Hi Everyone,
I just wnat to plug Silk Pagoda in Greenfield. The best service
I've ever had in Pgh, truly warm people who know how to make the dining
experience comfortable and pleasurable.
Me and a friend had two vegetarian specialties. Steamed Vegetable
Dumplings had mung bean noodles, shitake mushrooms and a consortium of
diced vegetables and tofu inside a thick green! flour skin. Accompanied
by a pleasant sauce of soysauce, garlic, scallions, some vinegar, dashes
of redpepper. $3.95 for 6 pcs.
And then we had a "Chef's Specialty", the non-descriptively titled
"Vegetable Garden". It took quite while to complete, but it was fine,
we talked in a non-hurried pace as the waitress non-intrusively filled
the water glass for my friend and poured out tea (never cold, because
they use china pots, instead of those dinged-up steel ones) for me.
The dish arrived, a large serving dish garnished with celery leaves
and flower of folded radish. Looking at it made me gain in appetite.
Essentially, the dish consisted of vegetables and tofu wrapped in
generous amounts of braised soy bean skins. (if you are familiar, the
same material that the chinese make soy duck, chicken and fish products
with, really interesting texture). All in a light brown sauce, mostly
garlic flavored. Unique, I would have to say, and I used to eat in NY
Chinatown on a regular basis. The server told me it was a Mandarin
specialty, a nice break from all the spicy Hunan and Szcheuan basics I
usually order. I will have to say that it was too salty, though.
Probably, it is not made very often. $12.95.
The decor is really nice. Think Tai Pei Shadyside, with pink and warm
grey instead of that too mod teal and black. Some exposed brushed
aluminum beams support large fabrics billowing from the ceiling. Pink
tablecloths with matching napkins. Inexpensive, reserved looking blue
and white patterned china. A small bar in the front maintains the
extent of the "lounge". It has a large seating capacity, surprising,
because it is in a mini-mall. Each table is rather pleasantly isolated,
and the booths do not feel like cubicles at all.
Business on a sunday evening picked up briskly around 6:30, we arrived
at quarter of to an almost empty place. They seemed to be mostly repeat
customers from the surrounding area, white, middle-aged, some with kids,
low-key, casually dressed but with dress shoes kind of thing.
Average prices, well worth it. $6.95 for most things.
I can't remember the address, but it is at the mini-mall where Brusters
Ice Cream is, off the Blvd.
Tatsu Ikeda
[email removed]
c/o New Image Press
4433 Howley Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15224
(412) 683-1300 voice
(412) 683-1390 fax
(412) 683-1393 BBSPittsburgh, PA