Metro Phoenix Stellar 66 Chinese Restaurant, Tableside Flamed Duck

deleciousfood | July 22, 2024 | Asian Food | No Comments

Chris Chen sat at a shiny black marble table in his new restaurant, spreading his hands wide as he shared the question that had motivated him to open it: Why couldn’t he find a restaurant in Phoenix that served fine Chinese cuisine and encouraged long, slow meals to linger over with friends and family?

At Stellar 66, which Chen opened in Gilbert in April, he wants dinner to be an extravagant experience. The restaurant’s signature dish delivers: a whole Peking duck marinated and roasted for two days, then seared to make the skin extra crispy and carved at the table. If that’s not enough, you can also add caviar.

Even the smallest details, like the dinnerware and silverware, are meant to be luxurious. Chen imported yellow porcelain from China because he wanted guests to feel like they were eating off the kind of plates emperors would have used in Beijing’s Forbidden City.

“I want to bring a fresh idea here. To change people’s minds and think that Chinese food is not just orange chicken,” Chen said. “It’s something new. It’s not just spicy, it’s not just easy, it’s not fast food. It’s something you can invite your family, your friends.”

Stellar 66 isn’t Chen’s first restaurant. But it’s his most ambitious.

Although he’s only 28, Stellar 66 is Chen’s third food business in Phoenix.

He came to the United States to study in 2015, leaving his family behind in Qinghai, near Tibet. He studied mechanical engineering at Arizona State University and to support himself, he also worked in two different restaurants, a breakfast restaurant in the morning and a Chinese restaurant in the evening.

After graduating, he opened a boba tea shop called Tea Moment, which he operated for a year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and he decided to close.

In 2021, he opened Taste of Qin with his wife, Stella Gao. Together, they offered homemade noodles and street food from the northwestern province of Shaanxi. Their restaurant received a glowing review from The Arizona Republic’s former food critic.

The couple decided the business was too stressful and after two years they closed down to take a break from the food industry. Chen took a job at an automotive testing center, finally putting his engineering degree to good use.

Then one day Gao asked him, “Why not open another restaurant?”

“So I opened a restaurant,” Chen said. “This one is opened for her. The name Stellar? It’s (based on) her name.”

What’s on the menu at Stellar 66?

Chen developed all the recipes himself. Stellar 66’s menu is so long that he had to split it in two because “you don’t want to read a book, do you?”

The first menu, which he calls “traditional,” is entirely in English and features dishes he considers more familiar to the American palate, such as garlic pork ribs ($23.99). The other menu, which he calls “authentic,” is presented in both Chinese and English and includes regional dishes such as spicy fresh frog pot ($38.99) and pig’s feet ($25.99).

Both menus feature the house specialties, which, in addition to the famous flambéed Peking duck, also include a sampler of Stellar 66’s handmade soup dumplings ($12.99), each a different color to match the flavors inside, like pink for spicy pork and green for vegetables.

For those new to Chinese cuisine, Chen recommends the grilled lamb chop ($38.99), black pepper beef with scallions ($18.99) or butter fried rice ($9.99 to $29.99, depending on the toppings). For those more familiar with Chinese cuisine, he recommends his favorite dish, the grilled fish ($33.99 to $35.99), any dish made with pork intestine and the spicy duck wing dry pot ($18.99).

The rainbow-colored ravioli ($12.99) was slightly sweeter than I’m used to, but still juicy. The cucumber salad ($8.99) was crisp and refreshing. And the unusual lemon and passionfruit chicken feet ($13.99) had a pleasant lemony flavor and left my lips tingling with spiciness.

But the dish Chen is known for is also the dish that will keep people coming back: Peking duck.

Flamboyant Peking Duck Isn’t Just a Show, It’s the Real Deal

On a recent visit, I knew we had to order the whole Peking duck ($98.99). And while the presentation was pure spectacle, it was the flavors and textures that left the biggest impression.

Since the Ming Dynasty, Peking duck has been the signature dish of the Chinese capital (Peking duck comes from the ancient romanization of Beijing). When I was a student in Beijing last summer, it was one of the first things I tried and a dish I became slightly obsessed with.

Peking duck is a delicious dish, served before your eyes by a specially trained chef. The first few pieces of skin, both crispy and juicy, are sometimes dipped in sugar. After cutting all the meat, the chef removes the rest of the duck to prepare a dish from the bones, such as fried rice, soup or stir-fry, which will be served later.

During my stay in Beijing, I tried this dish in every possible way, from a cheap restaurant catering to students who couldn’t afford a whole duck to a fancy restaurant on the top floor of a skyscraper whose black chrome and mirrored surfaces mimic those of Stellar 66.

The decor wasn’t the only thing that reminded me of Beijing at Stellar 66: everything from the presentation to the taste of the duck made me feel like I was there. I had to look out the window to remind myself that I was in a Gilbert mall.

To enjoy the duck, I rolled slices of meat into paper-thin pancakes (called chūnbǐng) and added a little hoisin sauce and strips of cucumber and leek. The overall result is a miracle of texture and flavor. The chūnbǐng is slightly chewy, the duck is fatty and rich with crisp skin crystallized by its recent flame-cooking, and the leek and cucumber balance it all with tang and freshness.

The chef returned with a light duck bone soup and crispy, oily duck bones fried with salt and pepper.

The experience took me back to my summer in Beijing, eating duck high above the city with my new friends, enjoying the luxury of a shared meal.

How to visit Stellar 66

In addition to the extensive Chinese food menu, Stellar 66 also offers an extensive cocktail menu with unique presentations, such as The Night In ($15.99), a cocktail made with pink champagne and lemon slices served in a mini bathtub with rose petals.

Reservations are optional and can be made on opentable.com.

Hours: Monday to Thursday, 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; Friday to Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Prices: $13.99 to $18.99 for a bento box lunch from the lunch menu. $2.99 to $8.99 for food from the happy hour menu. $9.99 to $10.99 for noodles from the late-night menu. $68 for the set menu, which includes dumplings, an appetizer, fried rice, noodles and an entrée. Whole Peking Duck ($98.99).

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