Mark Pi’s China Gate
This neat little Chinese restaurant was pretty much hiding in a very unassuming strip center, so unless you lived in the area and knew it was there, you probably would never notice it. Thankfully it was recommended to us by our son, who had been there only once and said we just ‘had to try it’.
The interior was very nicely decorated and extremely clean. It looked more ‘bistro-like’ than your typical Chinese restaurant. Surprisingly, their menu was much more extensive than the one I briefly looked at on their website, so that was a pleasant surprise. Sadly (for them) we were almost the only ones in there on this Tuesday night, so our service was outstanding. I was told I had to try their sushi, so I picked an interesting-sounding roll from their large sushi menu and ordered some steamed pork dumplings to go along with it. The sushi was very good, though not the best I’ve had, but I wasn’t a fan of the dumplings, which were simply the outer shell stuffed with packed pork. There were no spices, nor any vegetables mixed in, so what little flavor they had, wasn’t too good. I would not order them again. Mr. Z had a dish that consisted of shrimp, chicken and “crab” (never did see anything resembling crab in there), with stir-fried vegetables in a very light sauce. The dish was very good, but the sauce was extremely bland. Our server said that he could have specified any type of sauce he wanted from one of the other dishes, but never having tried anything else, how would he have known.
Overall, it was a neat place and we would certainly go back for a second visit — but try some different dishes.
Mark Pi’s China Gate is located at:
32730 Walker Road
Avon Lake, OH
(440) 930-2623
http://www.markpi.com/menus/avonlakemenu.pdf