Gourmet Kingdom (Carrboro) issues?
I heard that recently the head chef of GK left over wage disputes and as a consequence, the food there is no longer as amazing. Can anyone confirm/deny? It would be tragic to lose such a gem.
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Gourmet Kingdom
301 E Main St, Carrboro, NC 27510
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I ate there last month and it was as good as ever. I think this is by far the best restaurant in Chapel Hill/Carrboro. We are so lucky to have it!
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re: Rory
Glad to hear that GK is still on track. I can't call it the best restaurant in CH/Carrboro, though it surely is the best Chinese restaurant in the CH/Carrboro area, IMO. If you like the tastes of Sichuan, you'll find similar flavors on the menu at Lantern taken to a whole new level.
Recently at Lantern, I had a special appetizer of carpaccio dressed with chiles and sea urchin oil. It was umami central, so tasty.
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re: Tom from Raleigh
I went back a couple of weeks ago and it was still terrific - had the Szechuan spicy dried beef appetizer and my favorite, Chengdu cold noodle. Both were cold dishes and I wouldn't normally do that, but I was there alone and that's what I wanted. I was nearly dying of the level of heat but it was worth it. Really wish I could go back more often, I'd love to try the kung pao lotus root...I am trying to go vegetarian...
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re: Barbara
LulusMom
Oct 1, 2011 02:01 PM
Last time I went, which was much too long ago, I had and loved the lotus root. Also well worth trying if you want to go veg is any dish made with their homemade tofu. Really amazing. and they're willing to make the dishes without meat, if they normally come with it.
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re: Rory
We went last week and something was definitely off. The kung pow lotus root that we love so much wasover fried to the point where it had shriveled. Some of the other dishes were over salted. What makes it surprising is we were there on a Wednesday night (my middle son chose GK for his birthday dinner) so it's not like they were slammed. Still good enough that I won't give up on them-- plus the owner is so nice-- but it was disconcerting.
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re: bbqme
We're there about once a month or so. The only problem we've had is inconsistent spiciness. Different visits have yielded very different levels of heat in the same dish. One time a dish will be blazing hot, the next it will be very tame.
Both iterations are tasty but it makes it hard to recommend dishes for a particular taste.
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re: brokegradstudent
We've had that same problem not at GK, but at Super Wok. We determined that the variable was the waitperson. If the waitperson knew us, we got spicy food. If not, it was distinctly "Americanized."
This weekend we had a waiter who, in the past, had apparently told the kitchen to tone down the food for the Anglos and we were served a very blah meal. This time the Spouse reminded him how he had altered our order last time and how we did not want that to happen again. We got the correct spice level.
Could your problem be similar?
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re: rockycat
Actually, now that you say that, our take out orders are routinely spicier than when we eat there. One time we ordered take out and I asked if a particular tofu dish we hadn't tried was spicy (a friend who doesn't cope with spicy food. The women on the phone said no and I replied something like "ok, good". The dish came super-spicy. I think somewhere in the chain of communication, not spicy switched to v. v. spicy.
Once though, whoever started the dish substituted what tasted an awful lot like jalepenos for green bell peppers in a lamb dish.
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re: bbqme
omoshiroi
Oct 6, 2011 07:34 PM
I've had the same saltiness issue -- I really like pork with garlic and sometimes it is Lot's Wife salty and sometimes it is not. I've also noticed that there is variability in the dry fried v. gloppy nature of some dishes and have discovered if I just ask for it dry it comes out the way I like it.
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Had lunch there just last week, and there were no issues. The food was at least as good as we'd encountered before. We took a friend to whom we had raved to about this place, and he fell in love with it.
Funny thing, he wanted to try something new, so he ordered the Duck Tongue dish - I did not know that a duck's tongue had a bone like piece in the middle. That was creepy.
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I just saw a Yelp review that said legendary and elusive chef Peter Chang has taken over - this review was from February though, and I can't imagine the food would have dropped in quality. Anyone know?
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re: Barbara
We don't eat at GK as frequently as we used to but we went by a couple weeks ago and the food was actually better than it was when I wrote my March 17 review above. I'm not sure it was Peter Chang good but it was way better than most Chinese food you can get in the area and we will go back.
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Gourmet Kingdom
301 E Main St, Carrboro, NC 27510
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Sorry to say that the head chef has left Gourmet Kingdon, although I think it was much more recent than the August 20, 2010 date of the OP. We have been regulars there for about a year and a couple months ago, we began to notice changes in some of our favorite dishes. Last week, I asked one of the waits if there had been a change in the kitchen and he confirmed that there was. The menu has not changed (other than nightly specials) and we will continue to go there as we still think it is the most authenic Chinese in town but I'm afraid there has been some drop off.
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re: Remsleep
I'll say this.. a group of hounds at 10-15 went awhile back. We ordered roughly 12 dishes including apps and passed the other around. It was maybe 7-10 a piece. So if you don't want to order the banquet you can go a la cart and it will probably be fine. There will be a lot of dishes on the table and you are not guaranteed the order. See the other Gourmet Kingdom post(s) for more descrip.
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Gourmet Kingdom
301 E Main St, Carrboro, NC 27510
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Ate there on Wednesday, everything was as good as usual. Had the double-cooked bacon, the cumin lamb, and the Cheng-Du dumplings. The dumpling were a little more delicate than usual and kind of fell apart, but everything else was fresh and tasty.
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re: Bricoleur
We went Saturday night and didn't taste a slip in quality at all. We had three dishes we hadn't gotten before so no direct point of comparison but thoroughly enjoyed all three:
Dan dan noodles: bathed in chili oil but didn't feel greasy. A bit hard to eat owing to the length of the noodle but well worth the effort
stir-fried string beans: saw these on two tables while walking in and had to try, great choice, shredded pork and smoked tofu in garlic sauce: a bit more cilantro than anticipated but it lightened the dish nicely. The tofu had a wonderful texture and the garlic in the sauce was subtle, not overpowering.Also, the portions seemed slightly bigger than the last time we were there.
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just ate there last night, it was the Moon Festival and the place was packed with Chinese people. The food was amazing, had Sichuan lobster, pan-fried pork dumpliings and sichuan beef. The best chinese food I've ever had and the freshest. Warning though, the Sichuan beef was way too hot for me & I happily make Southern Indian food.
It was crazy last night so unless you speak Mandarin I wouldn't go on a holiday, as the waiters' English is kind of limited. But the manager was extremely nice, apologized heartily & didn't charge for the dish that was forgotten. I definitely intend to go back.
