location: 82-87 broadway, elmhurst, ny
cuisine: taiwanese
price: $$
worth it: yes
cleanliness: A-
times visited: 1-doug, 1-jen
meal: dinner
diners: 2
forks of shame - nowhere in sight
menu: beef tripe in hot pepper sauce, stir fried oil noodles with seafood, clams with basil, whole striped bass with tofu and spicy black bean sauce.
Douglas: 3 1/2 Forks - Looking forward to more research.
So kind of a funny story . . . Sometimes it’s not obvious what kind of Asian restaurant you are walking into. Had we checked the menu more carefully we would have realized we were walking in to a Taiwanese place, but we saw the tanks and dishes of lobsters on every table, and assumed Cantonese. Our bad. We need to eat more Taiwanese food anyway so everything worked out. They definitely have some Chinese dishes, but this is, for the most part, a Taiwanese restaurant.
We walked in to a well-lit, new, clean room. Always a good start. The service was nice, they even serve you tea out of lovely wooden handled tea pots. Nice touch. They could have been a touch more attentive to be fair - refilling our tea and water a bit more. Also we could have used a plate change and something for our empty clam shells. They were so congenial though, we left with a really good feeling about the service. Being pleasant goes a long way.
The Dish Rundown - The absolute standout of the meal was the Striped Bass in Spicy Black Bean Sauce. It arrived in a pool of rich salty sauce studded with ginger and lots of green onions. It was accentuated but not overwhelmed by the fermented black beans. It was a little oily, but you didn’t really feel the oil when you ate it. Rice is an absolute must for this dish. And when I say rice, clearly, I mean white rice. We do so enjoy how in Asian neighborhoods you are never offered brown rice. The fish was incredibly fresh and cooked perfectly. In fact one of the waitresses told us they use almost exclusively live seafood. The Clams with Fresh Basil arrive in a nice savory sauce was well, but not swimming in it. There is a touch of spice, sour and sweet, and the briny clams were deliciously fresh. I feel like they needed to pump the brakes just a touch on the Worcestershire Sauce though. Same goes for the garlic in the Beef Tripe in Spicy Sauce. This is one of our favorite Asian appetizers. Always enjoyable to start with a cold dish. It had a great clean taste, but for me it was a bit too garlicky and could have been a touch more tender. Still would order it again. We like to ask for recommendations from our server so we asked her to choose the noodle. In a continuing trend the fish was fresh and delicious–particularly the squid, which might have had more wok hei than the noodles. For me, the Oil Noodles just don’t have enough body to support all the ingredients. I like a chewier, more substantial noodle. Also they were a bit bland. I did appreciate that they were not too oily though.
The Takeaway - We enjoyed our meal at Q Town Asian Cuisine. Even if that name needs serious work. The quality of the seafood for what you pay is excellent. Some of the dishes needed some rebalancing, and I would not order the noodles again. We look forward to continuing our research, but have already planned to go somewhere else on our next Elmhurst visit. In large part due to the breadth of choices.
Jennifer: 3.75 forks - i’m going to be brief - since douglas has run amok a bit with his assessment. i would say the following - by way of contrast - i think the garlic issue with the tripe is uniquely our genetic issue with garlic - rather than an overuse of garlic. i would also say the dish was less oily than usual, which i appreciate. the fish was as described - though douglas did not call out the pillow-y soft and genius addition of tofu. one nit to pick on the clams would be that the sauce had a little bit more of a wine taste than i like - but again barely - really excellent. noodles definitely had all the cited flaws - and it is unclear to me why they are called Oil Noodles - perhaps in the ingredients - though the waitresses clarification seemed to be “egg noodles”, so perhaps something lost in translation?
from the sounds of it - i think i would go back before douglas. had we ordered a different noodle, that is more to our liking, i think this could have easily been 4 forks.
p.s. best salted peanuts ever (read saltiest) on offer at the start of the meal. great way to practice your chopstick skills