Chinese Banquet

Last Thursday (Nov 9), Nick and I met up with my parents in Chinatown on our first Chinese Banquet excursion. The main goal was to eat at Ming Dynasty in Chinatown and decide if a banquet in New York City was worth it.

We arrived around 2pm for dim sum and some extra dishes that my parents hooked us up with. The food we had was excellent. The venue not so excellent. When we arrived we walked up a double flight of stairs (flanked with lighted advertisements - totally tacky) and then when we walked into the restaurant and it was just *BAM* dining area. There was no mini lobby/reception area just a large expanse of room and tons of tables and chairs. The room was huge and actually had divider walls that could be moved to make it bigger or smaller (they can accommodate up to 2 parties at once). The decor and setup was just total cheese factor and no attention to detail. The thorough and seasoned wedding venue inspector that I am, I checked out the bathrooms with my mom, and they were plain. I couldn't imagine people all dressed up going to NYC and seeing this blah venue and then the blah bathrooms. A bit of a disappointment and relief at the same time (parking would've been an issue). I rate Ming Dynasty a C+, and only because it was huge and the food good.

My parents had checked out Sunny Palace, in East Brunswick NJ, the week before and really liked the banquet room. They did encounter some issues with things they discussed with the owner but later got a call back and he basically said he'd work it out with them if we booked a Sunday date. Not too bad, especially since we're aiming to book a Sunday. Here are pictures of the banquet room from their website:

Based on these pictures I am really thrilled with the banquet room's decor. It is such a HUGE difference from Ming Dynasty and other Chinese restaurant banquets I've been to. I love red but not the super-bright-almost-tacky-Chinese-red that is thrown your face at banquets. Another bonus, parking is no problem at all here! Nick and I are going on Saturday to have dim sum and check it out for ourselves. As long as we like it my daddy will take care of the rest of the details.

The wedding planning is finally taking shape!