Peony Pavilion

I would have given them more stars if I got to try the sushi, but I went for sushi which is advertised and I was told there was none to be had! If I knew I was going to a Chinese restaurant, maybe I could be more positive in my review, but I didn’t.
The only reason this place is getting 2 stars instead of one is because our server Chang was awesome and funny and very accommodating. The Chinese options we went with were not bad, but nothing great. Sadly I’ve had better :(
Lastly, with the awkward location, they need some better advertising and they need to clean up the outside a bit more. The entire inside of the restaurant (it’s a large place) was decorated like a typical Asian restaurant but it was trying too hard.

Ordered delivery. Was 30 minutes late, food was cold, crispy spicy chicken was soggy and bitter. Delivery driver didn’t want to walk up a flight of stairs so I had to come down and she wasn’t even in the right place. By the time she got to my house she rolled the window down and handed me my order? I don’t think they know what service is, but they sure know how to take a 25 percent tip ahead of time.
Do not eat from this establishment!
Oh and the soy and duck sauce I ordered never came. Along with my son called mild spicy chicken, is super spicy and mostly dried peppers. Barely Chicken. This is the worst meal I’ve had in a long time.

Tried this place a year back and really liked it. Decided to stop by on my birthday. This is the first time I have ever walked out of a restaurant without ordering. So much for sushi written in bold letters on their sign. We got there around 1:30pm definitely lunch time in my world. They actually gave us the lunch menu and then explained that they did not have any sushi, or any lunch boxes or any item made with teriyaki sauce. They then gave us another menu which was all Chinese food. They need to be honest and let people know that they are no longer a Japanese place. If I wanted Chinese I would have ordered take out. Really disappointed!

You are at the Peony Pavilion only because you have learnt about it on Unilocal or from friends. A little difficult to find, it’s location is as if — it’s an invite only restaurant ! The restaurant itself is really well done up– again how an invite only restaurant would probably be — a large waiting area, where you really cannot see the dining rooms. Dimly lit — there are 2 different dining areas. these look really nice and much better than any other ‘non chain’ Asian fusion restaurants. The place was crowded on a Sunday evening .
But the food is a real disappointment here. The menu is a pieces of paper put together — just such a bad start to a dining experience. The Kung pao and chicken fried rice can be passed off as average whereas the garlic chicken does not deserve a rating .the fried noodles were the best of the lot. The Mussi cake was so bad !
The service was nothing to rave about As well.
The quantities are great for the price and so is the restaurant. Do not come here if your criteria is good food. But if you are looking at an overall experience — you surely can give it a try.

Never got to eat but the attitude and lack of service ensured I’ll never have the chance to rate the food! Sat for 45 minutes, couldn’t get any waiter to come our way. When we asked if they wanted us to leave, they chose not to respond, so we left. Offensive experience.

DO NOT ORDER DELIVERY FROM THIS PLACE. The delivery service here is absolutely abhorrent. We waited 3 HOURS for our food, with no notification on their end that the order would take that long. it is absolutely ridiculous that it would A) take that long, and B) they didn’t even bother to let us know it would take that long.
We ordered the food, and after waiting 1.5+ hours, called them to ask them the status on the food. Only for them to tell us that we’d still have to wait for another 1+ hours.
This was given the fact that after we ordered our food, we received a call 15 min later that one of the dishes we ordered was out, and we were asked to substitute a dish. This was entirely fine, and we substituted a different dish, but this could have been a perfectly good opportunity to tell us that our food would take another 2.5 hours.
Also, they are bad at taking care of food allergies. We asked for no peanuts in all our dishes because we had a peanut allergy in our group, but we discovered peanuts in one of our dishes. Luckily the person with the allergy had not yet eaten the dish, but that’s concerning to find.
The food ranges from quite good to mehhh, depending on what you order.
My favorite is the Chinese vegetable treasure dish featuring Chinese squash, nagaimo and woody ear mushroom. It’s really good — the squash is perfectly cooked, the nagaimo is nice and crunchy and there are even goji berries to add a bit of sweetness.
I like the cold jellyfish and beef tendon dishes we got, but I was not impressed by the casseroles (tofu and veggie casserole was bland, and the beef dry pot/​casserole was low on beef). The crispy spicy chicken dish was pretty bad, which was surprising since their sister restaurant does this dish super well. Also really disliked the bamboo shoots with pork (too oily, and it’s spicy despite not being denoted as such) and sautéed preserved pork with dried turnips — pork was dry and hard to chew, and there weren’t even many pieces as most of the dishes was just spicy peppers and 干豆角.
Edit: Delivery time is still excruciatingly slow. We also got lamb dish that was surprisingly good.

