Bang a Gong for Mei’s Heavenly Chinese

Discovering Mei’s (pronounced May’s) Chinese Restaurant in Shell Beach is like finding a diamond in your backyard, except, as much as they sparkle, as valuable as they are, diamonds never tasted this good. That’s because all that glitters at Mei’s are some of the finest Chinese dishes to be found between San Luis Obispo and LA.

While their full, familiar menu offers something for everybody, even more surprising than the satisfying variety is Mei’s gourmet specialties, especially seafood.

Sure, Mei’s serves tasty, traditional lunch specials from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. every day ($7.25 and $8.25), and you can find shrimp, scallops, chicken and beef prepared every way imaginable on the regular menu, but it’s the Chef’s Specials, along with an array of tantalizing sauces, that set Mei’s above and beyond all other Chinese restaurants on the Central Coast.

The Chef’s Specials—a dozen multi-flavored Mandarin-Hunan-Szechuan masterpieces cooked Hong Kong style—are pungent portals to the rich gallery of Mei’s creative delights. The Walnut Shrimp, fresh cooked shrimp tossed wth walnuts and sliced cabbage in a sweet, white mayonnaise-like sauce ($12.95), is near frame-able art, too picturesque too eat, if it wasn’t so delectable. Equally eye-opening and mouth-watering are the Seafood Pan Fried Crispy Noodle, which collects shrimp, scallops and crabmeat with bean sprouts, cabbage, snow peas and mushrooms over fresh, pan-fried crispy noodles ($13.95); the Sesame Three Flavors, which quickly stir-fries lightly battered shrimp, beef and chicken in a spicy honey sauce ($11.95); and the Ku Ting Crispy Shrimp, deep-fried in a light batter with walnuts in an uncommonly burnished, tangy coating ($10.95). The Ku Ting Shrimp is also available on the everyday lunch menu for $8.25.

Other sensational sauces to build your seafood, chicken or beef feast around include the Black Bean Sauce (Shrimp and Scallops, Sole Filet, $12.95 and $10.95), Garlic Sauce (Seafood Supreme, Shrimp and Scallops, $13.95 and $12.95), Lemon Sauce (Lemon Chicken, $8.95), Brown Sauce (Kung Pao Three Flavor, $10.95), and Dark Sauce of white wine, garlic, soy and green onions (House Special Beef or Chicken, $8.95). The secret of Mei’s uniqueness lies in its exquisite palette of basic and original sauces, and the consistently fine cooking that ties it all together with distinction.

Even the classic lunch soups—Egg Flower, Wonton and Hot & Sour—are made with an almost-smoked broth and highest-quality ingredients, and simply taste better than soups served without thought at most Chinese restaurants today. The same goes for the appetizers, such as the pot stickers, barbecued pork and paper-wrapped chicken. From top to bottom on the menu, all the dishes at Mei’s share the gift of rare flavor.

Mei’s has been in business on Shell Beach Rd. and Moro St. for almost a decade, with Chef Chen and wife, Kelly, taking over in early 2008. While adding a few new dishes and their own touches, they have taken great care to preserve the restaurant’s longtime favorites atop the menu, making sure to prepare signature dishes with the same level of detail as the previous owner. Style and substance don’t come cheaply, but at least at Mei’s you get the quality you expect for the upscale price.

Mei’s is easy to miss at 1759 Shell Beach Rd., just off the 101 (Exit Spyglass Dr.), so don’t be surprised if you pass it and have to turn around on the next street. Mei’s is humble in size (12 tables seat about 45) and decor, but your taste buds will thank you and your stomach will remember the day you stumbled upon the best Chinese restaurant in South County, this side of the Great Wall of Pismo. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 11:30 a.m.– 9 p.m. Closed Monday. Lunch daily, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Tel: (805) 773-2908.

—Ed Ochs