Red Lantern

• Cuisine(s): Chinese
  Hours: Sun,Sat 5pm-11pm, Mon-Fri 11:30am-11pm
  Price: $$ $$
• Payment Types: All Major Credit Cards, Diners Club
  Attire: Casual
  Features: Takeout, Delivery
• Serving: Dinner, Lunch
  Reservations: Accepted
  Parking: Street

Description

Don't let the weathered storefront dissuade you from entering Red Lantern, as its diamond-in-the-rough qualities will become apparent to you as soon as you settle into the clean, sparsely decorated room and start to sample what is arguably some of the best Chinese food in the city. Most Cantonese standards can be found here, like steamed pot stickers, fried cabbage-and-pork spring rolls, and won ton soup sporting half a dozen small, delicate, puck-shaped dumplings bobbing in a chicken broth scented with sesame oil. For something a bit different, try the signature starter, four sturdy iceberg lettuce cups filled tableside with hoisin sauce and a wondrously flavorful mound of minced chicken breast. Entrées include a teasingly piquant General Tso's chicken; steamed snapper with a garlic, ginger, and scallion-boosted black bean sauce; and tender morsels of spicy beef in a "bird's nest" of fried potato. Claypot specialties such as razor clams with chili and onions, superior fried rice dishes (especially the rice steamed in lotus leaf), and a dandy two-course Peking duck are all so freshly prepared that when you return you won't even notice the storefront.