We came here as a party of three and ordered two entrees. The food tasted pretty good, and the décor was acceptable. However, with the amount of oil and salt in their food, most restaurants could make their food taste just as good. I was not impressed at how stingy the restaurant was. The store policy is that each entrée came with one small cup of rice. Clearly as we had three people, and the waiter wanted to charge us for an extra cup of rice (we passed). I never understood the restaurants that charge for an extra small cup of rice (comparatively speaking to everything else, the rice is quite cheap!)

I came here on 21^st Nov, 2015 for some dim sum but found they no longer offer them (but I was told that they would offer in the future). Then I read the menu and taste the food, and understood why people were giving bad reviews on Google recently — the food isn’t bad at all, it’s just too authentic for locals… The restaurant might be managed by another group of people now, which I got from their menus— dim sum which they offered in the past is Cantonese food and they are offering Hunanese food now, very authentic Hunanese food without being «Americanized» — much more spicy &oily compared to either «true» or Americanized Cantonese food (my parents are Hunanese and I grew up in Canton so I know the difference well).
I really recommend this restaurant as the food here reminds me of my parents’ cooking. But I also hope that they could offer dim sum, my favorite weekend brunch.
However, talking about the service… It’s slow… That’s why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.

OMG! Hidden gem!
Found them through Groupon, and was pleasantly surprised. The restaurant was beautiful inside and the staff was very friendly. It’s a BYOB but they do have wine available if you forgot to bring some. We started with the soup dumplings, which were perfect in size and portion.
I had braised pork belly Chairman Mao style for my dinner, it was fantastic! My date had the clear noodles with ground pork, also amazing!
They are undergoing menu changes, but I hope they keep the braised pork belly because I dream of having it again!

Best, THE best Asian fusion cuisine in Mercer County that I’ve had (also including parts of Bucks County). My husband and I ordered traditional American Chinese fair at Peony and to our surprise, it was not heavy at all and absolutely delicious! No post Chinese food coma at all, even after housing the entire two entrees — beef fried noodles and pork fried rice plus a wonton soup. Yeah It’s pricey but you pay for what you get! Will be returning with family and be our new Asian food spot! I haven’t tried their sushi but as of right now I can say that they are far better than Cheng’s Kitchen and Mizuki Asian Bistro (Pennington) and about a tie with Oishi (Newtown). It’s going to come down to sushi to be the final decision maker!
Additional note: the ambience is the bomb and it’s a BYOB restaurant. Boom!

UPDATE: We went back to get more data/​food.
This time we brought two Chinese coworkers, to help us evaluate the quality of the Chinese food.
All four of us ordered Chinese dishes (we skipped the sushi this time), and we were all very pleased with the taste and quality of the food.
The sauces were rich without being too heavy, and the portions were a good size. We all agreed that this was, indeed, excellent Chinese food.
The biggest differences from our earlier visit were the number of patrons and the service. The clientele was overwhelmingly Chinese, and the dining room was full this time (though the banquet hall was not in use). Additionally, the service was improved in every facet. The waiter seemed to know the menu, and the food came out reasonably quickly, though a few of the dishes took a little longer than others.
We avoided the sushi, and it appeared that most of the other diners were of a similar mindset. I would still caution diners who used to enjoy the sushi here to look elsewhere. This place is fully Chinese now.
Overall, this is now our top choice for Chinese food in the area, with excellent food and reasonable prices (particularly when ordering off the lunch menu).
ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW:
NOTE: This place is under new management with a new chef as of September 2015.
I have only been to the «new» Peony Pavilion once since the remodeling and management change, so I will update my review once I have more datapoints. I went to the «old» PP over a dozen times.
What changed:
1. The food: the new chef seems to be better at making Chinese food, since my usual order of shredded beef with hot peppers improved significantly. Unfortunately, the sushi chef (not chefs, as PP used to have) was very slow and the sushi didn’t taste as fresh as it used to. Another notable change is that Thai dishes have been removed from the menu, which is unfortunate since the pad thai was delicious.
2. The service: the waiters were all new, and did not know the menu at all. We had to ask for lunch menus (the only menu offered initially at noon was a dinner menu), and when we ordered the waiter asked us to point to the item on the menu (there weren’t numbers or Chinese characters on the menu, he just didn’t know any of the items). When my shredded beef came, I had to ask for white rice. I overheard the table next to ours having to do the same thing 5 minutes later.
The sushi chef was excruciatingly slow, and my food was nearly cold before my coworker’s sushi came out.
The water was filled frequently, and the waiter apologized for the slow sushi. Perhaps they are still ironing out the kinks with the new management.
As an aside, there was a moment where one waiter hurried into the kitchen and collided with another who was carrying out a large bowl of soup. The soup covered the first waiter, who let out a cry of pain. So there are some kinks to iron out.
3. The building: a new banquet room was added to the back of the restaurant, and when we arrived at noon the room was already full of guests. The overall décor didn’t change much, though there were some brighter colors, and a drum set sitting to the side of the main dining room. Not sure what to make of that.
TLDR: Chinese food better, sushi worse, Thai gone, waiters need seasoning, banquet room. Read less

