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Having read good reviews on this site, I had great expectations when I first stepped into this restaurant. A beautifully dressed lady opened the door and we went upstairs to the private room.
Simply decorated with no opulence. We ordered so many dishes, I don't rememberall of them. We were a party of 24. Some of the memorable ones were chili crab, chow fun like dish, and curry. The rest was very ordinary. Nothing to rave about. It wasn't bad but it was just.... ok. The service, however, was impeccable.
One thing I still cannot get used to in China's warm beer. The first couple they served was ice cold. It was good to have anice cold beer after a hard day of work. But they kept bringing room temperature beer and I had to keep asking. I speak probably 15 Chinese words altogether but I do know the word "cold".
Would I go there? Probably ... maybe. I can think of other Chinese restaurants with more exciting food. Don't take me wrong. I enjoyed my time there but the food? OK and good but nothing to write home about.
I've been to the original Ben Jia in Seoul. I can truly say this one in Dalian is almost as good. I say almost becuase the Kimchi soup served here was ... greasy and tasteless.
This is not a cheap restaurant. And it's somewhat out of the way (Hua Le Rd, in Koreatown). Our family of 4 ordered 2 servings of (wu-sam-kyup-sal, thinly sliced marinated beef), 2 servings of premium sirloin, bean paste soup and kimchi soup. One large beer, 4 bowls of rice and the whole thing cost us 480 RMB.
The sirloin was tasty. The waitress dipped in soy sauce before BBQing and we asked her not to becuase we prefer no sauce. My children ate most of it. It was sumptuous. Very juicy. The thinly slice beef was just as good. The bean paste soup was awesome. The kimchi soup .. well, see above.
A waitress will BBQ all the meat for you. I found this somewhat bothersome becuase she BBQed the meat so quickly. I wanted to enjoy my dinner but everything was too hurried. Next time I go there, I'll BBQ my own meat.
The side dishes are tasty and the vegetable they serve are fresh.
As usual, too many people were smoking around us ... but what can you do? We went on Valentine's day and they gave us a rose and two hand towels. All in all, a good place to go for a night of excellent Korean BBQ. Once you finish dinner, your children, if you have any, can go play in the playground.
Went to All's Well Cafe on Saturday night thinking there was going to be the buffet dinner. Alas, due to the holidays, no buffet.
We sat down and had dinner anyway since my family and I weren't about to take another cab to a different restaurant.
Ordered seafood pasta, cheeseburger,hotdog and a steak. First the pasta. When you order pasta at a western cafe, you sort of expect a real pasta. What we got was seafood chow mein. It wasn't bad but if we wanted seafood chow mein, that's what we'd order, not seafood pasta. Cheesburger and Hotdog were big with tasty french fries. The steak was ... mediocre at best. You could tell it was frozen meat, thawed then cooked. And the pepper sauce was just too much. I felt like I orderd pepper sauce with a steak on the side rather than vice versa.
I'm not sure I'd go back there for the a la carte (I may go back there for the buffet at some point). Service was great, ambience as well. The staff was real friendly. But food just did not meet my expectations.
At least, it wasn't that pricey. Everyhting I mentioned above with 2 beers came out to be 150 RMB.
Having lived in Seoul, South Korea and San Francisco, the prices for this restaurant seems mild compared to those cities. In fact, I'd say cheap. But we're talking China and, well, then I'd say it's expensive.
There were 4 of us, me, my wife and my two kids. We asked the hotel front desk to make a reservation. We purposely sat in the hall instead of a private room to experience the ambience.
We had 6 large roasted prawns, shredded pork, 3 bowls of rice, 1 sashmi plate, 1 large (and I mean large) dumpling, 1 veggie dish, black bean sauce clams, some soup made from the sashimi fish bones, jasmine tea (35 RMB) and 2 Tsing Tao beers (I think I had one more dish but I forget). The bill came out to be 500 RMB. My wife and I expected to pay equivalent to USD $100.
You have to go to this restaurant just to see the sheer size of it. Man, it's big. Having all those waitresses around, it's kinda unnerving but I guess it's better than having none around .... And what's with the BMW in the hall?
Overall, a great experience. Just to see all the sea creatures in the fish tank ... Fortunately, our waitress spoke some English and was able to explain how they cook certain dishes.
I would definitely go back there.
PS BTW, how do you eat those turtles? Does anybody? They seem so cute sitting there ...
All in all, a decent place to visit. How I wish every waitor or waitress speak English like the ones working at Olive Garden ...
Food was good. We ordered Pizza which was to my liking. The Greek Salad was great, we could tell fresh ingredients were used. The Linguine with Olive Oil and Garlic was ok. Just OK. I particuarly liked the bread they served. I also ordered the cheapest red wine (99 RMB). I've had better but considering the price, I enjoyed it. BTW, our kids really enjoyed the French Fries. But then again which kids don't enjoy FF?
I would go back there again. The only complaint was the fact that these two ladies came in and started smoking ... I guess this is a common problem everywhere in Dalian but, dang, it bothers the heck out of me. And this is coming from a former smoker ...
Is this place expensive? It could be but if you're judicious in ordering, you could enjoy your meal at a decent price.
anney
