Peony Kitchen Bellevue — Restaurant in Bellevue

Upon entering, we noticed a lot of artistic touches to the interior of the restaurant. Beautiful art work on the brick wall, wooden cage wall around the bar, beautiful ceramics and china everywhere. We were seated rather promptly in the West section of the restaurant by, or rather beneath the window, which in itself is a bit of an awkward arrangement; Your head is below pedestrians feet, and if you look up, you can catch an occasional pedestrian glance down at you.

Ceramic bowl and spoon for wonton soup arrived after the soup did, they are not warmed. After pouring the little amont of soup that fits into the shallow bowl, the soup gets cold instantly. I must add, none of the ceramics are warm. The soup bowl is served with a plastic ladle submerged into it. The soup is salty, though we specifically requested less salt. However, the wontons are scrumptious. Eggplant and Green Beans - a bit heavy on vinegar. Very oily. Bbq pork is basically thick cut bacon fried and heavily bathed in sweet sauce with light sesame seed drizzle. I did not take a photo in time; The server was nice to take back this heart attack on a wooden plank (cute presentation) and remove from our bill. Orange chicken is amazing! Freshly battered, it is very crispy. The taste is not overwhelmingly sweet, but is distinctly zesty; not surprising, as there are zest slices that add a fresh tone. There were, however, mystery crisps in the dish that were too crunchy for my taste and chewing abilities. The spring rolls take the prize! Leek noodles are homestyle thick noodles served slightly a la dente. There is very little sauce on these, offering an authentic taste of the actual food on the plate. Me likey!

Po ehr and other teas are in tea bags. However, bags are filled with whole leaf tea. We enjoyed our white tea. The teapot is high quality, keeps the tea hot, and neatly pours the tea without spilling, a big+++ in my book.

The restroom was unkept, I took the last of toilet paper, and the sink spout is so short its difficult to wash hands without rubbing the back of the sink.

Service was somewhat sparse, but on point. The server was very knowledgeable about the menu and helped us stay away from the dishes that I might be allergic to. Our food arrived fairly quickly, kudos to the kitchen.

We paid with a gift card and gifted the remaining balance to a neighboring table. We were not impressed enough to come back anytime soon.

There was a table in the back section of the restaurant that was tasting dishes from what may become the new menu. We will keep an eye on that.

Upd. I originally gave them 3 stars, but they do deserve 4, since they are trying to revamp the menu.+1 star for knowing there are...

TL;DR: great for groups and eating Family Style -- think: large, sharable tapas. Do not get the tiramisu.

Parking: garage or street parking only. Nearby garages have free retail parking for up to 3 hours, which includes Peony Kitchen.

Menu: flimsy printer paper. Descriptive, no images. If you have a large order, you can mark the menu with a pen and hand it to the server.

Atmosphere: feels like a Din Tai Fung. Is a bit dimly lit the further you go in. They will open the glass walls during summer so be ware of flies if you wish to dine. We had a couple that kept hovering around our food as we ate Family Style so it was hard to shoo the flies away with our hands in the center of the large table.

Service: order and pay at the table, water yourself with pitchers provided. Larger groups can be seated in slightly more private rooms. 18% tip included in bill for large groups.

Orange Chicken: was surprisingly really good! The sweet and sour flavor was nicely blended and the chicken had a delightful crunch with each bite. The meat was also tender and not dried or overcooked.

Crispy Duck: I like this one! The skin was indeed crispy like a chip and putting the ingredients in the wrap is a cool thing to do with groups. The flavor is good too. I recommend this one if you have a group of people to dine with. Or, you can get it for yourself too -- I won't judge. wink

Cold Tossed Noodles: Serves as a nice palate cleanser or side dish but I wouldn't go and eat a whole bowl to yourself. It's a bit much and your taste buds get tired of it really quick. The cucumber chunks are a nice touch and are so refreshingly crunchy.

Mixed Vegetables: everything is so nicely blanched and tasted very fresh. Lightly flavored and is an excellent palate cleanser between the strongly flavored meat dishes. I really like the al dente snow peas and the lotus roots.

Five Flavored Beef: good flavor but a bit overwhelming on it's own. Packs a huge flavor punch. Use rice or veggies as a palate cleanser.

Crispy Pork Belly: wow this is good! Not overly salty at all and has the most satisfying crunch. Really good appetizer or side dish for those in-between-bites.

Tiramisu: Do not get this. I think this is by far one of the worst slices of tiramisu that I've had. The sponge was sopping, dripping wet, and it was like 90% cream/frosting. The flavors were there but the texture and cake to cream ration was...

This restaurant’s service is bad. I was warned by my girlfriend that the service is bad, but I didn’t believe her and now I wish I did. There is a serious lack of competency within management that trickles down to their service personnel. From inventory issues to a lack of service training. The restaurant owner either does not care or is not empowering management. What happened was during our time there, our server was not really there. She was doing other things while the people around were busy chatting. We were not told up front that there are items from our order that we would not get because the kitchen ran out. And that item… I bet you’ll never guess. It was white rice!! What kind of an Asian restaurant doesn’t have white rice?? I mean seriously… The server totally didn’t even bring out our rice that was comes with our entre but instead pretends that wasn’t a requirement and just brushes it off. When we asked about, we were told there wasn’t any and she came back with some questionable white rice like where did it come from? She mentioned she had gotten it from one of the cooks cooking something. Now towards the end of our meal, with the lack of attention etc, we mainly asked the bus boy for help. I would like to say he was more helpful than the server. He should become a server. At least he was attentive. After we asked for the check and boxes to take the food home, we were just handed the boxes. Normally that’s fine, but with an 18% mandatory service charge, it is expected that they pack our food. We asked to speak with management about these glaring issues and management apologized but took no further action. That was it. Management tried to rush the interaction and have us leave. I really question if that was an actual manager that we spoke to since he was very young to be managing the entire restaurant or if that was just someone they got to listen to my complaints.

The food was decent but the bad service gave a bad taste afterwards. Be warned. With the ratings around a 3, you know I am not the only one that had a bad experience.

PS. Having service state up front "There will be an 18% service charge" in a snide manor does not bold well. Also ten minutes without water and no one to...