Dynasty (Townsville) 03/2014

Evidently I should begin by informing readers that I paid for my dinner and have no conflicting interests. This applies to almost evert restaurant at which I eat, or dine if you prefer that term, although, occasionally I have had a glass of wine or a dessert which has not been noted on my bill!

When you visit a town with which you are not familiar it is a common practice to ask people where they recommend for a good meal, to search sites like UrbanSpoon and Trip Adviser, Yelp, Google or whatever. That was how I found myself at Dynasty, a Chinese restaurant distinguished by a surprising number of very positive and very negative reviews. The other major influence was that it was Monday night and other places I might have chosen were closed. It was a short walk from where I was staying, on Palmer St., which is packed with one restaurant after the next, interspersed with pubs, all offering food from cheap to expensive and mundane to unusual.
Dynasty is a split level place in a large room. White clothed reasonably spaced tables would seat about 50 to 60 patrons.

It is very Chinese in decor, from the floor 

to the ceiling.  

and everywhere in between.






The menu is extensive. They specialize in lobster and crabs. Either there is a lot of money for discretionary spending in Townsville or there is no competition for Dynasty because the prices for their crabs and lobster are startling - about $79 and $159/ Kilo respectively and other dishes are all at the high end. Oysters were reasonable but plain rice $8.5 is a shocker.
I chose the Dynasty spring rolls . Six finger length rolls in a crisp fine pastry served with a slightly astringent sauce could not have been better, ($12). My waiter was pleased and told me that clients had told him that his restaurant was up there with the Flower Drum!  

My next course, a chef's special, Phoenix Chicken, ($33) is a copy of chicken in a birds nest but uses a potato basket instead. This is a conglomeration of vegetables,\; snow peas, mushroom, carrot, broccoli, lettuce, water chestnut and corn and thin slices of chicken breast and scallops all in a light oyster sauce. This was a less than ordinary dish. The potato basket was burnt and inedible and the burnt taste had seeped into the rest of the food. 

The vegetables were cut very unevenly and the broccoli was very coarsely cut.

The waiter explained that people don't eat the basket!! Prepared like this I'm sure they wouldn't. No self respecting chef would send a dish out like that.
 
They had a selection of wines by the glass from $9.5 to $15. I rejected a Wirra Wirra shiraz that had been open for a few days and another bottle was opened for me which was very good. 
People at an adjacent table told me that they loved the place and to some extent I may have been a little unlucky but I am confident that the Flower Drum is not under any threat from Townsville's finest    Score:13.25 /20