Description
Lotus Blue is one of only a handful of Chinese restaurants in town that seek to reproduce the food of China's Yunnan province, a province which lurks just north of Southeast Asia and south of Sichuan. Mushrooms are big there, and so are hot and sour flavors, and the cuisine also borrows and modifies dishes from Thailand, Laos, and Burma. Peanuts and herbs such as mint, holy basil, and lemongrass are important, too. That said, in common with Yunnan Kitchen, Lotus Blue soft-peddles the food a bit, and crossing the bridge noodles are a tremendous disappointment. Other things are pretty good, though, including outsize scallion pancakes, beef shank with quail eggs braised in the province's celebrated (for dieters, at least) pu-er tea, and sea bass poached in an arrestingly orange bean-past sauce. Blue Lotus' dining room is cocktail lounge-y, with red walls stenciled with Yunnan botanical folk motifs, and really quite comfortable. --Robert Sietsema
