Wang Jiang Lou — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

I'm not even sure where to start. Wang Jiang Lou is my husband and I's favorite spot in the 757. Being vegan and coming from NYC I always crave really good upscale asian cuisine. WJL absolutely always delivers. So when it was time for us to plan our backyard wedding reception I knew I had to call the restaurant to inquire about catering. Little did I know this would be their first catering order! I was a bit apprehensive but Ken Howe (GM) and I very quickly got on first name basis with almost daily emails. He was incredible helpful, courteous and responsive. As someone who has worked in the restaurant industry I can say not only from my interaction with Ken but also from being regular customers, he is an amazing general manager and leads an absolutely incredible team

As the wedding day came closer, Ken was even more helpful. Even when I wanted to change the menu the week of he was happy to help. He even stopped by our home the day before to check out the space + answer any questions. When it came to the day of the wedding, Ken and his team of 2 servers were absolute life savers. They anticipated EVERY need, cleaned up, and packed away our food. We had a torrential downpour but the team was not at all phased. They grabbed some towels and kept on. They even stayed back to chat with us and the guests after the service was over.

Ken even showed up, subbing in for the bartender who called out. This was a blessing because Ken was absolutely the celebrity of the night. I can assure that after growing up in miami, going to school in NYC and living in madrid I have been to one too many bars and had one too many drinks. Ken is the BEST bartender I've ever met and even made me my new favorite drink. Even this next week after the wedding I keep hearing about how incredible our servers and bartender were. I'm absolutely beyond impressed by Ken and his team. Never in a million years would I guess this was the first catering. Not only the professionalism, but the courtesy and friendliness that they showed not just towards us but to every single one of our guests did not go unrecognized.

Ken even came by the next day to help clean up and say goodbye to our family. We absolutely LOVED having them at our event and would hire them again a million times over. Thank you thank you thank you to Ken and his team for making our wedding absolutely unforgettable.

-- a very very happy and grateful...

This place seems to be an attempt to knock off Peter Chang, the award-winning Szechuan chain. As one of the Virginia Beach locations of Peter Chang has closed and the other has fallen off super hard, this is good news! Unfortunately, they're not quite there yet. (This is a takeout review, so I can't comment on the decor and there was no possibility of having issues with the food addressed. The staff had sharp black uniforms, and I assume they're going for semi-upscale just like P.C.)

Tofu skin is perhaps the best thing as Pete Chang's, and is also where Wang Jian Lou falls the most short. Instead of the szechuan peppercorn promised in the menu decription, WJL's version seemed to be dressed in only chili oil. While the texture of the yuba was nice, the dish was oily and overly sweet.

We skipped the hot appetizers in favor of an extra entree, but wound up with something we couldn't eat. It turns out that "Wild Pepper Beef, Chicken, OR Shrimp" (emphasis added) is always primarily beef. We ordered the shrimp version and got a giant pile of beef with a few shrimp hidden within. As no one in the house eats red meat (and our neighbors won't eat anything spicy), it got thrown away. Looked pretty good, though!

Clay pot seafood and rock shrimp with eggs were both pretty solid dishes but had glaring technical issues. The seafood pot was again a little bit sweeter than the Pete Chang mainstay, to its detriment, but the main issue was that each and every scallop was full of grit. Similarly, the shrimp and eggs were cooked absolutely perfect, outside of the loose shrimp shells floating around in them. (If that is intentional/traditional, I'm not a fan!)

Despite the negative review, this is a restaurant with real promise. I will absolutely visit again and can hopefully edit this review after having a more...

I regret spending my money here.

Love trying new places and saw how hyped the reviews are, so I decided to give this place a shot. Off the bat, there were already a few things that caught my attention:

No vegetarian options for lunch: I asked the server to confirm and claimed they were "working on it right now actually" but I wonder why they couldn't offer it to me at the moment... No basic table necessities: Sure there was plating, napkins, and chopsticks but as a Chinese Restaurant there was no soy sauce, chili oil, etc., and additional silverware on the table. Feels like that should be a given to have and not have the need to ask for it.

I ended up ordering the "Shanghainese Rice Cake Stir Fry" and when it came out, just looking at it made me depressed. It was 95% rice cakes, frozen peas and carrots, (what looked like) broccoli ends, and mushroom bits. It was so unappetizing and tasteless that I couldn't bring myself to eat it. The server offered me the menu again, but I was so hungry and had no interest in looking at it, so I just went ahead with the Mapo Tofu. That was subpar at best, the tofu was just drowning in chili sauce. My mom ordered the Beef Brisket & Tomato, and we thought it would be some sort of stir fry, but it came out as a mushy stew...she also did not enjoy her dish.

Also the guy who brought us our food, his nails were long and unkempt, and his thumb was too close to the food for my liking. Felt like the staff needed more practice/training on properly handling food.

Overall, the only thing that carries that place is the interior, prices are way too high for what they bring to the table, and staff/service was just awkward and underwhelming. You're better off going somewhere else if you want (and know) Traditional/Authentic Chinese dishes.

This place robbed me of my...