Lots of potential - but still needs some work

Recently ate here and found the meal to be a mixed bag.

The menu itself is oriented around shared plates - some small and some big. We sat outside (2 people) and ordered a few dishes to share.

Started with the spinach and prosciutto salad. It was very good, although very garlicy. My girlfriend, who likes lot of garlic, loved it, while I thought it was decent but a bit overpowering.

Next was the mushrooms with some kind of sauce (chipotle I think). I'm not a mushroom fan, but the GF is and I'd heard good things about these. The sauce was great, along with a sprinkling of goat cheese, but the mushrooms were flavorless (totally unseasoned) and rubbery. This dish certainly didn't win me over, and GF agreed they were like eating pencil erasers.

Mains were the tenderloin and the wood-fired pork.

The tenderloin was moist, though slightly overcooked. The flavor was quite good and the meat was tender. Only real complaint here is that it was pretty small - like 5 bites or so. I don't remember the exact price, but it was in the RMB 70 ballpark, which is a lot for a dish that small.

By contrast, the pork was actually quite generously proportioned. The flavor is excellent - smoky and delicious, and the crispy skin is heavenly. The problem with this dish, though, is that it came out cold - most of it wasn't even close to being warm. So after a couple of bites (during which I had the chance to enjoy the great cracklin' skin), we asked them to heat it up. Big mistake, as they clearly microwaved it. When it came back, the dish had lost all of its charm. The skin - which is what really made it so delicious - was just rubbery porkfat. Even the meat itself had gone tough after being nuked.

Drinks - had an old fashioned, which was excellent - one of the best I've had in town. It was a bit light on the pour, but still quite good. The bourbon dark n' stormy was okay, but tasted especially weak...

So, overall, a very mixed bag. Pretty much every dish had tons of potential, and with some tweaking and attention, could be fantastic. But at the same time, every dish failed to wow (except the salad, arguably, which garlic fans may love). Maybe I'll give The Big Smoke a few months to settle and then try again, assuming nothing better comes along...