Ruyi Lexington

I went to Ruyi in Lexington for lunch once a couple of years back and had a less than stellar experience but decided to visit them again when I saw that they had a dish I really like on the lunch specials menu.

You have a choice of soups with the lunch and I picked the Onion Soup. Not sure what to expect, but a watery broth with some canned roasted onion pieces floating around with some sorry looking mushrooms wasn't it.

The dish I was looking forward to was the Smoky Hot Chicken with Cayenne ($7.75). What I got was chicken with long peppers and chili, no cayenne at all and the description said cooked with jalapenos but unless they got the mildest jalapenos in existence, it was just long green peppers. The included Crab Rangoon was cooked nicely but where was the crab?

Interior is dated and the seat in my booth had seen better days. This is how it looked when I arrived and when I left. I was the only customer, not sure how they stay in business with an excellent Japanese place next door and another Japanese/Korean a couple of streets up. Lunch was cheap and it was a big plate and the chicken was good. Service? The waitress took my order, delivered the food and after the sushi chef told her I was done, delivered the check.