Located in an unassuming strip mall, this new Langhorne spot came to Bucks County via Philadelphia’s Chinatown.
By: Richard Burns
Restaurants that exist in a Chinatown setting tend to remain there, as do the owners who started them or grew up in Chinatown. There are exceptions, however, and the Langhorne community now has delicious, unusual and high-quality Chinese food as a result.
Cary Chin, who grew up in the Chinatown restaurant business, learned to cook with his father and cousin. Chin also learned French cooking and Asian fusion during a four-year stint at a restaurant in California. For the past four years, he owned Joe’s Peking Duck House in Philadelphia’s Chinatown. He decided there was a need for his type of restaurant in the suburbs, sold his restaurant in Chinatown, and opened the Chinatown Café in December 2004.
While there are some similarities to the ubiquitous shopping-mall Chinese restaurants, the differences here are many and important. First of all, the menu is more limited than that of most Chinese restaurants. There are enough of the standard items, such as barbecued ribs, fried wontons, Kung Pao chicken and orange beef, to keep happy those who want the familiar. There is, however, no chop suey, chow mein, egg rolls or shrimp toast. What is available is an attractive and varied menu with an emphasis on duck, authenticity and a variety of marvelous dishes not widely available outside Chinatown. In addition, Mr. Chin will, upon request, prepare dishes not on the menu.
The restaurant is modern and attractive but not very large. Attractive Oriental-looking tables grace a bright dining room. One’s eye is attracted to the many colorful modern-art paintings on the walls. It turns out that all of these are the work of artist Neil Moel, a family friend who passed away six months ago and left the art to Mr. Chin.
Six of us visited Chinatown Café early one weekday evening. The restaurant does not take reservations and it was busy with both takeout and eat-in guests. We decided to try a variety of dishes, most of which are not typical of local Chinese restaurants.
We followed the duck theme and started with the roast duck and noodle soup ($4.95 for a large bowl sufficient for two or three). This was a great choice. The soup was highly flavorful, clear and simply outstanding. Each bowl had several good-sized pieces of the roast duck with bones and an ample serving of noodles. All in all, it was one of the best soups we have had.
For appetizers, we ordered the duck roll ($1.50) and were informed it overlapped the Peking duck we were also ordering the rolls are miniature versions of what you build for yourself in the Peking duck dish. For those who don’t want to spend the money for the separate duck order, this is a good choice.
We settled on the fried meat dumplings ($5.25 for eight), the chicken lettuce wraps ($6.50), the cold sesame noodles ($3.95) and the scallion pancakes ($3.95). All were excellent choices. The dumplings were made in-house and were crisp and full of flavor. The lettuce wraps were different and reminded us of a Vietnamese dish. A mound of finely chopped chicken with water chestnuts, scallions and other tidbits had been stir-fried and was served warm to be placed on lettuce leaves, graced with a good peanut sauce, and eaten out of hand. The noodles and the scallion breads were both as good as we have had.
For entrees we bypassed the "traditional dishes" portion of the menu and focused on the "specialties." Several varieties of duck are offered: plum sauce duck ($12.95), roast duck ($10.50 for half, $19 for a whole duck), pa chen duck ($16.95) and, of course, Peking duck ($15 for half, $28 for a whole duck). The restaurant also offers a Peking duck full-course dinner for $30 for two or $60 for four. We were determined to try the Peking duck and ordered it. It was served with six Chinese pancakes, shredded scallions and the traditional Hoisin sauce. The duck had the wonderful crispy skin and the moist, tasty flesh characteristic of this Chinese delicacy. We loved it.
We also had an unusual dish called spicy salt with shrimp ($12.95), in which shrimp is lightly breaded, deep fried, and then stir-fried with hot chilies and a seasoned salt. The shrimp were crisp, tender and unusual. Although they had a strong salt taste, they were not very spicy. Another different and excellent dish was salmon with a black bean sauce ($14). A good-sized filet of salmon had been glazed with the sauce and grilled, and was served with the sauce, mushrooms and snow peas. Again, an exceptional dish.
The specials menu, on a board at the back of the restaurant, also offered a whole striped bass at $20, which I am sure would have been equally good. Since vegetables were not prominent in any of the dishes, we ordered the Chinese tender greens sautéed with garlic ($7.50). These bright-colored, crisp-but-tender greens with a mild garlic sauce were a welcome change. Finally, we ordered the duck fried rice ($7.95) and it too was exceptionally good.
The service was prompt, friendly, and professional. While the restaurant was busy, one had the impression that everything was under control and we never felt rushed nor were we kept waiting.
This is one excellent restaurant. I could not find one dish that had any serious flaws. The food was simply outstanding. As one of our guests said, "It’s too bad your readers can’t hear the ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ as we savor this food." Clearly Mr. Chin knows what he is doing and has already created one the best Chinese restaurants in the area.

