THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED China Royal

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED China Royal Restaurant Review:

Almost catty-cornered from the headquarters of Boeing (once McDonnell-Douglas), this former fast-food joint with an immense lacquer-red roof has been good, great, and not so good over the years. However, the current incarnation is dazzling to the adventurous eater. At the Sunday dim sum brunch, the big room is full of families and groups of pals revisiting their pasts at large round tables, having a cacophonously good time while enjoying a wide variety of the familiar (dumplings) and the less-familiar (chicken feet, tripe) from rolling carts. Late at weekend nights, there's Chinese karaoke and, we're told, a crowd for that. The new owner-manager and new chef came from Toronto and New York, respectively, with serious experience and Manager Mickey Chan is thrilled to display the kitchen's talents to anyone who's curious, often from the large fish tanks whose denizens are working up an appetite for dinner. We've had steamed fish Hong Kong-style that was the delicate, subtle equivalent of any meal in its original home, swell riffs on crab, and fingers of eggplant flash-fried in a sheer batter and sitting under a rain of fried garlic chips that is a guaranteed winner in this year's Eggplant Oscars. The standard menu certainly is adequate for Chinese-American dishes, but for a real winner, ask for suggestions from the Chinese language menu, and run with them.