Petals of a Peony — Restaurant in Memphis

We visit the Memphis area fairly often to see family. When I saw this restaurant earned a spot on the top 100 Chinese restaurants in the US, I immediately bookmarked it so I wouldn't forget to eat here on my next visit. The time finally came last weekend!

This restaurant is in a nondescript shopping mall with plenty of parking. The interior is quite beautiful and very well decorated. Upon entering, you're met with an incredibly delicious aroma of food cooking from the open kitchen. Everything looked very clean and well taken care of.

We were seated promptly and each given a large menu to peruse. Service was nice and prompt and receptive to our needs -- even my parents' request for a fork as opposed to the chopsticks provided.

I ordered a Thai tea to drink since I figured that might help balance out whatever spiciness I got myself into. It was a nicely done Thai tea, not crazy sweet and well-balanced. Everyone else had soft drinks or water.

My parents got an order of chicken lo mein as they're not too huge into Chinese food. Husband and I split an order of spicy chicken dumplings and the peony fried chicken. I tried a little bit of each dish and it was all good! The lo mein had the perfect amount of sesame flavoring and was a super satisfying consistency. The peony fried chicken was delightfully flavorful and filled with lots of fresh, crisp, and tender peppers. It wasn't super spicy on first bite but it definitely built over time. Never got to an unpleasant level for us at all but we like spicy food. I wish the texture on the chicken had been a little crispier since it was fried and a few of the pieces were a tiny bit gummy, but that's really my only complaint.

Honestly though, my favorite item was the dumplings. The casing/outside was tender and chewy. The inside was succulent and savory. And the chili oil sauce had a nice, subtle, almost sweet heat. Delicious!

Grateful for an opportunity to try more authentic Chinese food than what is available to us in Huntsville, even though we weren't super adventurous. I'd definitely come back to try more next time I...

My review is a bit late since our visit was a couple of weeks before Christmas.

For those that want a short review, I never (until we were walking out the door) got my food.

We were with friends and ordered drinks. The drinks came fairly quickly, but were only ok. Overpriced and not good considering the price. Our appetizers also came out promptly, but they were only ok. Cold and/or bland. Depending on the app. After all I had heard. I expected greatness. We waited a LONG WHILE to get our food. Maybe 30ish minutes. We were thinking it’s because it is the weekend and they are busy. Then they bring out food for two people in our party of four. Our waiter was told multiple times that the other half of our party didn’t get their food. They kept saying “we’re sorry, it’s coming.” Then finally, after maybe 30-45 minutes, brought the third person their food. It was not good according to them. I never made a fuss. Just politely reminded the waiter (when we saw him) that I had not gotten my food yet. After multiple interactions I waved at him and said that we were leaving and to bring the check. Mind you, I never ate anything outside of the appetizer. The waiter brought the check and said, “we didn’t charge you for yours.” Looking at me. To which my boyfriend replied, “well that’s good since she never got it.” The waiter was real fast to take his card. And we left a more than generous tiip, considering Although I wanted to set the place ablaze and go get Taco Bell. Because at this point I’ve had one drink, one dumpling and one really terrible egg roll. As we are walking out, after hours of being there with no food, the waiter brought me a bag. Literally as we were leaving. I just left it on the table. All the people that told us this place is “AMAZING.” I really expected more. And my expectations are...

Hands down, the best Chinese restaurant in the Memphis area. The place is cool, and cozy with a vibrant, laid back interior. The staff and all waiters were very welcoming and sweet. The service was fast. We started with some chicken feet! This was a cold appetizer and it was the first time that I tried chicken feet in my life. I guess it’s kinda acquired taste and to be honest it was not much visually appealing to me at a very first sight. However, next time I’m going to try a fried version of it. In the main course, I had the beef cumin. It came with a bowl of rice and some pickled radish salad. The salad was very refreshing and the entree was spicy and tasty. The ingredients were fresh and the dish was made hot and fresh. The portion size was quite good for a single person. Overall I loved the place and want to return ASAP.

Update: I ordered dinner through Uber eats from this place. The food was packed and sent carefully. The spicy crispy chicken was dry, fried small pieces of breaded, tossed with Sichuan peppercorn, garlic, scallion and a lots of dried red chillies. It came with a side of rice. It’s more like an appetiser as the fried stuff did not have any gravy. The chicken was hot, spicy and was very tasty. It was crispy from the outside and quite juicy ( a bit oily too) from this inside- makes it a perfect for the...