It was Vince’s idea to take my mom out to a fancy lunch meal for an early Mother’s Day celebration. Now we did lunch instead of dinner because my mom does not eat late. Now Vince chose Bistro Na because not only is it a one Michelin star restaurant, but it also heard boasts of it on a podcast he follows. This restaurant serves imperial Chinese fine court food from the Qing Dynasty. Imperial court cuisine means that it is food reserved for only the emperor and the royal family back then. Now this is the opportunity for us regular peasants to try haha just kidding!
The decor of the inside consists of Chinese wooden tables and chairs that are really heavy. There are a couple of large banquet dining rooms and lantern decor hung up.
For $16 a teapot, we decided to try tea leaves we haven’t heard before or cannot get at regular tea shops and boba shops. We ordered an oolong tea called Iron Buddha, which was light, easy to drink and comforting.
Na’s Spicy Chicken. This was the first dish served and also my favorite dish! We ordered mild for my mom’s sake. It was gently steamed chicken sitting in a pleasant chili oil brother. Lightly salted. The chicken and skin was soft and tender. It was also a cold dish! Very refreshing yet savory satisfying dish at the same time.
We each got an Empress’s Soup. The waitress told us it was for one serving only. These are the condiments laid out for preparation of our soups. To the left we have a small cup of red rice. To the right we have some fried crispy wonton chips, a cured something that had the texture of fish and green onions.
This is our Empress’s Soup. It had a thick and gooey consistency with the aroma of light savory chicken. There is abalone and seafood in there. I couldn’t understand our waitress’ accent to discern the ingredients, but it was delicious. The instructions were to dump all of the condiments into the soup. Our soups stay heated with the lighted candle underneath.
Na’s Braised Pork Belly. We almost didn’t order this but hearing how excited our waitress got while describing this dish, let’s see how imperial Chinese prepare pork belly! The pork itself was very tender and soft. There was also mushrooms and pineapple. The sauce was sweetened from the pineapple.
Na’s Secret Tofu. My mom asked what is so secret about it and our waitress said we had to order it to find out. That got our curiosity. I think the secret is that the inside consisted of steamed egg covered in lightly fried tempura batter served with a gelatinous sweet sauce.
Braised black cod fish with eggplant. The smallest cod fish they had was 3lb and at $29 per lb, it was like a $90 fish. Well my mom loves fish! Any of you guys know me well enough know I hate eggplant. It’s okay! I’ll take one for the team and try a piece. And I tried an eggplant.. It was lightly crisp on the outside with a gooey, chewy texture on the inside. The fish itself was soft. I was lightly disappointed they did not remove the bones for us. So the emperor and royal family are still expected to remove their own bones?!
Shrimp fried rice with bonito. We ordered a rice dish so that we could eat it with the other protein dishes but it came last!! I love the presentation but what took the fried rice so long! I was the only one who liked the fried rice. For $15, this was a good deal and the same price as a fried rice at a mediocre Chinese takeout place. Presentation was impressive.
Overall, we had a very good dining experience. The food came out in a timely manner, served hot and all tasted delicious. Service was very attentive and friendly. They kept refilling our tea pot and teacups for us. They changed our soiled plates multiple times. I would definitely come back to try other dishes. This is actually my second time dining here (not including a couple of takeouts).
Happy Early Mother’s Day Mommy! We love you!
