Orchid Pavilion

The closing of Orchid Pavilion was one of the most tragic events I’ve experienced since moving to Boulder.
Having lived on the East Coast for all of my life prior to the move, I had taken ethnic food for granted. I assumed given the melting pot/​salad bowl of diverse cultures that is the United States, that there would always be a subset of individuals devoted to the art of making delicious food representative of their cultures, at any reasonably-​sized population center in the country.
That idealistic yet naïve view that I carried with me from 6^th grade social studies was brutally beaten to death when Orchid Pavilion closed. Because I was then forced to venture out and try other local Chinese restaurants in Boulder. With one notable exception (Tsing Tao @ Table Mesa), they are all beyond horrible.
First, why must so many ethnic restaurants here be generic? I don’t want Asian, I want Chinese. Let’s stop with these one-​stop shops serving Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Thai cuisines (I’m looking at you, Moongate. And Five Spice.) A jack of all trades is a master at none.
By contrast, IMHO, Orchid Pavilion was not just good for Boulder standards, it was good. Period. Orchid Pavilion had standards. Food was prepared and served with care. I’ve had some of the best Chinese beef dishes here than anywhere else in the US. When the wife and I hosted our first out-​of-​town guest, we took him to The Kitchen, the Teahouse, and the Orchid Pavilion. All meals were excellent.
Let’s not kick the OP when its down (or closed). If anyone ever shared with me the news that Orchid Pavilion was returning, in it’s exact same state as before the closure, that person would be my friend for life.

Closed for tax evasion (we went by there when there were notices on their doors.)
Apparently, the group that ran this (and several other restaurants) were doing tax evasion. And they tried like 20 addresses to find them.
I don’t think these guys will be back. In the US.
RIP, Orchid Pavilion.

This self-​described «elegant Chinese restaurant & lounge» sits quietly and unassumingly among the bustling restaurants that blanket the area west of the Pearl Street Mall. To the west, the Med is overflowing with people waiting for their tables; across the street, Brasserie Ten Ten is obscured by a sheet of diners milling outside; down the block, early birds are already starting to wobble out of the Rio, filled to the brim with margaritas. Orchid Pavilion, however, is close to empty. There are a few scattered groups, maybe four or five of them, talking quietly amongst themselves as they eat. Dimly lit gargoyles watch over the silent and pristine restaurant.
The popular and politically incorrect blog Stuff White People Like (
) pokes fun at the way some white people will judge an ethnic restaurant negatively correlated with how many other white people are in it, and in this case, I sadly admit that I have that tendency. My initial judgment, can, however, be easily changed by a great meal. Unfortunately, Orchid Pavilion has both almost exclusively white people and extremely mediocre food.
Best Chinese Restaurant from 1988 – 2003, Daily Camera? Really? Something drastic must have happened between 2003 and now, because the menu looks exactly like that of any Chinese restaurant in Boulder, and their renditions of classics like cashew chicken and sesame shrimp fall far short of the other restaurants’ versions. This is not to say that they’re awful; everything is perfectly passable, and the meats and vegetables are at least fresh and of good quality. But the sauces kill it. They are all faintly sweet and syrupy tasting, even the dishes marked with a chili pepper, which are meant to denote ‘spicy’. The only spicy-​esque thing I can discern in one spicy dish, the eggplant in garlic sauce, is that there is a sprinkling of finely chopped red bell peppers throughout the sickeningly sweet and vaguely citrusy sauce. Perhaps they are meant to resemble chili peppers?
Orchid Pavilion will certainly not kill you, and for people basically unfamiliar with Chinese food, may even taste good. Why settle, though? Golden Lotus, barely two miles away, has comparable prices, but excellent food and a more comfortable atmosphere. China Gourmet, up on North Broadway, also has excellent food if you’re not fussed about atmosphere, and is way cheaper to boot. And Boulder is simply peppered with cheaper Chinese takeway restaurants whose quality surpasses that of Orchid Pavilion.

This place is pretty incognito, so much so that I forget it existed until one sunny day I was strolling on Walnut and its subtle basement front hit me like a disgruntled corporate exec: «oh! This place!»
This place indeed.
The last time I was here was with an old roommate who had this crush on this lady friend of his, who unfortunately had a crush on this other lady friend of hers. So, weird obtuse love triangle trio and I decided to get some Chinese food (personally, I was dying to see how all this played out), so we went to the O.P.
Now, one of the first things you notice about the Orchard Pavilion is that it has tons of Best of Boulder placards up, which is always a good sign. Upon entering, you get that weird feeling like maybe this place is too nice for you (ok maybe YOU don’t get that, but I did… yeah yeah I know, shut your face): it had a little fountain area with typical Chinese-​style statues of fat Buddhas which smiled down at the fatty Goldfish who was swimming around peacefully in the little lake thing. To the left is a bar area with all the fixins’, while the right consisted of several different seating areas, cordoned off by those half-​walls. The waiters and waitresses all had that professional white waiter-​smock thing and a professional demeanor.
In any case, we all sat down at one of the tables in the corner noting the sort of early nineties retro feel this place had (which makes for not exceedingly comfortable chairs.). They talked about school, and then sex which made it so you could seriously cut the tension at the table with a butter knife. I was loving it.
But you don’t care about this, so I will continue on: the food here is solid and not too expensive. I remember dinner being about 8 – 9 $ a plate. The drinks are… drinks, and the egg rolls are tasty as all hell. I got this tofu mush thingey which looked a lot like vomit but tasted like spicey vomit from heaven: seriously good (and an awesome sale huh?).
This place is good… solid…but with nothing exceptional that stands out, not sure I can give it a 5.