Restaurant Pekin

Came here for lunch on Easter Sunday after reading the good reviews on Unilocal,with a massive craving for Chinese food. Needless to say, we left very very pleased.
The restaurant was almost empty when we got there at 2:20, except for a French man eating alone, and the lady boss and waitress sitting at the back chatting. (We later learned that they actually close at 2:30 and open again for dinner, and were quite impressed that they served us like any other customer and didn’t try to hurry us along, as many other Chinese restaurants would). They seem very accommodating. A pair of Chinese girls came in at around 3pm and were told the kitchen was closed but after hearing they really wanted Chinese food, said they could order some dumplings. (Since they just need to be boiled, I guess).
We ordered the dumplings too, Chinese broccoli (kai lan), zha jiang mian, and suan la tang (sour and spicy soup, € 3.80/bowl, which isn’t on the menu). The soup came first and it was one of the best I’ve had. I don’t know why it isn’t on the menu. It should be! It had all the right ingredients, bamboo shoots, black fungus, tofu, chicken (which was so tender and tasty), etc, and the flavours were very well balanced. It was as spicy and sour as it should be and I didn’t feel like I needed to add more of either – a first!
Next was the vegetables. I was expecting quite a small plate (a sensible portion for 2 people), but what we got was enough for at least 5 people! Great, since it was € 9. I thought the kai lan would come in oyster sauce but the sauce was instead a little vinegary like what you’d get with steamed fish, still very tasty though!
The dumplings and zha jiang mian came just after the veg, and THE DUMPLINGS ARE GREAT. Mum said it was one of the best she’s had (for this sort of dumpling). I agree. They’re not the meatiest dumplings but they are seasoned perfectly and the texture of the skin is just right – not doughy and not overcooked, with just enough bite. It’s very no frills and comes just boiled with vinegar on the side. From what I can tell, the seem homemade.
The zha jiang mian was also very good. Flavoured just right, it’s black bean-​y without being too salty, and the noodles have a nice bite. The only thing stopping me from giving this place 5 stars is that I wish the sauce had a bit more meat! The portion is huge and mum and I couldn’t finish it even though we shared, you really get your money’s worth.
The bill came up to about € 34, which seems quite reasonable to me considering we ate till we were stuffed. As we left, we chatted with the lady boss (in Mandarin) for a bit and I was already thinking about when I’ll next be in Paris so I can bring my friends here. It’s that good.
You can sometimes hear people singing karaōke downstairs, which was quite amusing and not too bothersome. Feel like it’s almost part of the authentic Chinese experience, haha. CASH ONLY BTW.

I’m in Paris for a week and after eating French, Italian, conceptual fusion etc etc i thought why not try Chinese. I had no expectation at all. So it was the biggest and most unexpected pleasant surprise that I found this gem. This is the traditional northern dish restaurant. The style spans from the traditional northern city such as Harbin (the northern star city that is on the border of Russia and my hometown!!! Rare indeed) to Beijing. I have to say this is really one of the most authentic northern Chinese places I have ever been to, not just France as this is the first but all the Chinese restaurants I have had in New York and Los Angeles. If you truly want to experience and delicious Chinese you owe yourself the pleasure to try this place! They have some nice subtle twists to traditional dishes such as the crispy duck wraps. But the slight modification will never take the authenticity away from the actual dish. Since the owner came from the same city that I spent my early childhood in we were able to communicate in Chinese and he told me that the chef was actually hired directly from the heart land. The staff is very friendly and able to communicate in English! Please go try it!

We were supposed to visit another restaurant on the same street but it was closed on Mondays and since this one was on the street corner near the metro and was pretty full of people, we thought we’d give it a try. I really was going to expect typical crappy expensive asian food but was awesomely surprised.
The Chinese name for the restaurant translates to something along the lines of North-​East People, which is typical of what I believe is known is norther-​eastern type of food.
The restaurant is owned by I believe a northern Chinese guy and it boasts of its grilled lamb brochette (on a stick), which is a commonly found in xin-​jian area (not very north-​eastern). We got a single stick for 1.3 euros or something and it was actually pretty good. A table next to us bought like twenty sticks (i wonder if they got a special discount).
They also serve a lot of Szechuan food, also very not typical north-​eastern style so I wasn’t sure if I would be ordering the right thing — but i did it anyway. The appetizer we got, which is a cold dish of marinated spicy beef stomach was sooooooooooooooooo good. At 9 euros the portion wasn’t huge, but the flavour was so intense that even my boyfriend who doesnt like innards had quite a bit. It really opens up your palate. It was so good that after we ate our entire meal, I ordered another one as dessert.
The next thing that came was water-​cooked beef for about 12 euros. The water-​cooked beef is beef slices cooked in numbing spicy broth. It was good but not great. The flavour was okay but my issues with it are that it doesn’t use nappa, the asian cabbage that you typically cook with it to soak the flavour in the veggie, but lettuce was used, which gave it a weird flavour. There were also not a lot of beef.
For our veggie dish, we got the long beans that are dry-​dried szechuan style. It was pretty well-​made. Though not the best I have had, but it was quite good, for about 9 euros. The portion on this one was passable.
A lot of Chinese people come in and out of the restaurant to eat and chat with the owners and servers like old friends, probably because of the Karaōke bar downstairs, known to the Chinese as KTV. You can hear the off-​key singing as you eat, which is a bit unsettling at times but somewhat amusing.
I really do like this place overall and i’m ready to come back soon.