Koi Modern Chinese Cuisine — Restaurant in Town of Halfmoon

I recently visited SparX Fine Chinese Cuisine restaurant and although I hate giving a negative rating, I feel it's important to share my experience. I would have given them a higher rating, but there were a few aspects that brought it down for me.

Firstly, the older waitress who served us had a negative impact on my overall experience. While the food itself was good, both meals we ordered were extremely hot. I enjoy some spice, but the level of heat was too intense for my taste. With every bite, I experienced an overpowering aftertaste of heat. Perhaps someone who enjoys intense spice would appreciate it, but it wasn't enjoyable for me. I ended up taking the leftovers home and adding sweet and sour sauce to tone down the heat.

Furthermore, I ordered the Kung Pao chicken, which would have been enjoyable if it weren't for the fact that it was topped with peanuts. The waitress failed to mention the spiciness or the presence of peanuts, which was disappointing. Underneath the peanuts, the dish was delicious, but the combination of spice and peanuts was not to my liking.

Another downside was the lack of a kids menu. As a parent, it would have been helpful to have some options specifically tailored for children.

To make matters worse, one of my children accidentally spilled their water, resulting in a broken glass. The older waitress, who had been serving us, displayed an attitude when picking up the broken glass and did not smile at us even once. After that incident, she did not return to our table. However, there was another waitress who came afterwards and she was friendly and attentive, which is why I am giving a three-star rating instead of one.

Despite these drawbacks, I must mention that the appetizer portion of the meal was the highlight. The fried dumplings, beef skewers, and pancakes were all delicious and truly enjoyable.

SparX Fine Chinese Cuisine receives a three-star rating from me. While the food had its drawbacks in terms of spiciness and the presence of peanuts, the appetizers were outstanding. The service provided by the older waitress left much to be desired, but the friendliness and attentiveness of another waitress saved the experience to...

My anticipations were not met, but my day was not ruined.

Let me start off by saying the service and reception at SparX was totally fine, I ordered over the phone, and because I was a new customer I had to pay over the phone with my card but I'm totally cool with that; it just makes sense.

My order was for the Sticky Rice Shumai, Chicken Pan Fried Noodles, and Red Bean Buns. All together the total reached a little over $34, but the weight of the bag told me I was getting quite the hefty load for what I paid. The only question, was how tasty was it?

Sadly, this is where things fell apart. The Shumai was already cooled down by the time I got home, and I don't know if it was because of this but it just had very little flavor. The consistency was still great, very filling, but it was like eating big balls of sticky rice. The pan friend noodles had the other problem though, they had a ton of flavor, and there was plenty of saucy chicken and veggies to pour over the crunchy noodles. But it had this aftertaste, that I can only describe as 'stale water'. I don't know, just, some of the veggies especially tasted strongly of this displeasing flavor. The chicken and some veggies were fine, but I think the base sauce was perhaps tainted. (I feel fine though, and it's been hours since my meal) Finally, the red bean buns. They were fine, as expected, but they too had cooled down too much as the buns had become tougher as a result. The filling was nice and subtly sweet, but the rather bland bun didn't make for a fun time bitting into them.

Now normally I do not discount for temperature, it takes me roughly 30-40 minutes to drive home after all, but I was set for 4:00PM pickup and my entire order was done and sitting at the counter by the time I arrived at 3:55PM. So it could have been a bit fresher, which might have been able to help the Shumai and Red Bean Buns, though the noodles still suffered from...

SparX is our go-to when we want to make the whole dining group happy. We love taking the kids, grandparents, friends and whoever wants to join us.

Like similar restaurants in the region or bigger cities, if you have a bigger group, the dishes come out when they are ready so come prepared for a family style experience and you'll love it. While some of the dishes are more adventurous, there are tons that even a picky eater will love. Passing the dishes around (or spinning the Lazy Susan if the group is big enough) is fantastic for those of us who like to have the best of both worlds by getting both old favorites and trying something new.

Our youngest could eat the enormous family size bowl of chicken corn soup every night of the week and nothing else, but will also fight you for the last soup dumpling. Recently, she's loved things like the Sparx fried chicken (a special we hope will become permanent) and on our most recent visit even branched out to the Palace Crispy Spicy Chicken (kind of a surprise there). It's hard to pick favorite dishes as so many have been good, but in addition to the above, we'd recommend the asparagus/eggplant chicken, orange beef (way different than the typical take out places), shrimp with pea shoots, and any noodle dish, among others.

On a quick ending note, we've found the staff to be attentive and very helpful. If anyone in the party has an allergy or food intolerance, the thought given to which dishes will work with substitutions or alterations is really impressive. And definitely ask for recommendations for dishes if you can't decide and they will give great thoughts.

Keep up the great...