Wild times at the White Orchid

Before I share my thoughts on dinner, I would just like to say that Mr. P and I accidentally spent $88 on dinner at White Orchid tonight. A story of a Sunday night casual outing turned grocery-money-for-the-week.

We should have suspected. We should have known better. "Wow, we should order the Big Orchid family dinner, it's only $35 bucks for four - it won't be that much more for 6 people. What a deal!" Like taking candy from a baby...what kind of crazy restaurant would practically give away food? How could five uber-intelligent people could possibly have all had the same misled thought, I have no idea. The description was probably vague, but White Orchid is not a place you go for cheap food, so it was all the more unlikely that such a deal would even exist. The number of choices should have signaled us: 3 appetizers, 1 soup or salad, 2 entrees, 2 chef specials (including fresh market-price fish), and 3 desserts; but I guess we were too caught up in our delusion to notice. Anyhow, enough complaining about the cost. What's done is done, and we all learned our lesson - there's no such thing as practically free food.

Onto the review:

Dinner for six was ridiculously large, and the food just seemed to keep on coming. Our appetizers arrived first: crispy corn fritters, cabbage and carrot-filled golden spring rolls (seasoned heavily with black pepper), and tender grilled chicken satay served with a peanut coconut sauce and a strange, watery clear sweet syrup with bits of vegetable floating in it. Tofu lemongrass soup arrived shortly after, loaded with mushrooms, tiny tomato halves, and firm tofu cubes. Though a little on the luke-warm side, it was nonetheless tasty, spicy and delicious. Perhaps a tad sweet, but not a big deal.

With our appetites more or less sated, the onslaught of entrees that followed overwhelmed us. Steaming hot, garlicky, sweet-roasted salmon had enough minced garlic on it to keep away a coven of vampires - I would guess we were served about two 10 oz portions. It was a little more done than I'd have liked, but was still completely moist. Two large plates of veggie Pad Thai with ground peanuts and tofu were not bad at all; rice noodles were properly cooked and well-seasoned; though, again, on the sweet side. Spicy basil stir-fry with veggies and tofu was fragrant and appropriately saucy (great over rice!). The Pineapple curried duck had a delicious thick coconut sauce and lots of veggies, but slices of duck were a little stingy. A suggestion to the chef: please remove fatty duck skin - it should never be eaten unless it is crisp. Garnishes were strangely inconsistent, with some dishes decked out in orange slices, lettuce leaves and other dishes looking plain naked. Strangely, we also received two small dishes of raw vegetables that looked a bit dehydrated. A pickle maybe? It was unclear what we were supposed to do with them, so they ended up going home in the take out containers.

To finish the meal, we sampled the golden bananas with ice cream, two 2-inch segments of banana deep-fried in a prettily wrapped wonton skin. Others in our group had the pumpkin creme brulee and carrot cake, neither of which I sampled, but looked fairly generic and probably tasted fine.

Our service was okay, but not particularly impressive. Though our water glasses were conscientiously refilled by busboys, our server's somewhat grumpy manner was a bit off-putting. Let's just say I didn't think the automatically included 20% gratuity was necessarily warranted. All in all, we had a pretty decent meal, but I think the unexpected high-ticket price made for a more disappointing experience. This was our third meal at White Orchid, and on two other occasions we enjoyed ourselves quite well. Just remember: avoid the temptation of the family-style dinner, and stick to ordering a quantity you will actually finish. Your wallet and your tummy will be happier this way.

(Sorry about the lack of pictures in this post - I promise to take photos next time. You have to admit though, it's a bit embarassing to pull out the camera when you're dining with a large group of people you are just getting to know)

White Orchid
The Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley
2985 Center Valley Parkway, Suite 200
Center Valley, PA 18034
Phone: (610) 841-7499
Hours: Mon-Sat 11:00AM - 9:00PM
Sun 11:00AM - 8:00PM