I am slightly hesitant to keep this at 4 stars as the whole menu has changed except for their sushi offerings. It is no longer Asian fusion, but instead strictly Chinese. But this might be a good move for them since the owner’s other location does Szechuan very well. The prices are more inline now with these offerings, General Tso’s was $ 13, and my spicy cumin beef was about $ 17. Both were tasty and large portions. There are some menu items that are incorrectly listed, but luckily our waiter pointed these out. Service still needs improvement, we had to call a server over to open a bottle, then waited another 10 minutes for an ice bucket. Some used plates were removed but others were not. But the waiter was friendly and seemed to be trying his best, perhaps better training is called for. The sushi used to be very good here, but I didn’t see much of it leaving the bar. Groupons or Living social deals are usually available so be on the lookout if you plan to visit.

Great asian restaurant in princeton area. Inside of the restaurant is absolutely gorgeous and the food are wonderful. Love it!!!

I used to come to Peony Pavilion specifically for the Shanghai Soup Dumplings since they were the closest thing to Xiao Long Bao in Chinatown, NYC. I recently became vegan but wanted my family to try them, so I could get them hooked!
My sister drove from Havertown, PA and my brother-​in-​law from Philly. They got six orders of Soup Dumplings and not a single dumpling had soup in it… The waiter didn’t know what we were talking about and the manager tried to tell us that Soup Dumplings don’t have soup in them, until we used the traditional name. At this point she told us that they changed the menu two weeks ago and Soup Dumplings (although, still present on the menu) no longer carry soup.
After being a recurrent customer, I will certainly maintain a significant distance.

The moment I stepped into Peony Pavilion, I was astounded by the beauty of the interior design, the pleasing music, and the romantic red dimming lights (the mood lighting intensifies as the night goes on). The stunning crystal chandelier and intricate window designs are also breathtakingly beautiful. I couldn’t wait to sit down, eat, and take pictures of everything around me!
If you pay attention to art covered walls, you will discover that there is a meaningful story behind the lovely Peony Pavilion. The beautiful, old-​fashioned style of this restaurant’s appearance is modeled after a very famous Chinese opera, The Peony Pavilion, an ironic love story similar to Romeo and Juliet.
Lisa, the owner is very caring, charismatic. and you can tell that she is extremely passionate about her business. After continuous, strenuous hard work, she was able to transform her dream into a reality. The atmosphere and food here brings the love story to life!
Not to mention, the food here is undeniably delicious and presented like artwork. They use the freshest, finest ingredients to make each dish. The staff members really know how to take care of hungry guests. I love dining in this authentic Asian restaurant, as the food here is reminiscent of old memories from when I visited China many years back. Definitely come here if you want to experience finer food and an authentic Asian dining experience.
There is also a private party room with a sound system and projector. I’m thinking about having a dinner karaōke party with a large group of friends for a future party idea. :)

A group of 7 of us came here for dinner last Friday night around 7:30pm. There were a few tables dining, mostly couples, with us being the largest party there.
Service throughout the night was pretty good, with the waiters always refilling my water without me having to ask. As for the food, it is definitely more expensive then your typical Chinese restaurant, but understandable since Peony Pavilion positions itself as an Asian fusion restaurant that serves high quality ingredients.
Of all the dishes we ordered, the Oriental Chilean Sea Bass ($ 28) was definitely the standout. I particularly enjoyed the miso herb sauce and the cinnamon Korean black rice that was paired with the sea bass.
The Asparagus Crab Soup ($ 9) was a let down. The bowl of soup was big, but definitely not worth the price. The soup, with bite sized pieces of asparagus and a mix of real and imitation crab meat, was lacking in flavor and could have used a few grains of salt.
+ Atmosphere and décor is nice and would be a good date night spot.

I came here on Valentine’s day with my boyfriend. They had a special menu but I’m happy that they let us order off of their normal menu as well. There are so many options that it’s a bit overwhelming — I didn’t know what their specialty was. One memorable dish we had was a duck roll appetizer — it was actually so unique and delicious — fusion at it’s finest. The duck was tender, juicy, and oozing with flavor — melt in your mouth delicious. Our entrees were nothing to write home about, but that’s probably because we ordered pretty boring things (like the pad thai).
I probably wouldn’t come here again but it was a good experience!

