We were in the area and early for an appointment so we stopped in here for a Diet Coke and snack…read more Very nice establishment. Music was perfect but soft enough to have a conversation. We ordered cucumber salad in spicy sauce and soup dumplings. We've never had either dish anywhere. Service was very friendly but we thought at first it was slow for what we ordered. The answer to that was, there was a party ahead of us that ordered quite a few dishes, but we were served before them, SO the answer became apparent that the kitchen was slammed and we were fine with that! The cucumber dish was fantastic! The soup dumplings looked and tasted fresh and delicious. The one downer was only one dumpling had soup, but we poured the spicy sauce on them and that was great. Looking forward to trying new dishes I've never had before.

No soy sauce, hot chili oil, or utensils were included with my order. Could you please make sure…read morethese are provided? If they need to be ordered separately, I'm happy to add them as a side and pay for them.

Lucky Cat Dim Sum has accomplished something that many restaurants attempt and few pull off. It…read morerespects tradition without being trapped by it. Tucked away off Old St. Augustine Road in Mandarin, Lucky Cat Dim Sum serves some of the freshest dim sum in Jacksonville. Everything arrived steaming hot, a small detail that makes a big difference. Dim sum is meant to be eaten fresh from the basket, not after a leisurely stroll around the dining room. The classics were all excellent. The chicken shu mai were substantial, flavorful, and held together beautifully. The black pepper beef short ribs were fall-apart tender. The fried shrimp balls delivered the kind of crunch that announces itself before the flavor arrives. The barbecue pork bun was pillowy soft and packed with a sweet-savory filling that lingered long after the last bite. Dessert was equally successful. The mango mochi had the ideal chew and was loaded with chunks of ripe mango. The taro Lucky Cat bun, shaped like the restaurant's mascot, could have coasted on appearance alone. Instead, the filling was smooth, lightly sweet, and thoughtfully restrained. What separates Lucky Cat from every other dim sum restaurant in Jacksonville is its willingness to have fun. The menu is filled with East-meets-West creations that could easily become gimmicks in less capable hands. Everything Bagel Buns, Buffalo Chicken Buns, and other familiar flavors offer diners an approachable gateway into the world of dim sum. The standout was the Cheeseburger Shu Mai. It sounds like the sort of thing that should fail spectacularly. Instead, it works. Seasoned ground beef wrapped in a delicate shu mai wrapper and topped with melted cheese. The beef carried a bold Cajun kick, the cheese added richness, and somehow the whole thing remained balanced. It tasted far bigger than a single bite had any right to. I've eaten at every dim sum restaurant Jacksonville has to offer, and Lucky Cat stands at the top of the list. It delivers the classics with confidence while bringing enough creativity to keep even seasoned dim sum fans interested. The best dim sum in Jacksonville, and one of the most enjoyable meals you'll find anywhere in the city.

I went here with my aunt because we love dimsum and have been wanting to try lucky cat for some…read moretime. The place itself is small, but has a nice cozy vibe to it. We were seated right away and service was great. We ordered a few dishes to try. Stuffed eggplant - my aunt liked it. I am not a fan of stuffed eggplant. Fried shrimp balls - we both enjoyed it. Red bean paste bun - very good. Highly recommend you get this and try it OG chili oil wontons - it was good. Had a distinct flavor that I can't make out of what it is. Pork shumai - I enjoyed them. Good and juicy. Sesame balls - soooo good. We both loved it. Overall, great experience and good food.

Authentic Cantonese restaurant in Jax!…read more Love the location. Close proximity to many shopping destinations near by. Dishes: They have full service push cart dim sum during lunch hours. Especially enjoy the rice Turnip cake that reminds me of my childhood. They also have sticky rice and savory short ribs. Other Delicious highlights include the fried taro balls with the soft centers encased in the crunchy fried outer dough. Yum yum yum One can also order off menu a la carte. . Dinner is table service. Best seafood pan fried noodles on this side of town. The Cantonese ginger scallion lobster is the bomb. Paradise in your mouth. Service: Efficient food service to your table. Agree with other reviewers that some wait staff have a cold persona. My advice is bring your appetite and your stomach will happy. Keep calm and munch on!

This is probably one of the only dim sum restaurants with the authentic Hong Kong style carts that…read morethey push around and you pick your items from the carts (Tim Wah has it sometimes). I would come back for the experience but the quality of the food was mediocre. The best thing I ordered was the roast BBQ duck; not the juiciest but had good flavor. The turnip cake was mushy in the middle and hard/chewy on the edges; wouldn't recommend it. The beef rice noodle rolls had no flavor at all and it was ground beef for the filling instead of a compacted beef roll like a mini meatloaf that most dim sum places have. The staff was friendly and helpful.

Peony is the most authentic restaurant quality Chinese food in the city! Not to be confused with…read moreCanton take out, this is the closest you'll get to NYC dine in experience. The staff are polite and efficient, and the dining room is open and bright-they have a few big round family style dining tables with a Lazy Susan in the middle.

