Dongting Hotel is located in Dongshan Cultural Town, on the edge of Taihu Lake, and is an important Subang restaurant in the hearts of locals. Since its opening in 1917, it has been run by Wu Zhengshan and his descendants (the restaurant was briefly merged into a state-run unit at the beginning of Jiefang, and was restored to a private restaurant two years later), and its popularity has not diminished to this day.
In the past two years, the hotel has been renovated again, some locals lament that there is no trace of the simple hotel of the year, while visitors from other places prefer its new look, the table of eight immortals with benches, pink walls and tiles, simple and atmospheric, standing out among many farmhouses in Dongshan Town. Inside, you can see the staircase, roof beams, and old earthen stoves, and the walls of the earthen stoves are covered with certificates of the hotel's participation in the competition.
After the renovation, the restaurant was served by the apprentice of the master Zhang Ziping, and the dishes were more varied, but many regular customers reported that the taste had decreased. Judging from the current dishes, Dongting's products are generally oily, and sometimes everything from meat dishes to vegetarian fried vegetables is like being immersed in oil, and the taste level is unstable, which is the most criticized place. But even so, the restaurant's signature dishes and lake fresh food are still worth trying. Especially in early summer, many people who come to Dongshan by car to pick loquat can take a detour to taste it.
The snail osmanthus recipe is a major dish in the town, and the chef has won several gold medals for this dish. On the basis of the traditional Suzhou sauce recipe, the chef uses Biluo black tea and sugar to season and color, without a drop of soy sauce in the whole process, the finished product is vermilion and bright, and then sprinkled with osmanthus to enhance the fragrance, the entrance is crispy and fragrant, and the saltiness is just right. However, there is still a little more oil around the sauce party, and it is a pity that the bottom is greasy when you eat it.
There are many rivers in the south of the Yangtze River, and there are many river ducks in the river in the old days, and the mother oil boat duck has become a famous Jiangsu boat point, and it is also the representative of Suzhou's "boiled vegetables". Dongting restaurant in the clay pot to cook a whole duck, the original soup, the fragrance is rich, the meat is crispy and not broken, the mellow red soup underwater rice or below are delicious.
The seasonal lake fresh is also very good, known as the "Taihu Lake Three White" white fish, whitebait, white shrimp can be light or rich, and most of them are stir-fried, soup or steamed, generally will not appear too much oil. And the restaurant is close to Taihu Lake, these ingredients are absolutely fresh and the quality is guaranteed. Among them, the seasonal three shrimp is very representative, the kitchen selects Taihu Lake seed shrimp, peels into shrimp and starches, takes the brain after the shrimp head is cooked, takes the shrimp roe to dry, bakes it over slow fire, and serves it on the lotus leaf, the artistic conception and taste are there, although the price is high, it is worth the money. Traditional dishes such as duck from the mother oil boat, salted meat, shredded eel, and chrysanthemum fish are also worth trying, while desserts such as chicken head rice soup and white jade square cake are not recommended.
There is still a lot of room for improvement in the service of the hotel, on the one hand, there is a shortage of manpower, on the other hand, the staff responds slowly, the attitude is cold, and there will be serious problems such as missing dishes when there are many people, which affects the eating experience.
