Princeton Edition: Peking House Chinese Restaurant

Similar to most Chinese buffets, this location in Princeton was par for the course. Right in a plaza on Stafford Drive, Peking House is convenient. When you walk in, there are a few gaudy chandeliers and quite a large dining area. As soon as we were seated, we gave our drink order and went up to the buffet to see what we had on our hands.

The area is set up with about nine of those serving stands, in the shape of a square. The back two on the wall have desserts - things like little cream puffs, dry brownies, Nutty Bars cut in half, Ho Hos cut in half, and other things of that sort. Nothing to get too excited about. There is, however, a small freezer with cups of ice cream in them - chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. I like this as opposed to the kind where customers scoop out there own. For obvious reasons.

There is also a sushi bar to the right. It's a very small one, and they don't actually serve raw fish. So, a lot of the rolls are crab sticks, cucumber and something else. One roll actually had cheddar cheese in it. That was interesting. These also sit under the light for a while, I assume, because the few rolls I had, the rice on the outside had hardened and became dry. Not really what you want when you're eating sushi.

The table all the way in the front is dedicated to fruit and salad toppings. The other tables have the rest of the Chinese fare - breaded chicken, dumplings, beef and broccoli, General Tso's chicken, sesame chicken, seafood salad, and noodles. There weren't really any surprises here, and the major players were included. I grabbed a plate of my favorites and sat down.

This included the General Tso's chicken - which was good. The chicken wasn't terrible quality, and the sauce was just tangy, but not too spicy. I also got some broccoli that was cooked and full of beefy flavor. The breaded chicken, which I dipped in sweet & sour sauce, was tasty. I also got an eggroll - very large, crispy on the outside, not much going on on the inside, but not bad. The seafood salad was thick, and with peas, which I thought was strange. I would've rather had some chunks of the crab without the mayo-base, but that sort of seafood delight mixture wasn't available here. The crab cheese rangoons were not too full of the crab cheese mixture, but they were alright.

I decided to go up a second time to try some of the sushi rolls. Like I mentioned earlier, they were really nothing too fancy. In fact, they were pretty bland and tasteless until I added some wasabi and soy sauce. The quality was lacking, too, as the rice was hardened, and the other parts were dried out. I also got some fruit, which was fine, and a container of the strawberry ice cream. It was very basic strawberry, without any vibrant flavor.

All in all, this meal was about average. It did have a good bit of variety compared to some of the other Chinese restaurants around the state. The major components were there, and they weren't bad. I would take Morgantown's Chinese restaurant over this one any day, but for what it's worth, they do a good job.

Grade: B