The modal Chinese restaurant

I had lunch at the new Orient Express in Middleton today. On the recommendation of a Chinese-food-loving colleague I ordered the shui zhu yu, or “boiled fish” — not on the menu, but apparently a house specialty. The dish consists of chunks of boneless white fish in a soup that’s about half broth, half oil. That’s too much oil for my taste, so I mostly spooned out the fish — perfectly cooked, moist, salty, and delicious — and ate it over rice. I’ll be back. The ma po to fu, kung pao chicken, and beef chow fun also come recommended by the C-f-l c.

Anyway, the uninventive name of this restaurant made me wonder what the modal Chinese restaurant name is. Google Maps finds 67 Chinese restaurants called “Orient Express.”

But this isn’t even close to the champ, as the following table demonstrates:

	Garden	Palace	Wok	Buffet
China	666	241	681	1,335
Peking	215	67	58	47
Szechuan	58	16	8	47
Imperial	97	81	15	30
Jade	297	83	6	21

The Google Maps numbers are somewhat unreliable; the “buffet” column in particular seems to include many places which have a buffet but aren’t actually called “Buffet.” But however you slice it there are a hell of a lot of Chinese restaurants called “China Buffet,” and I invite readers to suggest any other name that offers it serious competition.

Update: One of my Chinese-food informants tells me that you’re in fact not supposed to eat the oily soup.