The Red Lotus Kitchen & Bar

We spent last night with some friends at a new restaurant for us. Josh and Deede have been huge fans of Kru over the years. They frequent the sushi bar there and have gotten to know the owner and sushi chef – Billy Ngo. We’ve gone to Kru a few times with them, but last night we decided to try Billy’s other restaurant The Red Lotus Kitchen & Bar. The Red Lotus is an Asian fusion restaurant – with an amazing dim sum menu. Being that Dan and I aren’t the most adventurous eaters – first glance at the menu had us doing a double take. Bone marrow, tendon, tongue, jellyfish, oxtail, etc. Yikes, nothing like a foodie adventure to start the weekend off right.

The glow of the red lanterns outside was pretty cool. We were happy to see that there wasn’t a wait – they sat us immediately.

iPhone photos… not so awesome, but you get the idea. The giant ceiling lanterns were pretty impressive.

Josh and Deede with her rabbit ears…

Dan and I looking all couple-ish

The plates were smaller in size, so we decided to combine orders “family style” so we could taste and try the different dishes.

My pick was the “Yee Sang” – Thinly sliced raw albacore, chinkiang vinaigrette, popcorn shoots and crispy garlic.

It was phenomenal – I was actually bummed I had to share, ha!

Next up was a silken organic tofu dish. (The waiter suggested the dish) The tofu was topped with snow crab, avocado, nori strips and the plate had an incredible sweet soy reduction with crispy rice puffs, wasabi and chili sauce – awesome presentation.

I loved the texture of the silky tofu and the sauce was amazing.

Everyone was in agreement over ordering the braised pork belly – House made kimchee and Japanese cucumber stuffed steamed buns.

I liked that the buns were just folded over… first time having “dim sum” like that.

Yum! – Next up was grilled asparagus with black bean foam. Nice to get some veggies in.

We also ordered braised oxtail chow fun, chicken chow mein, kimchee fried rice with duck egg and kung pau chicken wings. I didn’t get photos because I didn’t want to keep people from digging in. The portions were smaller in size, but we still had 3 to go boxes of noodles and rice to take home.

We had an after dinner break down of our favorite dishes – everything was incredible. I did not try the kung pau chicken wings, but I had small tastes of everything else.

The waiter then placed 4 spoons on the table and said that Billy was sending something out for us to try.

Basically it was heaven in a to go box…

So good it deserved two photos. Fried sweet buns served in a Chinese takeout box, are you kidding me?  There were two dipping sauces – one was condensed milk  and the other was a fruity sauce – Deede guessed mango… both were pretty incredible. Double dipping was hard to avoid. I could totally sleep on a bed of those soft and airy buns. Yes, I’m serious.

We ended our fun evening back at Josh and Deede’s for a movie. Deede tempted me with hot chocolate, but we got too wrapped up in the movie and forgot about it. We watched “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and I actually didn’t hate Jim Carrey. This is HUGE people… huge.

Another quality evening with good friends. Cheers to that!