CLT Eats – A Charlotte Restaurant Review

Booths Along Wall

The sister of my favorite Chinese restaurant is Jo Jo China Bistro and although it’s Baoding’s sister restaurant, it’s not quite as good as my favorite. Despite that, it’s still pretty darn good.

Some friends and I headed over there and as with most of the restaurants at Stonecrest on the weekend there was a wait. There’s a pretty cool little hologram right next to the hostess stand to keep you entertained while you wait. The inside is contemporary Asian and pretty nice but not pretenous. After fifteen minutes or so we were seated at a booth along the wall. The booths aren’t particularly comfortable. They appear to be custom made and the geometry is a little off. Not to mention that the padding for the seats seems to be made from memory foam and it doesn’t work well for sitting.

Now down to business. After waiting and having been quite hungry before we got there we ordered two appetizers – calamari and edamame. The edamame was really good and addictive. The calamari wasn’t chewy which is good but other than that it was kind of lame. Not that it was bad but it wasn’t great either. It’s also worth pointing out that the tea here isn’t the traditional southern blend but jasmine tea and man is it spectacular. They definitely have a leg up on Baoding in the sweet tea category. I struggle with what to order here. There are plenty great options at Baoding but here I struggle to find something that suits my tastes. I ordered the Honey Shrimp as my meal. That was a mistake. What you get is fried shrimp that’s swimming in a reddish, super sweet thin syrup along with a few veggies and some pineapple chunks. It’s good but it’s an over the top sugar over dose. Not exactly what I’d envisioned. This was anything but a delicately balanced meal. Service was pretty good. No complaints there.

So, my meal today wasn’t that great. If I hadn’t been here before I’d have to honestly give this place a poor grade. Having been here several times I know this place is a lot better than what I experienced today. I also know that part of what I experienced was simply due to not ordering something that was to my personal taste. If you go, I hope you choose more wisely than I did. If you do, I suspect you’ll be quite pleased.

Pros

• Good Service
• Good Food

Cons

• My meal should have been a winner but was a dud
• Waiting for a seat is never fun

Rating: Recommended