Well, it happened again....Greg and I ended up driving around aimlessly, trying to figure out where to go have a cheap and cheerful meal at about 7:30 last night. We decided to try Oriental Plaza, the Chinese restaurant in East Belfast. We used to go to Oriental Plaza when it was located in the Main Street Market shopping center in Belfast. When walking in there, one could be transported to any Chinese restaurant around the country. It was surreal, because the interior decor was almost identical to the Chinese place we used to frequent in Chicago. NOW. the Plaza is located in the old Blueberry Bay restaurant/diner on Route 1. The seating area is huge and you still think that you are in a IHOP style restaurant save for the black Chinese coromandel panels on the walls. The booths and lighting fixtures are still blue and its a pretty funny experience.

Greg is standing here telling me to put in the review that the bathrooms are sticky and there is no way to get out of the bathroom without turning the handle on the door, so wear long sleeves. In my own terms, its the type of bathroom that makes you flush the toilet with your foot.

So onto the food. It was plentiful, thats for sure. We had an order of Orange beef and hot chicken curry. The amount of food that arrived would have fed four to five people, so the value was there. The curry they used tasted old and generic. It was certainly not "hot," the way I ordered it. The orange beef was really not very flavorful, but the beef was tender and tasted good. Vegetables were fresh, but as I say, the taste is not as good as Seng Thai down the street.
On a Saturday night at 7:30, there were only three tables of diners, which doesn't bode well for the place. I think most people in the know would rather go to Seng Thai, and thats where we will be headed in the future if we want Chicken curry again.

Food: C-
Service: D
Atmosphere: D
Cleanliness: F

Enjoy,
Seth