Jing Restaurant in Denver

Heading out to see what the buzz was about on Friday. There's a new little area called Landmark that promises to be the DTC area's little Cherry Creek. Not sure if that will pan out as many of the shops are empty, and until Friday, I had no clue this development had gone up even thought I routinely drive by it. The occasion was to celebrate our friend Karen's birthday and my wife's birthday. As we walked up, you could tell this was going to the new chic thing down south. We entered a very crowded bar area, replete with enhanced body parts. It was pretty apparent this is the place to be seen, as a very upscale and hip crowd of DTC'ers were celebrating the end of the week. So we ordered a glass or wine and a coctail, $20. OUCH I thought, is this going to be the too cool for school place that prices itself out of business as soon the hipsters see a new shiny object?

The decor was trendy, harmonized feng shui probably, or pretending to do so anyway... Fire on one wall, a waterfall over the glass dividing the bar and restaurant on the other, some white bamboo in the distance.
All I'm thinking at this point is "please, don't let the food & service suck". We mingle with Karen and her husband Chris for a while, and do a little people watching. The place grows on me a little, if it wasn't sooo crowded and so loud, the little enclaves on the wall would be a fun place to hang for an app and a drink.

So we're seated on time for our reservation and are greeted by a very high energy waiter. The restaurant is packed, and its still very loud. At this point I'm thinking everything about this place is intense, and am a little worried how the evening is going to pan out. Again, "please don't let the food suck". We browse the winelist and settle on the Cakebread Sauvignon Blanc. I'm struck that some of the selections are selling at close to 4x retail, but the higher priced selections are actually closer to 2-2.5x ... this bugs me a little given my sommelier background as 3x is kind of the ceiling in my mind, I take comfort in the fact that we've picked something that's a reasonable value and I know will be good. After taking our drink order, our waiter is very helpful in being up front on what are the stars of the menu, while steering us gently away from some initial curiousities. He's deft at not poopooing anything but speaking rather of the item's quality to his liking versus it's popularity.

We dig a little more into the menu that's really 3 buckets of things - americanized "classic" Chinese, Chinese Nouveau, and eclectic favorites of the owner. Here's a peek.



We proceed to order two appetizers and three entrees on the advice of our waiter. The appetizers arrive, and we start with the Ahi Napoleon and the Tempura Rock Shrimp.
The tuna was excellent, savory, refreshing and light. The rock shrimp were good as well, though the chili aioli softened the texture enough that I wished they had instead just drizzled it on so there might have been a little more crunch.

My impression of this place is quickly changing, maybe all the attention is deserved as there are generally few beacons of good food out this way, so I start chalking up the demand based on the reputation of the owner, who also owns Little Ollie's in Cherry Creek. The service far exceeded my expectations. As we ordered another bottle of wine, this time delving into the Frog's Leap Sauvignon Blanc despite my advocation for the Caymus Canundrum (both are very good, I was just looking for something richer at this point), I noticed that after tasting I had unknowingly moved my glass away from our waiter's reach, yet my glass was full after previously only having a tasting portion. This truly was a service experience where he was always there but often unnoticed. If you sample Jing, please ask for Derek Brown for your server, he will point you in the right direction and take care of you and your guests.

For our entrees, we chose the Peppercorn Tenderloin, Roasted Peking Duck, and Shrimp in Candied Walnuts.
The star of the show was the duck, it was perfect really ... crispy skin, no grease, well seasoned, fun presentation with dumplings of dough for little sandwiches, simple but creative and high points for cooking technique.

The peppercorn tenderloin was very good, again simple clean complementary flavors rather than the melange I think of typical Chinese fair. The shrimp with walnuts was good, but nothing stood out to make it memorable. At the end of this, Chris and I found ourselves craving a little something more. So we added the Lobster BLT.

The presentation was humble, the portion though was nice. These flavors aren't that original, but it was a very delectable way to complete the evening. Afterward, as Krista and Karen argued about politics (you don't know how shocking it was to hear these two disagree on anything political),

Chris and I discussed the meal, and while he thought it had not quite lived up to the hype, he consented that everything was good to very good. For myself, the impending doom I was feeling at the beginning of the evening, worried that this was a style-over-substance gauntlet of silicone assault on the senses, had given way to a joyous satisfaction and no regrets on the bill.