City Lights of China — Restaurant in Bethesda

This Bethesda Row restaurant offers perfectly good Chinese-style dishes and umbrella•ed cocktails. The service was excellent and the portions are generous. Parking nearby could be problematic. I wanted to try them for their Peking Duck which is expensive but about average priced at $37+. Yet, I must lament today's presentation of Peking Duck. The meat is often dry and overcooked. The skin should be crunchy and crispy with a sheer layer of fat underneath. City Lights did alright on that score, but the rice "pancakes" that are used to wrap the meat, skin, scallions and plum sauce were more like tortillas - too thick and heavy. I guess Peking Duck has become commodified in its present inception. At one time, the preparation of Peking Duck required a day's notice and reservations. The Duck was then brought forth with much fanfare, accompanied by loud announcements and pot banging. This glorious procession would wind its way to your table and then the duck meat was carefully carved in front of you. Alas, it's hard to find such enthusiasm and proper preparation nowadays. No shrimp toast here. The shrimp tempura appetizer was not what I expected and suspiciously appeared like the long straight kind you get from the grocery store freezer. This row of buildings often houses many types of restaurants and boutique gourmet specialty stores that come and go. So, overall, it's an interesting part of town. City Lights of China is probably above average for an informal dining...

Overall a solid first experience. I avoided the Uber Eats route for delivery because calling them direct is cheaper.

Food got here and I started to tear it up. Here's my feedback:

-Steamed dumplings, really good and authentic tasting! I'm impressed honestly, very unexpected. I'm used to the ubiquitous fried dumplings that all other fast Chinese restaurants offer. -Hunan chicken, whoa mama its spicy! But the veggies are perfectly cooked (not droopy and mushy) and the sauce doesn't feel at all greasy. Really savory flavor too. -The shining star though is the crispy shredded beef. More expensive on the menu, but damn if this isn't the one. Order this if its your first time. Really delicious, and plentiful quantity. -Fried rice, terrible. I read other reviews that said the same thing. What's up with that? So I had to subtract a star honestly, as this is a rudimentary thing that all fast Chinese spots should be banging out well.

Definitely ordering again and trying their...

Love this place(see below) - Quality Chinese food and decent delivery service. We live in Chevy Chase and are in the delivery radius so we choose no other. Egg rolls can be a bit greasy sometimes but when they aren't, they are properly crispy. Standard Chinese restaurant menu with plenty of unique offerings, spicy when you want, so you won't be disappointed there.

Update to original review, Nov 2018: the last couple of delivery orders have demonstrated a slip in quality. Fried rice last night was really off, burnt metallic taste, not good. Egg rolls continue to be greasier than past, so because of these recent poor trends, I moved the rating down to 4 stars but not to 3 because when the dish is right it is very good. It's just the misses are coming more frequently and delivery times are...