Fantasy Restaurant @ Napa

Almost a month in the USA and 10 days in Napa made one crave for proper Chinese food. This came up tops in our search.

Fantasy Restaurant is a Hong Kong-style barbecue in Petaluma features huge chunks of roasted duck and pork, rice in an out-of-the-way location you’d never know about.

Hidden away in a former Round Table pizza, diners are greeted by lacquered roast ducks with their heads still on hanging on hooks in a glass case. The Chinatown similarities extend to a hunk of pork belly, ribs and charsiew hanging by hooks or in steam trays.

Wonton Soup 雲吞湯

At first we wanted to order the HK roast meats, but they didn’t look appetising and Darling wasn’t keen to have so much meat. And we wanted something hot that wasn’t hotpot, so we went for a la carte instead. First up, steaming hot wonton soup with wontons that were the size of ping pong balls. Filling was succulent with a whole shrimp in each – the best wonton I have eaten outside the SF Chinatown.

Grouper Fish in Red Sauce 紅燒石斑魚

We wanted to order Cantonese-style steamed fish, but they did not have a fish fresh enough to be used for steaming. So they suggested take the grouper and do it in a a red sauce 紅燒, which basically means that the fish is coated and deep fried and then poured on a sauce. It was a nice sweet and sour sauce with a huge fish to match. But I was quite disappointed that the fish was not properly defrosted.

Clams in Black Bean Sauce 豉汁炒蜆

Manila clams in black bean sauce was properly executed, with sufficient wokhei. But it was overpowering with the black bean sauce, could do with other tastes.

Pea Shoots in Stock 上汤豆苗

And the pea shoots were cooked in a chicken stock with dried scallops with a sprinkling of goji berries. Delicious.

It was a total surprise that this is an authentic Chinese restaurant; everything was done like how it would be in SF Chinatown. It would be a stretch to say Hong Kong, but when you had a month of Western food and American Chinese, this restaurant hit the spot.

Fantasy Hong Kong Style BBQ
1520 East Washington Street Petaluma, CA 94954
Tel : +1 707-658-1866

Visited Oct 2023