Despite frequent visits to the Dells, I had never eaten at Dynasty Chinese Restaurant when it was located near the Tommy Bartlett Show. After several visits to its new Madison location on the Beltline frontage road, I found myself enjoying the house specials but not much else.
Those specials distinguish Dynasty from Chinese take-out restaurants. The first one I tried was the combination sizzling platter ($11.95), a satisfying dish of tender chicken and sliced BBQ pork, plus plump prawns, baby corn, red peppers and green peppers, in a savory brown sauce. You also can get the sizzling platter with only chicken, prawns or beef.
Another specialty was the garlic beef in hot pot ($11.95), a slight misnomer as the hot pot isn’t the same hot pot of boiling water to which you add meats and vegetables. This is a clay pot with the sliced beef, carrots and mushrooms, also in brown sauce, served sizzling when it’s brought to your table. In fact, you will probably need to let it cool down a bit before you start enjoying it.
The rest of the menu is categorized into vegetable-based, beef, poultry, pork and seafood dishes:
- The cherry pork ($6.75 pint, $9.75 quart) is heavily breaded and drowned in a semi-sweet glaze that didn’t really taste like cherries, though a few cherries were mixed in.
- The Heavenly chicken ($5.75, $9.75) also is heavily breaded and comes with mushrooms, garlic and ginger. It’s mixed in a thick teriyaki sauce.
- If you add breading to Mongolian beef and fry it with minced garlic, you get the Dynasty beef ($6.75, $10.75). It’s enjoyable and comes in the aforementioned brown sauce, but I’ll revert back to Mongolian beef next time.
- Just to see Dynasty’s take on a common dish, I tried the General Tsao chicken ($6.75, $9.75). The best way to describe it is a simpler version than you would find elsewhere–the breading is not as crunchy and the sauce is brown instead of red (and not at all spicy as it says). In fact, this dish greatly resembles the Heavenly chicken.
- Among the appetizers, I tried the fried dumplings (six for $5.95). While tasty, they don’t have much meat (pork or chicken) inside.
During the day, the restaurant features lunch specials, mostly for $5.95-$6.95, and in the evenings, you can order family dinners that include a combination of appetizers and entrees.
Dynasty Chinese Restaurant is open every day for lunch and dinner.
Tags: Chinese, south side
