China Village at last - what mustn't I not order?

I'm finally going to get to China Village with three companions on Saturday night. I've seen so many effusive posts here on a multitude of dishes - help me focus on the absolute Don't Miss dishes!

[chocolatetartguy]

Having just come back from lunch there, I would say get neither any beef stew dishes nor the classic pork water dumplings. My Szechwan beef stew noodle soup contained little actual meat (perhaps a cooking-stylistic choice) and the broth substituted a lot of chili for actual flavor. I like heat, but only applied to an already tasty broth. I left behind half of the noodles and soup. The pork dumplings were unremarkable with not much broth inside. I found the dipping sauce to have an odd flavor.

In all fairness my Tuesday lunch there (it's next door to my accountant's office) was really good. One of my favorite Chinese dishes is curry chicken and CV's version had a lot of depth of flavor. I also liked the soy/sesame? dressing on the little salad.
I was pleasantly surprised Tuesday, but disappointed today (my favorite Chinese diss?)

I prefer San Tung, Great China (not so much lately), Great Wall, all where I find the flavors cleaner..

village special seafood noodle soup
village special lamb
pork shoulder cooked for 14 hours
sesame flatbread
whatever greens are recommended

I was disappointed with the village special seafood soup last time I was there -- one of the dishes that I think has deteriorated since the original chef left. Still, if you never had the earlier version, the current version is quite good.

I agree with most of the other recs. Has anyone had the Chengdu shrimp lately? My favorite cold plate is the sliced pork in spicy garlic sauce.

FWIW, I find the soup has a lot of variability in how flavorful the stock is. You can;t order it an depend on it being like it used to be, but sometimes it is. I actually had one of the best I've had only weeks ago.

I think we are referring to the China VIllage in Albany, on Solano Avenue.

Get these:
homestyle chicken (it is a cold "appetizer" dish)
sesame bread (for four folks, one order could replace rice)
lamb with cumin
West style spicy fish -- although it is a big portion; one order provided a bowl of soup for each of us at a dinner for twelve.
Ask the waiter what green veg is in season. Recently we had "A" choy and "yo choy" -- both excellent.

On the menu you will see many dishes listed as "classic". Stay away from these -- they are the usual run-of-the-mill sweet and sour pork etc.

Only one problem with this place -- our favorite dishes are so good that we order them each time, so we never get to try new things.

My favorites:

Szechwan home style chicken
West Style Spicy Fish
dry-cooked bamboo shoots

[Robert Lauriston]

Another favorite as of this week: the cold conch appetizer. The conch is sliced paper-thin and tossed with green onions in a light spicy dressing.

the spicy boiled beef we had was excellent, especially sopped up with the doughy sesame flat bread...mmm

Second this!

The nondescript Fish in Claypot is also excellent.

I think there are a few China Village in the Bay Area. Which one are you inquiring about?