Here we go! Our first review (but actually our second restaurant in our search… stay tuned for the second first review!).

Highly recommended, The Orient, it did not disappoint. Is the best? No. But, now we have a baseline. The Orient is located at 623 Hicksville Road in Bethpage, New York. We arrived at 6 pm. They do not take reservations and do not have a liquor license. We brought our own wine (not subject to the opinion of this blog, sorry). Of course, I brought a magnum (what else would I bring?) of Chardonnay. it was smooth and before the night was out, we opened a magnum of Mee Tsu Yan (in my honor?) Pinot Grigio.

The help desk was welcoming and we were soon seated.

We were quickly greeted by the waitress who was very friendly and made sure we had a good night. There was no problem with us bringing our own wine (thank goodness I brought a corkscrew as I’m not sure they had one for our use. They quickly put in four wine glasses (unfortunately Mee Gonzi Biao couldn’t do it like that). night). Our waitress suggested some items for us that were not on the menu.

In quick order we had the soup served. It was delicious, although we found the soup bowls a bit small. No problem as we quickly emptied them and removed the rest of the soup that wasn’t initially served. Then came an order of spare ribs (this is going to be one of our base dishes… the constant comparison between restaurants. This was a disappointment as they looked scrumptious, but tasted average.

Said Mee Yong Joo –

The food was great. The price was good. He wasn’t crazy about decoration. I like cozy and warm rooms.

Mee Tsu Yan had more to say about tonight’s offering:

You’ve been to a good Chinese restaurant when you wake up in the morning and go straight to the fridge to find the white takeout boxes with the silver metal handles. Such was the case when I recently visited The Orient restaurant.

We arrived at the restaurant in Bethpage in an area I had never been to before. The restaurant is attached to a very low-key strip joint, which may or may not be convenient for some.

The decor was an old school Chinese restaurant. The servers were friendly and eager to help us choose some authentic dishes. The ribs arrived at the table looking like winners.

They were meaty, but they tasted very bland. Very disappointing! We ordered a Hong Kong style soup for the table which really hit the spot. Then come the tickets. One was a chicken dish, another a beef dish and shrimp and scallops in a black bean sauce. I have to say they were really tasty. Overall I would definitely go back and plan to return to Ms. Mee.

Stay tuned as we venture on our great journey (if you have any suggestions, please post a comment/review, or send us an email)!

Chop Chop!