Peking Palace

This place has a website. Click HERE to visit it. (http://www.pekingpalacespokane.com/)
Once there, you can check out their menu, get directions, see what time karaoke starts and read about their history.

Located on Sprague Ave in the Valley, it was a bit of a drive, but we love Asian food, so off we went. Actually I had no idea where we were going until we were almost there. The Peking Place is quite a place. As you enter, the ornate entrance with it's golden walls, pagoda type of architecture, gold dragons/lion statues at guard and enormous paneled doors do sort of give you the feel of entering a palatial estate as does the rest of the inner decor. (Never mind that you are on Sprauge Avenue, in Spokane.)

I loved the hanging decorations, Chinese Lanterns, I think they are called. These were really large, and beautiful. Not only that the ceiling was decorated with tiles making it appear that it was covered in ornate gold. The music was not 50's rock and roll, like SOME places we have eaten. It was a pleasant oriental classical style and I liked the the atmosphere of it all.

It's a pretty modern place too, meaning they have touch screen computers that their servers use to order food for the tables and it's definitely "Chinese." A lot of Chinese is spoken in the kitchen and the receipt you are given is written by computer is both English and Chinese.

Our lovely and very efficient waitress, with a cute sounding Chinese name was pleased when we ordered what said said were "very traditional Chinese dishes!" She also liked the fact that we ordered it a little spicy. We ate with chopsticks too so maybe we scored some points being the Americans that we are. Hey, ya know, when dining is a Peking palace, it is good to eat like the Chinese! For our dinner, Geo ordered us an appetizer of Egg Rolls, Hot and Sour Soup, Ma Po Tofu and Kung Pao Chicken.

So how was it?

Well let me begin by saying, 1) Geo likes oriental food very much, especially Ma Po Tofu and 2.) Geo is a really agreeable guy when it comes to food in general, especially if he skips eating lunch. He eats my cooking and he is usually happy with what I make and serve. (There is only one thing he has EVER complained about and asked me not to make again, and that is spaghetti sauce made with peanuts and sunflower seeds!)

The eggrolls were quite greasy. Now, maybe they are supposed to be that way, Geo thought they were great...but he didn't eat lunch and he was hungry too. I ate some of it, but I actually prefer when they are not so greasy.

The soup was made fresh for us and it was pretty good. I have had it other places that use maybe more fresh stuff...whatever that "stuff" is... (seaweed, mushrooms, lily stem...) that they usually put into this kind of soup. We enjoyed our portions and had left overs for tomorrow too.

The food they brought us was very pretty. The Kung Pao was colorful from the de;icious assortment of vegetables and it was saucy too. The Ma Po Tofu, was attractive too. Both dishes were tasty but to me they seemed a little salty. Our dinner was served with rice. We did not have to order it separate, which was nice because with saucy dishes like Kung Pao it's nice to have some rice.

I asked Geo if he would come back again and he said yes. Me, hmmm, it depends on why. If it was just to eat Chinese food, I would probably opt to hit some of the other places I like more. One thing for sure is a lot of people like it; it was a pretty busy place. It's been in business for over 30 years! Apparently some things never quite go out of style.

I might go back sometime, if I was in the area and particularly if it just happened to be Wednesday. Wednesdays, you see, are a discount for people like me.

Wednesday is ladies night!