Chinese New Year at Royal China

Since chinese new year is this weekend we decided to hit one of the many chinese restaurants in the Buford Highway area. At the suggestion of some chinese coworkers we went to Royal China Friday night. Royal China is located in a strip mall with some latino businesses on Chamblee Dunwoody near the intersection of Buford Highway. The decor of the restaurant was like that of most large chinese restaurants with red being the predominant color , tanks filled with live fish and lobsters and lazy susans on the large tables. As we scanned the dining room there were many chinese couples and families which is always a good sign. Our waiter who was not fluent in English but was easily understandable brought us a pot of hot tea and we ordered Tsingtao beers. The menu was extensive and seafood was the predominant ingredient. There was fish, abalone, mussels, oysters, sea cucumber and shrimp in addition to the regular food offerings. We had some recommendations from the coworkers and ordered fish steamed with ginger and soy sauce (the waiter recommended the sea bass over the talapia. Both are live in the tanks you see when you enter the restaurant), house fried rice and chinese broccoli with garlic. As typical for chinese restaurants the food arrived in different stages. The house fried rice came first. It was a large plate of white rice that had been cooked with soy sauce which turned the rice brown. It was filled with pieces of shrimp, beef, pork and peas. We are not big fans of fried rice but this was really good. Next came the broccoli which was pan sauteed with garlic. It contained alot of garlic and was crunchy and tasty. We thought is was much better than what we have had at other restaurants in the area. Our steamed sea bass arrived in the soy sauce and covered in ginger.


If you have not had steamed fish in a chinese restaurant it is the entire fish with head and bones in tact. The secret is to get to the meat without getting a mouth full of bones. In addition we have always heard that it is bad luck to flip the fish over so the trick is to eat the meat of one side then remove the back bone and eat the meat from the other side. The fish was good and the soy sauce with fresh ginger is great over the steamed rice that was provided. The ending course was a sliced orange but we requested the red bean desert soup. We have found that in the larger chinese restaurants some type of desert soup is provided if you ask.
Overall our experience was good. We would give rating of 4 oyster shells out of 5 to Royal China.