Ginger & Fork

The staff at Ginger & Fork go out of their way to make guests welcome, and it’s not uncommon to see owner Mary Li and general manager Donnie Roy visiting each table in turn. Despite the homey warmth, Ginger & Fork is in fact quite elegant. It’s in the house that used to be La Fisheria, with whitewashed walls, a long, marble-topped bar and an airy appeal. The Hong Kong-style Cantonese fare is mostly appealing, although on our visits, the clay pot beef and garlic ginger cauliflower were both far too timid. The satay sauce for the beef tasted like generic brown gravy, and the pale, steamed cauliflower seemed to lack both ginger and garlic. That aside, we should have doubled our order of the hoisin-sauced Peking duck bao, encased in angelic, fluffy rounds of dough, and the squid ink fried rice is light and briny, with bits of sweet Chinese sausage, plump shrimp and sinewy squid tendrils to boot. Diners may carp about entrée prices that range from $12 to $29, but how many other Chinese restaurants are there with an excellent craft cocktail and wine list? At Ginger & Fork, it’s about the experience as much as about the food.