Thursday, July 24, 2014

Sea Point's Dynasty Chinese restaurant

We do try to support our local Sea Point Restaurants as often as we can, despite being invited out to many others all over the Cape. Dynasty is where we go the most, it is close to home, we know them well now and if Lynne doesn't feel like cooking or gets a longing for good sushi or excellent authentic Chinese food, it is to Dynasty that we go. They are in the Nedbank Centre on the Corner of Kloof Road and Irwinton. We thought you might like to see their food
Huge live abalone for sale at an incredible price and Chinese tourists in the corner at the large round table.  They also have live crayfish, oysters and clams in tanks. They are not crowded out with huge busloads of tourists, just discreet small groups. And there is plenty of parking outside
Lots of tables as this restaurant gets busy, we usually make a booking. The take away business is also lively
How is your Cantonese? Specialities at the end of the Menu for the Chinese visitors
We thought we would have a Hot Pot until we saw the choices we could make and realised that we'd need a larger group of friends to share this with. More research required! Sounds delicious, especially the crocodile tail, Pork stomach (tripe) and the swaweed (sic = seaweed). Lynne once had bacon made from crocodile tail and it was amazing. Very fatty and very crisp. She likes tripe, John does not.
They have a reasonably good wine list, but we often take bottles with us. We had been sent this to try and it went extremely well with spicy Chinese food, it was crisp, fruity and robust. Corkage is R25
Alex Xu is the owner, with his wife Shirley, and he is a master of sushi. He is properly trained, won’t cut corners – if the rice is not ready, you wait for it. He never uses day old, doesn't put MSG in any of the food and makes superb sushi.
Lynne was in an adventurous mood and decided to try one of the new specialities on the menu. It was described as deep fried aubergine pies stuffed with chicken and prawn meat. They resembled small breaded schnitzel with a layer of soft aubergine between the chicken. She could not identify any prawn taste and it was is very nice, rich, slightly spicy gravy. Enough for two!
John had hot and sour chicken stripes (sic) with mixed vegetables. Very spicy, very satisfying. Shirley says it is just the way her mother makes it in Shanghai. We shared a small bowl of steamed rice and left half as there was so much food
The bill got lost in transit, but here is our card slip which includes the two dishes, R25 corkage and tip
They do very good Peking Duck. They have given up on our tough and scrawny local duck (when will our producers realise that we need to feed them properly?) and they buy duck imported from China. This was for a table next to us and was served with pancakes and the usual accompaniments of hoisin sauce, spring onions and cucumber batons
It is a delight to watch Alex carving the duck
Each piece must have some of the crisp skin
Owners of Dynasty, Alex and Shirley Xu, who are originally from Shanghai. They now live in Sea Point with their young daughter, who is at school at Reddam, and run a very successful restaurant
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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

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