I’m not a big fan of Asian fusion restaurants in general, and yet Peony Pavilion still managed to impress me. I have been here twice for dim sum and came away satisfied overall on both occasions.
The food is cooked to order and tastes fresh. It is definitely several notches above the quality of the food I have been served at similar restaurants. No need to worry about «mystery meat» here, in other words. I particularly enjoy their steamed barbeque pork buns, steamed chicken buns, sticky rice in lotus leaf, and sesame balls.
Service is always first-​rate and waitstaff is highly attentive and courteous. As mentioned in other reviews, the décor and atmosphere is simply visually stunning. You can tell a significant amount of thought and planning (not to mention $$$) went into designing the place and you feel like you’re eating at some swanky high-​end restaurant in Shanghai or Hong Kong, rather than behind a car wash off of US-​1 Southbound ;)
Really, the one gripe I have with the place relates to the excessively high prices. Yes, I realize it’s Princeton (well, sort of…). Yes, I realize the atmosphere is one-​of-​a-​kind. But with most dishes priced between $ 5 and $ 7, the bill really starts to add up, especially considering the meager portions which are synonymous with dim sum. As such, Peony Pavilion is definitely a «sometimes» place for me, and I will likely not be returning any time soon because of this. However, I would still recommend Peony Pavilion to anyone in the area who is looking for good quality dim sum without having to travel to New York or Philly.

LOVED this place! We had some weekend dim sum (stuffed eggplant, shrimp), grilled sea bass, pad thai, and shrimp teriyaki.
There were SOME comments on things that could have been better, but nothing that would reduce the star rating. There could be a BIT more seasoning on the sea bass, but the fish was FRESH!
Pad thai was a little on the sweeter side, and the shrimp teriyaki was breaded and a bit hardened. But, both dishes were still extremely DELISH.
I think with all our items, a FULL four adults, the bill was $ 75 so it is rather reasonable.
YOU ALSO don’t have to deal with insane Nassau Street parking in downtown Princeton.
We had someone who was being trained, so I cannot comment on service except to say the trainee was a BIT on the slower side (took about 15 minutes to get hot sauce) and our dim sum got a bit cold waiting for it. We spice up EVERYTHING.
Anyways, ambiance is AMAZING– definitely like Manhattan but in Princeton.
Great date night, party room is available as well.
Can’t wait to return and test out some other items.

I used to work down on Alexander Road back in the mid-​90s. I can’t remember what this place was back then, but I’m pretty sure it was Japanese, and back then I hated Japanese food. Yet time and again I would be dragged here; forced to reprise my role as the Chicken Teriyaki guy.
Wow, have things changed.
Fast forward to 2014. I actually eat sushi now. I only started a few years ago, and when I was finally convinced to try it, it took place in NYC at a high-​end sushi joint called Sushi Zen. Since then I have generally only eaten sushi at higher-​end joints, or at places recommended by my Japanese friends. Sushi is one of those dishes where quality really, really matters. And I am happy to now add Peony Pavilion to our list of go-​to places for date night.
There’s nothing outstanding about the menu. It’s pretty much all the things you’ve come to see on a standard Japanese menu. But the quality of the food is excellent, and the presentation might just be among the best I have seen in NJ. (If that kind of thing matters to you.) I highly recommend the Valentine Roll. Cut into beautiful heart-​shaped pieces, and served with a spicy, aged balsamic sauce, it’s got a wonderfully unique flavor.
One little surprise we enjoyed was a peanut avocado roll. It’s a tiny little thing for only $ 5, and it’s exactly the way it’s described: chunks of peanut and avocado rolled up with some rice. Add in a little soy and wasabi and you get the perfect mix of crunchiness and creaminess with a flavor that you don’t normally experience in a Japanese restaurant. (Authentic sushi lovers are probably cringing at the thought.)
The décor inside is beautiful. I have some slight memories of the place that used to occupy this space, and I remember that space being very nice, too. Classic Japanese photo art adorn the walls, and beautifully designed wood panels line the windows, letting in just enough light from outside.
Service was also excellent. Attentive staff check in at just the right pace to make sure you are happy and have everything you need.
I wish we saved room for dessert because they had some delicious-​sounding options, including a molten chocolate lava cake and a cheesecake lollipop tree, as well as an extensive tea menu.
From what I gathered, Peony Pavilion has only been open for a short time. And while crowded, there were still plenty of empty tables for a Saturday night. My guess is word will catch on quickly and this place will soon heat up to be the next popular hotspot. Luckily, they take reservations online (through Unilocal!) so you can reserve your table well in advance.
Give these guys a try! You won’t be disappointed.