Fantasy Restaurant - Chinese HK Style BBQ, Petaluma

1520 East Washington St, Petaluma CA 94954
(707) 658-1866
Parking: in parking lot

Last Visited: July 30, 2016

Food: 3 stars
Atmosphere: 3 stars
Service: 3 stars
Price: $ to $$

A few friends and family members had told us about how good the roast pork at Fantasy is with its crispy skin, and considering that there really aren't any Hong Kong style bbq places in the North Bay with the exception of a couple of markets carrying Chinese roasted products (like G&G Market), we definitely wanted to check it out.

Fantasy has been open for about three months.  When you walk in, you'll see the steam table containing a variety of cooked dishes and the roasted duck and roasted pork hanging behind the glass.  It's a common sight in the Chinese areas of San Francisco, but not so common here in wine country. Above the steam table are the television displays showing the self serve meal combo menu (you pick the size and fill a box from the steam table items) and the roast item menu showing prices for products sold by the pound.  The dining area is very clean with new tables and chairs and silk flowers and signs with the table number on each table.  You can tell that it's Chinese owned as every table number starts with an eight.  There is also a large screen television playing infomercials.  During this lunch visit, it was an informercial for hair products.

When we arrived, we were the only customers and it was a bit confusing whether there was a sit down option, but we soon learned that you can either choose from the combos or sit down and select from their regular made to order menu.  We opted to try a selection from both.  After we were seated,  we were promptly brought water, but noticed that others were given a choice of tea or water.

- 2 item BBQ Combo Plate - You have a choice of 2 BBQ items, rice or noodles, and a side of vegetables.  We selected the roast pork, roast duck, and noodles.  The chef came out and chopped the roasted items immediately after we had ordered it.  First, the portion is pretty good sized.  One person eating it should feel quite full.  The roast pork was evenly cut and nicely presented, but the skin was not very crispy.  It was crispy on the initial bite, but was chewy at the end, whereas really good roast pork has completely crispy skin that allows you to bite all the way through the skin.  Unfortunately, this didn't meet my expectations.  The roast pork was on the fatty side, and though it's the perfect cut for making Chinese tamales which tastes even better when there is a good quantity of fat, this was too much for just eating plain.   The roast duck had good flavor, not too strong, but it was a bit on the fatty side also. I thought the duck was better than the pork.   The noodles were from the steam table and had been cooked with onions and carrots, but they lacked flavor.  The side of vegetables contained celery, carrots, zucchini and broccoli and were very fresh tasting.  The people complaining about the portion need to remember that there isn't HK BBQ competition up here.  $11.99

- Salt and Pepper Pork Chop - This item was ordered from their menu.  While we expected it to be lightly battered as most Cantonese style versions of this dish would be and cooked with jalapeno peppers and bell peppers, it came out with a lot more batter than we expected and was stir fried with green onions and chili peppers.  It still tasted good, and fortunately had not been over-battered. This made to order item had good flavor and came out very hot. Good.  $8.95

Service is friendly, but still has room for opportunity.  The waitress was sharp in giving us plates since we were sharing our dishes, but she didn't come by during the middle of the meal to check on how things were going.  We also needed two boxes for leftovers, but were only given one (it was too small to hold everything) and had to ask for a second.

Fantasy certainly is better than having no HK BBQ, but the serving of roast pork I had didn't live up to the hype.  If I were to try it again, I would probably try more made to order items from the menu.