ambiance
sizzling shrimps
tofu stir-fry
my favorite- fried green beans
sweet and sour pork
my favorite- green onion pancake
Shi Yuan
Tagle 2531, Recoleta, Buenos Aires 4804 0607
I was delighted to open up the menu of Shi Yuan and discover those little dishes from Northern China that one would of never thought to find in BA. Staples from the north of China are mostly composed of noodles, steamed buns, and other wheat-based pastries. The highlight is always the duck, and everything else is drowned in delicious soy sauce. If not fried up in good amount of oil, it is sinking deeply in sufficient amount of it (just enough). Some of my favorites are mu shu pork, jing jiang shredded pork; fried goodies like sweet and sour pork, and oiled up green beans in a tumble of dried red chilies- this list can go on and on.
Restaurant Critic
A bit tourist-enhanced, and a bit wanna-be old dingy chinese 80′s restaurant: long white curtain drapes hanging at the windows, with a little water garden and a chinese bridge at the doorfront. The wall surrounded by dusty paintings, a big old paper fan hanging, and chinese lantern lights decorating the ceiling. Though the decor a bit out of dated (I rather prefer the hole in the wall), the service is just like China today; the waiters lingers around before handing over the menu, grumply ask what you would like, swiftly (abruptly) throws down the plate with no smiles, and then just when you decide on how rude they are- one of them will flash you a smile and ask how the food is. Reminds me of dear home.
Food Critic
Much better than the restaurants in Barrio Chino; still the over saturation of cornstarch and oil mix creating a thick film of shininess is a dead turn off to my arteries- this kind of practice should be banned in all Chinese restaurants in this city. Though Northern Chinese is towards the oily spectrum, the dishes in Shi Yuan are overly cooked in oil and then swirled in wax-corn starch. Saying that, the flavors are excellent, the selections are overwhelmingly enticing- an easy option to impress Chinese clients and Argentines. My all-time favorite is their Chinese green onion pancake. Dishes are 50 pesos ($11) and up. For two dishes, an appetizer, few drinks, prepare to spend at least 100 pesos ($23) walking out. Not your normal cheap Chinese take-out.
Pros
- great selections of meats, appetizers, seafood, and little delicate pastries
- stand out Chinese flavors other than the bland soy sauce mix
- presentable ambiance
- seafood is fresh
- green onion pancake
Cons
- too oily
- has a general grasp of flavors, but lack of detail and care in dishes: okay duck, fried dough mix into the sweet and sour pork, eggplant drowned in oil, lack of spices in the salads, okay spring rolls
- their delicate pastries aren’t very delicately made
- not the normal cheap Chinese takeout style
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