again, just tasted plain bland. It was like eating plain white rice with bits of lost meat and minced vegetables stuck in there. Okay, that was an exaggeration. But still, this mirrors how extremely disappointed I was about the dish. Even Brian Ries’ suggestion of tossing the hot pepper garlic sauce in it did not help at all. It made it a little spicy, nothing else. His claim that it was an explosion of tastes of different ingredients rests upon the questionable assumption that it was a really good choice from their selection of fried rice dishes.


Salt Fish and Chicken Fried Rice

Our second one, Honey and Garlic Chicken was so-so. It was literally soaking in what looked like a pool of straight up caramelized sugar and honey thickened with cornstarch. They should have called it Chicken-Swimming-In-Honey. It was tremendously sweet and I didn’t even taste any of the garlic. But the good part is that after getting through that wall of batter and sugar guarding the precious contents, the chicken was worth all the cavities you’ll be having due to the sugar content. It was so tender and juicy, you’ll forget having previously chewed on what was covering it. It was also perfectly seasoned. Finally, food (not the whole dish though), that actually tasted like something. I just thought it was a bit too early for dessert.


Honey and Garlic Chicken

My best friend said that they had a conservative kind of cooking. With what I just tasted, and if he meant that to be a euphemism for bland, then I totally agree with him. Of course, this excludes the over-the-top-it’ll-make-your-arteries-clog-up Chicken-Swimming-In-Honey dish. Hey, if you’d like to save some money and have a main dish and dessert in one, this would be perfect. Kidding.

The quantity of food served isn’t that much, probably good for two really hungry persons. The only thing that was a lot was the fried rice. For the service, I’ll give them some slack. It was pretty busy and I understand that they had to run around a couple of different tables. Although they weren’t that friendly, they were still efficient and served our food in a short period of time. Their service was so much better than the previous Chinese restaurant we visited even though the latter had only two other tables to wait on. Our waiter even smiled at us. I love smiling servers.

All in all, it was a pretty disappointing experience. Everyone has been comparing China Yuan to Yummy House. With my visit, I don’t think they even come close to each other. Maybe China Yuan deserves a second chance. I guess you would just have to choose between the better food at the other place or the better service in this restaurant. I’m just hoping that if ever I pass by and decide to give it another shot, my smiling server would still be the one who will be waiting on me.

China Yuan
8502 N. Armenia Ave., Tampa, FL
Phone 813-936-7388

      Extra Thoughts on Ms. DJ’s WWFF:

          “If you’re a freelancer, you might select restaurants on your own. Most of the time, I have decided which one to visit. Says the
          Phantom Gourmet, “Every new restaurant likes to claim it’s what they are doing is truly new or just a new veneer on something
          that was already passé ten years ago.””

      I’m of two minds about the claim that a new restaurant wants to say that what they offer is novel and not just something that they
      are doing again that was already done. On one hand, I agree that restaurants, especially new ones, must have present something that
      would set them apart from others, something like their trademark. On the other hand, I am not sure if it would matter if it would be
      like a remake of something that was done by other restaurants before. What I mean is that you can reinvent something and still make
      it your own. However, I don’t think that it’s possible to make up completely new ideas since just about every new one has been used
      and has been exhausted. Personally, it’s all about making your mark in the industry and living up to your name.