Jing has one of the sexiest rooms in Greenwood Village — which is roughly equivalent to having the hottest car on the Hyundai lot. But it also has one of the city's up-and-coming young chefs: Jay Spickelmier, an American kid in a Chinese restaurant (like the Korean family running the American diner in this week's review of Silver Creek). Spickelmier joined Jing's staff a few months ago and just took home the gold at this year's Westword Steel Chef competition, even if he won it largely by cooking a lovely Tuscan white-bean soup with lamb that was just about as far from Chinese food as you can get without using hot dogs.
Pretty is as pretty does at Jing.
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Under chef Spickelmier's command, Jing has one of the best-looking menus in the city — and that really is saying something. It's a board that makes you drool just reading it — all glitz and luxury, strange juxtapositions and super-nouvelle Chinese cuisine, all fresh takes on international classics. Ahi napoleons with mango pico de gallo and wonton crisps, pan-fried lobster dumplings, sea bass glazed in miso, Chinese fish and chips with sesame fries, herb-battered fish with a sriracha tartar sauce. Unfortunately, though, all the good looks and smart ideas in the world don't matter a damn when the staff on the floor seems bewildered and annoyed by the simplest requests and the guys in the kitchen can't execute moves that are basically cooking school 101 — problems I've had with Jing since pretty much its third month in business.
Stopping in for a quick dinner last week, I was faced with a server who seemed to have no idea what was on the menu of the restaurant that employed her, a lovely hostess completely incapable of running the cash register, and a line crew flummoxed by the simplest interactions between meat, pans and fire. Lobster dumplings? A great idea on paper — and probably a big seller, too. But though mine were very pretty on the outside (little triangles, fat with lobster meat and beautifully seared), they tasted powerfully fishy and weren't cooked through; the chunks of lobster were raw in the middle. Rock shrimp tempura? Another great idea, and nicely done on the plate — except for the lukewarm chile aioli that tasted of sour mayonnaise. And the chicken lo mein that I'd liked a lot when I'd eaten at Jing shortly after it opened in late 2007 was just dull, barely a shadow of the original plate.
"Pretty on the outside" actually describes both Jing's food and its physical appearance. It's a place that looks much better than it is right now. But if its staff could gain a little depth and a little diligence, it might rise to become the good restaurant that I'm sure exists somewhere inside all that appealing detail.
