Resto Review: Hsiang Ting Tang

Despite my previous dining experience in Barrio Chino that was less than stellar (see here), I went back last weekend for another try. This time, success! Maybe the key is actually getting Chinese food in Barrio Chino as opposed to Thai food. Makes sense.

On Saturday night I went with Eli and her friend Beth to a restaurant called Hsiang Ting Tang (Arribeños 2245) for dinner, for no special reason. We wandered around the ‘hood for a little while looking at different places, and chose this one based on the “onda” it appeared to have…it’s a cute place with typical Chinese resto decorations (bamboo, ink paintings, paper lanterns), but the ambience is nice and it’s pretty spacious.

To start we got an order of steamed dumplings, which were very good and came with two sauces, a soy sauce and a spicy sauce that was actually spicy…you could even see the red pepper flakes that made it hot. Then we decided to just order three dishes and share them, so we could try lots of different things. After much deliberation we decided on General Tso’s chicken (which here is actually more of a sweet and sour chicken), vegetable chow mein, and a tofu dish. They were all really good, especially the noodles and the chicken—we managed to polish off all three pretty quickly, despite the portions being quite hefty! For drinks we split a bottle of white wine, which was also delicious and much-needed after a long and hot day.

The prices are a little high for basic Chinese food, but nothing ridiculous…about 28-50 for a main dish depending on what you get, and 8-20 for an appetizer, of which they had quite a few. For some reason they didn’t bring out the exact wine we ordered, but at least they got the type right. The service was good, and our waitress was very pleasant. All in all I would say a nice place to go for a good meal: great food, reasonable prices, nice space. I recommend it! (Guia Oleo review here)

After dinner we walked to the Persicco in Las Cañitas, aka the best ice cream place ever! Actually, I’m not sure if it’s the best place ever, since I haven’t been to all the ice cream places in the city (although I’m working on it…), but it’s the best I’ve had so far. Chocolate amargo y dulce de leche casera con brownie YUM!

And now here’s a picture of Traguito, in one of his favorite places: between my comforter and the comforter cover. He likes to get in there and thrash around, I have no idea why. Strange cat.