New York Times Critic Pete Wells Awards 2 Stars To Restaurant Lake Pavilion

The New York Times' restaurant critic Pete Wells reviews Lake Pavilion, a banquet-style Cantonese restaurant in Flushing, Queens, and calls it "A Special Occasion, Seven Days a Week." Wells compares the restaurant scene to that of an immaculate wedding: "A classical white arbor stood at the entrance, threaded with silk rosebuds. Lavender swags had been draped from the rafters, and lavender napkins were propped up in the water goblets. Shiny gold curtains hung in the windows, and enormous bows in pink or burgundy flopped from the back of every chair. Servers were buzzing around, immaculately dressed in black suits with red bow ties or striped neckties," he writes. But, Wells says, "There was no wedding. Lake Pavilion looks like that every night."

Wells praises the menu, which he says "goes on for about a dozen pages and does not waste any of them on Chinese-American sillines." "If Dungeness crabs are in season and you do not have a life-threatening allergy, please order them," he says, and suggests them "stir-fried with ginger and scallions, their cracked legs and deep-dish bodies sticky with a sauce that will end up everywhere" or  in "a casserole of Dungeness crab stacked up on sticky rice that's been lightly browned while being turned and tossed with roasted peanuts, garlic chives, ham, onion, and liberal strafings of fried garlic."

For Pete Wells' full review, click here.