We saw a post in the Jacksonville Fun, Eats & Drinks Facebook group that reminded us that it's been…read moretoo long since we've been to Peony Asian Bistro so we fixed that over the weekend. They're at 10586 Old St Augustine Road in Mandarin with a nice size parking lot so their location is great and parking isn't a concern. I'll get to the food in a minute but I'll start by saying that before we opened our fortune cookies at the end, I jokingly said "I hope one of these says 'you will get your original Facebook account back". They didn't say that but I included a photo of both because I feel like they're close enough As far as food goes, we split the Peony Sampler for an appetizer and loved it. It definitely did it's job as a sampler because now we know we like all of their appetizers and would order any of them on their own in the future. I ordered Egg Drop Soup after that because it's a favorite of mine. I always add a little salt to their version of it but I add salt to a lot of soups so that may just be a "me" thing. I had the Sweet & Sour Pork with Fried Rice for my entree, which is the same things had last time and it's still great. Between the appetizer and the soup and the entree, I was hoping to have enough to take home for lunch tomorrow and I definitely did. My wife had the General Chicken. She really liked the sauce because it was sweet but has a little bit of spicy kick to it. She said the same thing I said about the chicken itself; she loved that it was big pieces of juicy white meat. She was also surprised by how much she liked the broccoli which made for one of those things where you could get a bite of everything at once. She also had a lot to take home, so she's happy with that too. Thank you again to the person who posted about Peony in the group recently. We had a great lunch thanks to your reminder.

Went back and ended up walking out. Half the food we wanted was not available and the place has…read morebecome so run down. It still looked like 1970, with clutter. So sad to see this one bite dust.

Food and service were both very good. Always ask for the special menu or order from the white…read morebulletin board by the front door. Everything was homeade(except eggrolls, skip them). Shrimp toast was delicious, golden bacon dim sum, very good. Chow Fun beef with flat velvety rice noodles, slicered inions and fresh bean sprouts was amazing! The beef was so tender and flavorful.

Where do I start? I moved to this area from Detroit and I couldn't find ANY Chinese restaurant with…read moreany personality or great food for that matter. I was used to the greatness of Detroit area Chinese food like Chin Tiki, China Jade and so on. After searching around online and trying just about everywhere over the past year, I finally found Pagoda online and thought we'd try it. We didn't know this going in, but the restaurant is divided into two sections. One is a "regular" Chinese restaurant and the other is the tiki bar. The staff was SO nice and very cool. They kept apologizing that the tiki part was booked up for the night. We ate dinner on the regular side, then they were all excited to tell us they could fit us in the tiki side after dinner. They even took our leftovers and put them in the fridge while we went over to the tiki side for drinks! All the way around, this is EXACTLY the place I've been searching for. We will be back ASAP.

The Secrets out and we finally got to go visit in the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room and I am among…read morethe glee club. I ordered the zombie cocktail to start the night and it sure lived up to its name and you don't need 2 for sure. I freely than ordered off the menu and enjoyed a spread layed before me. The first were the deep fried pork dumplings. A bit of sweet ness in your first bite and before I knew it I ate the whole thing..very good. I followed with the fried chicken potstickers. These were amazing!. Cantonese chicken wings were next but that was my "put it in a box to go" item. I did also enjoy a sweet n sour chicken that was so good, not overtaken by veggies but just enough bell peppers and pineapple.Very Tasty.. This place is a true experience and the service was great! Enjoy it with friends or family and check off the box on your places to go in Jax when you visit The Tiki Room..

Sat at the bar with my wife and had such a great time being served by Bri and Forrest. We were…read moreseated next to an awesome couple (who are regulars) and they ordered us their favorite item on the menu - the hamachi kama which was so so good. Great sushi, drinks, vibe as well as the staff. Great night out spot

This is an update to my previous 5-star review. I hope it doesn't erase all that, because it says a…read morelot of good things. Unfortunately, our last visit to O-Ku was not the best. We started with the edamame, with the sea salt and truffle oil, which is always delicious. The service over the evening was very slow, and we spent a lot of time waiting on food. We sat in our favorite spot at the bar window so our server also appeared the be working behind the bar and was busy making drinks. We love sake and usually get a bottle of the Noble Arrow. We asked for a recommendation and the server recommended the Soul of the Sensei, which is $107 for the bottle. We were celebrating our 24th anniversary so we went for it. He said it was on the dry side, but we found it very unexpectedly sweet, almost like a moskato wine. It wasn't surprising when we read the back of the label and saw the flavor profile was all the way on the fruity side, with notes of Muscat grape. We definitely made a mistake by not tasting it first, so we ended up asking for a bag to take it home and ordered 2 glasses of the Noble Arrow. It was a disappointing start. Next we ordered the yellowtail carpaccio, which was very good, although the size of the fish pieces overall seemed smaller than usual. Everything we ordered over the evening was undeniably tasty, but small. We got the Usuzukuri salmon and when they brought it, they had the tuna carpaccio as well. The person who brought it said it was a gift. Later, we were charged $2 on the bill for the "gift." It's not much, but it's just that giving us a gift and then putting a charge on the bill for it was very strange. Overall, I still love the food at O-Ku, but this was not the best experience. We had gone there previously for our anniversary and they made it feel special. This time there wasn't any kind of recognition besides possibly the "gift" we had to pay extra for. And the service was so slow that we ended up drinking the bottle of sake we didn't like rather than waiting for another drink order. Every place will have its off nights, and this unfortunately seemed to be one of them. I would still recommend going there, because even though the portions are tiny and expensive, the taste is delicious.

I would rate this place a 8 out of 10 buffet style food. It's peaceful and clean inside.read more

Not feeling too hot after this one, but I'll start out with the highlights…read more 1. The soft-serve ice cream was great 2. Solid broccoli 3. Fine service 4. Excellent water And thats about it. All of the rest of the food I tried was very off (for lack of a better word). The sushi rice was stiff from age. The hot food filled my mouth with oil. And the carrot cake I tried tasted distinctly alkaline flavor- soapy & bitter. At the end wasn't full, but my desire to eat extinguished. I spit out more food than I would like to admit.