Mings BBQ - Asian Square - Doraville - Atlanta Georgia

You can find Ming's BBQ at 5150 Buford Hwy NE, Ste 300, Doraville, GA 30340 in the Asian Square shopping center anchored by the Asian Supermarket. The restaurant is along the left facing the market (South side) towards the back. My next several reviews will focus on all the restaurants currently in this square as my Buford Highway Clawr group hits each. For the uninitiated, the square is home of the Doraville location of Sweet Hut which most will recognize. There's plenty of parking out front of each business and overflow contained in the main market's parking.

I've eaten at Ming's BBQ a handful of times - this is a favorite of locals and Chinese in particular - I believe the style is notably Cantonese so you'll see very recognizable dishes. They are known for their soups and the congee in particular during cold months, but the reason to come here is for the duck. On this night the Clawr group went for the whole Peking Duck, a Honey Roasted BBQ Pork dish and the Snow Pea Tips.

 

Peking Duck - this is your classic Peking Duck served with bao-style folded buns, some sauce and a bit of green onion. I thought this was very good, perhaps the best I've had in Atlanta (I've experienced slightly better where the duck comes directly from the brick-oven, is sliced into thin pieces to be served by special cutters, but I haven't seen that in this town). The skin is crisp and the duck delicious - I don't think you'll be disappointed. 

Honey Roasted BBQ Pork - in a word, delicious. This is a well smoked dish of sweetened pork with plenty of rind - harder to do than it looks as the flesh is still very moist. Served with a side of sauteed sprouts. Very filling and a good sharable portion.

Snow Pea Tips - I love these - full of flavor and a bit of garlic - in fact I think I order these whenever they're offered. Ming's does an excellent job, keeping the stems slightly crispy and the leaves firm - I think the trick is to blanch the stems first before adding them to the wok.

This tends to be a very busy restaurant and it suffers a bit because of that. It also closes at 9:00 PM so if you're thinking of coming, arrive early if you can. The servers here (and really at any restaurant) get awfully cranky when you show up 10 minutes before closing (unless you're ordering take-out). The shifts are long so please be considerate. Other than that I've found the servers here very good and efficient with good answers to questions. As with most of the more authentic Chinese restaurants, you need to be a bit more persistent than you're used to in getting good service - try not to be obnoxious but the more persistent you are the better the service. One other thing - bring cash.

(also posted to Yelp)