Fancy Schmancy Chinese - Is There Such a Thing?

I met my friend L for lunch last week. A good mid point between our respective workplaces was Bryn Mawr. We picked Yangming. L used to live behind there a few years ago, but she hadn't ever gone there! It's a fancy schmancy place. Cloth napkins. Real silverware. They don't give you chopsticks unless you ask. They even have a fancy (possibly genuine) statue in their foyer. Wow, food and an art/history lesson. What more can you ask for?

It was later for lunch, and there were still a good amount of people there. It was surprising. They have quite a decent lunch menu. We started with some steamed pork dumplings. They were alright. There was pretty much just pork in them. I don't recall any vegetable looking substance in there at all. The dipping sauce was a tad on the salty side.

I got the orange beef and L got general tso's chicken. I only took pictures of my beef because the two dishes looked exactly the same. It would have been impossible to tell them apart visually. The beef was just fine. Nothing spectacular, but good. It wasn't tons of batter, which I like. There were actual big piece of meat in there. They bring out some sort of fried rice, but it's not really fried rice. In reality, it's pretty plain. They don't ask you what kind of rice you want. I wish they had, I would have just had plain steamed white rice.

Service is good and attentive. And for a swanky place, prices are quite reasonable. But you know what, I'd still rather eat in a hole-in-the-wall in Chinatown any day of the week.