Peking North

Some people really just have to get out more... I mean, I have driven up and down Division Street for years, seen the place as long as i can remember, but I have never eaten at Peking North until tonight. I think this place is actually one of the prettiest Chinese restaurants I have ever been in! The food was good too.

Geo is feeling like we have tried every restaurant in Spokane by now, so I had to assure him that there are plenty to go. We gave serious consideration to going someplace we had been, mostly for a lack of the adventurous spirit one needs to go where one has not been before... and so as a compromise we decided to cruise Division... (do people even do THAT anymore?) and see what we could find. We headed North on Division and we saw this place Peking at us... beckoning us to one of our favorite things... Chinese food.

This restaurant/bar is located at 4120 N Division, and now that I think of it, I do recall driving past it for years. Lately I recall seeing the advertisements for karaoke, wondering if I would ever have the nerve for such a thing myself. I guess this explains why karaoke is done mostly in bars... and lounges.

I am not sure why we had never been here before in our travels. Maybe it's because it has always seemed like a bar or maybe I was just in a Chinese food rut...you know having my favorite places already scoped out.. reluctant to try something unknown for fear I would miss out on an already known and very good thing. I do not know why we have not come here before, but one thing for certain; this restaurant was worth the stop.

We were greeting right away and escorted to our seats, which were located in the third room back from the entrance. The restaruant was quite a place with little Buddha statures typical of this culture, fish tanks (with cool fish,) and very ornate, wood furnishings. Usually we are amazed at how hard it is to read menus, but the menu was easy to read and there was a nice bright light right over our table so we didn't have to use a flashlight to order and we could see our food, which was presented very nicely as well.

We may not be in a restaurant rut, but we are in food ruts. We have our favorite things to order, that's for sure. I need to learn to order "half orders" if we can, so we can try a variety of foods.

This is where one may guess what we ordered... and if you know our food adventures, ou might even get it right.

Well, I ordered Kung Pao Chicken, and Geo order Mapo Tofu. even with the rut, it's a good way to compare restaurants, I think. Dinner dishes averaged between $12.00- $14.00. We didn't order any appetizers or soup, but we were impressed that one could order just a cup of hot and sour soup. Usually one must order a large serving. We would have ordered cup to share, just to taste it, but we took so long deciding whether to try something new or order an old favorite that we forgot to.

Everything was flavorful. The Kung Pao was so pretty we actually took a picture of it. We ate it all too, which was funny, because when the food arrived, our thought was that we would definitely have leftovers, but we didn't. Also at first George liked the Tofu dish, but he said it was not as good as some others he had eaten before. However, the more he tasted it, the more he liked it. He even ended saying it was probably the best he had ever had! (He always has a tenancy to say that though.) Me? I liked my food, the server was efficient, the pretty decorations and the cool Chinese sounding music was nice too. Over all, it was a very pleasant dining experience.

The people who owned the restaurant were nice too. You can tell that like many family businesses, this is a home-away-from-home for the owners and there is something special about that too. They told us they have been there as a restaurant for 30 years!









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