XO Cafe & Grille

Today Sam and I headed to midtown to pick up some new jeans and retire the ones with holes or what I consider to be an unacceptable number of pockets :). We got off at 42nd and wandered all the way down to Chinatown. I found out that there is actually about a three block radius that I really love down in the Village (not as much as I love Carnegie Hill, but I did find it surprisingly pleasant). It is the two blocks east of 5th somewhere in the teens - 3 streets worth - so I suppose 6 total blocks. Anyhow, so we got Sam's jeans and headed down because we both had pork bun cravings. Unfortunately, by the time we were done walking the 40+ blocks, lunch and dim sum were over. So we decided to pop in to whatever the next actual restaurant we passed was - and it happened to be XO Cafe and Grille.

We both had Hot & Sour Soup, split a Pan Fried Dumplings appetizer along with the Beef w/ Ginger & Scallion entree, and House Fried Rice. The meal was very good. Not your standard over greasy, funky, over fried over salted crap. Two things in particular were absolutely a cut above - the Pan Fried Dumplings and Beef w/ Ginger & Scallion. The rish one runs ordering dumplings is that it could be all dumpling wrapper and no fillng. You all know the ones I'm talking about. The ones we had at XO could not have been more opposite. They were chock full of fresh crunchy veggies and pork and the wrapper was extra thin and had a nice crisp on the outside. The dumpling sauce came drizzled over them, which was a presentation I've never seen before. Being a dumpling sauce fiend I was initially apprehensive about not having a giant vat of it, but the flavor of the filling and the potency of the sauce more than compensated. The Beef w/ Scallion & Ginger came out sizzling on one of those plates they serve fajitas on in Mexican establishments. It smelled like heaven, and the meat was as tender as . . . I have no idea - something phenomenally tender. That texture with the sweet flavor paired with the zesty snap of the scallion and ginger were UNREAL. It was amazing. The hot and sour soup was above average and the House Fried Rice had a surprising amount of shrimp and large chicken chunks in it. It lacked a little something, but when covered with the leftover sauce from the beef it became amazing.

The one thing that I would say that is less than positive is about the service. This is an authentic Chinese restaurant - as in we were the only non Asian folks there. Literally. The speed of the service was great, but the fact that only two waitresses/bussers spoke any english at all was somewhat frustrating. I'm not trying to be mean - they couldnt understand basic restaurant lingo like "Check" "Bill" "Chopstick" etc. Argh. The food made up for it, and the total bill including tip was only $45.00. Not too shabby.

Next time we go, we'll stick to the Dumplings and Beef with Scallion and Ginger.