Necessity is the mother of invention. Out of adversity comes... You fill in the rest. A couple weeks ago, we were making our usual southern loop to the northern environs of Cincinnati when we hit a snag. Usually we stop in Uncle Yip's in Evandale for dim sum then hit CAM the big Asian market on Evandale Road before our final stop at that Mecca for foodies, Jungle Jim's.
As soon as we turned into the parking lot of the strip mall on Reading Road where Uncle Yip's is located, we knew something was wrong. There were no cars! Impossible!
"They must be closed," I told Amy.
Sure enough, there was a sign on the door telling the customers they would be on vacation for the next two weeks.
Ever since Pacific Moon in Montgomery closed a few years ago, we have considered Uncle Yip's to be our only Chinese food option on our monthly Jungle Jim's trip. Blue Gibbon off Paddock Road in Cinti and another place we like, Sichuan Bistro in Mason, are just a little bit out of the way. Amy suggested that we do our shopping in CAM and check the bulletin board for restaurant fliers.
"Do you know how to get here?" she asked, pointing to an ad for China Imperial Palace Seafood Restaurant when we were done shopping. There was an address and a little map.
"Sure. It's just up Reading from Uncle Yip's," I said. "Let's go! We'll never know if it's any good unless we try it."
Located just north of Sharonville Road on Reading, this little restaurant probably suffers from it's location. At that point, Reading splits into two one-way roads and the Imperial Palace is located on the southbound fork. However, on this day, even though by the time we got there it was after 2:30 p.m., the place was jammed because there was a large party that took up two big round tables. The service was a little stressed.
We ordered our usual dim sum items for comparison purposes, shiu mai, har kow, chicken feet, xia long bao; and a main course of pan-fried noodles. The food was a little different from what we are used to, but good. We agreed that it deserved a second look as a possible alternative to Uncle Yip's, which can get backed up because they are not good at keeping up with cleaning the tables.
Even though Uncle Yip's had reopened, we went back to our new find, yesterday. Again, it was around 2:30 p.m. But this time, the place was not crowded and the service was excellent. We ordered our benchmark dim sum items again with some variations and this time, for a main course, we had pepper steak chow fun. The food was excellent. With tea, the tab came to only $19.00.
If there is a lesson in this, it is for the folks at Uncle Yip's: Don't go on vacation!
Related post: Jungle Jim's & Uncle Yips
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