Shuang Cheng

Rating:

Everyone at the table was speechless with pleasure. Our waiter had just presented us with a whole steamed walleye, laid out on a platter and topped with a lattice of julienned green onions. It was the most elegant dish I'd seen in months. And the most skillfully cooked, too, because as we cut into it, the fish's natural juices combined with the platter's pool of delicate ginger sauce. It was completely irresistible and easily the best walleye I've ever eaten, anywhere. And a major bargain to boot at just $14.99.

Just about everything is like that at Shuang Cheng: delicious, fresh, plentiful and almost absurdly inexpensive. The menu at this seafood palace is one of those encyclopedic 12-pagers found in many Asian restaurants, but I have the feeling that most of owner Daniel Lam's devoted regulars never open it. Instead, they scan Lam's menu of specials, written in English and Chinese on a light board, and they pick the dishes that tickle their fancy. Then they ask their waiter to recommend something to go with what they've ordered. It's a guaranteed route to an extraordinary meal.

On one recent evening we started with a 3½-pound lobster, segued to crispy chicken, moved on to five-spice shrimp and ended with stir-fried gray sole and fried salmon in black-bean sauce. "A vegetable, perhaps?" I suggested to our waiter. He paused for a moment, analyzing our order. "Beans," he said, in a tone of deadpan authority. "In black-bean sauce." Sounded good to me.

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