Oriental Palace

My husband wanted to make a stop in Pekin this weekend which gave me the opportunity to suggest lunch at Oriental Palace.

The restaurant features Chinese, Japanese and Thai dishes.

During our lunch visit, the dining room had a clean, simple decor with white plastic covering the white linen tablecloths.

Our waitress seated us right away and went to prepare our drinks while we checked out the menu.

I have had a wide variety of Chinese food and eat sashimi from time-to-time, but my Thai food experience is limited to Pad Thai. The menu was organized into sections, so I focused on the Thai entrées.

I selected the Thai basil beef, $9.50. StfRon chose Mu Shu chicken ($7.75), and we also ordered an appetizer of crab rangoon ($3.95).

Our crab rangoon showed up quickly. It might be the crispiest crab rangoon I've ever had, was filled with a sweet cream cheese mixture, and was very good.

The flavor of my Thai basil beef surprised me, as it tasted quite a bit like fish. Our waitress came to check on us and said that the dish contained dried shrimp and fish sauce, along with the beef and vegetables which included onions, mushrooms and water chestnuts.

My husband enjoyed the Moo Shu, which is one of his latest Chinese favorites.

Service was great, and although we never noticed it, I feel like the servers must have been discreetly watching us or else they have impeccable timing, as they seemed to materialize instantly at all the right times.