Koi — Restaurant in Great Barrington

This place has single handedly redefined for me what a great Chinese restaurant is. To say that I was pleased is an understatement.

To start out with, upon sitting down in a dining room that looks absolutely vintage, we were presented with a large pot of tea and those fried cracker things you dip in duck sauce. This courtesy is something that's been missing for the last 20+ years. Most of the time, you'll need to order the tea; it costs extra and is typicly just a teabag in a cup. Here it is a full pot, nice and hot.

Another amazing thing is that they actually waited for us to finish our appetizers before bringing out the entrée. When you go to a lot of places, they sort of rush you by bringing out everything in short order. But not here. Here it was like a civilized meal where you felt like you could eat at your own pace, and not have to worry about cutting the conversation short just to scarf your food so the table doesn't become too crowded.

The food itself was amazing. While the General Tzo's was not too spicy, it was extraordinarily flavorful, as was everything else they served. Every dish I tried was great. The fried food wasn't too fried, and the portions were fantastic.

The seating was very comfortable.

The service was exemplary. They were on top of everything, from refilling the waters to the effortless way they served everything and cleared the extra plates with great haste.

The only thing I didn't care for was the fortune cookie at the end. Not only was it a little stale, but the fortune was lousy. Though I'm not going to blame...

11/23/20. Was looking to have sushi and Chinese on a short stay in GB. While this place does not have sushi it was basically the only place open. I went with low expectations and was very happy. The place was pristine and the food was great. I would eat Chinese much more often if it was like this. I got Dragon and Phoenix. i am not usually a fan of general Tso chicken but this dish brought a depth of flavor I have never seen. Not just an overly sweet sauce with spice added. The shrimp were white shrimp. Most places use Indian Tiger Shrimp or farm raised Indonesian shrimp that are far less quality. The shrimp were also jumbo as advertised. Also got Mongolian beef which also was a bit different in a good way. Portions were large. Two of us ordered one dish each and chicken lettuce wraps which again, good. We were given 6 fortune cookies which goes to say this food could have easily fed 6 people. Last comment this food leftover was still better than any Chinese takeout I've...

Avoid on Christmas! While they are open, and you may think it would be a perfect spot for movie-and-Chinese on Christmas, so will every single other person in 50 mile radius who doesn’t celebrate Christmas. Even if you order at 9:30am on that day, and show up at 6:30pm when they tell you, you will wait for another couple of hours. If the lot is full, join the cars parked on the road. The area outside and in the small lobby will be packed, and will remind you of Upper West Side morning commute; if there is pandemic going on in the year you were unfortunate enough to have chosen to do this, please reconsider joining this superspreader event and wait in the car. I am sure this place is certainly worth it on other days as other reviewers noted, just not...