Rachael Golden/The Gazette Eye-appeal is as important as taste as mango fish (left) and mushroom chicken demonstrate at the Peking Eastern House Restaurant in Gaithersburg.

617 South Frederick Ave., Gaithersburg

301-963-1426, 301-963-1429

Hours: Sunday-Thursday 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Friday-Saturday 11:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m.

Entrée prices: $6.95-$14.95

Credit cards: MC, V

Accessible

Something old, something new. For many years, Peking Eastern House was a regional Chinese bastion on Frederick Road. After a hiatus, it has re-emerged with a new, award-winning chef and a few other changes.

Once located just south of Shady Grove Road in Rockville, it is now just north of it, in Gaithersburg. (Those who know the territory will recognize it as the former Bare Bones site.) Once halal, it now serves pork dishes on its expanded menu.

Peking Eastern House may be the only restaurant to boast a full-sized tree trunk in the middle of the dining room and a collection of contemporary Asian art on its walls. Two rooms, each seating about 10, offer a private retreat. A small stage stands ready to host entertainment.

The wide-ranging menu, in Chinese and English, represents the breadth of China's provinces. In addition to familiar fare, more authentic Chinese selections (which have their own listings) draw those looking for a taste of home. Shanghai specialties, like buns, green onion or sesame pancakes, dumplings and noodles, occupy a prominent place. Lamb, a northern favorite, is well represented with nearly a dozen dishes.

Chef Hong Bin Chu, a silver medal-winner in international competition, is known for the dishes of his native Shanghai and for South Asian, especially Singapore-style, food. Among these South Asian specials are Tai (the menu spelling) curries tempered with coconut milk, lobsters in sweet coconut sauce, Tai rice noodle, Malaysia fried rice and Tai seafood rice hot pot.

Two cold appetizers from the Chinese special menu get us off to a good start. Chicken Shanghai style is simplicity itself, white meat marinated in rice wine and ginger. Five-flavored beef, sliced paper-thin, is permeated with the intoxicating mix of Szechuan peppercorn, star anise, cinnamon, cloves and fennel.

We order the sesame pancake even though it may take 20 to 30 minutes to prepare at this early dinner hour. The pancake arrives sooner than that, atop a metal pedestal like a pizza. Golden brown, multi-layered and an inch-high, this bread is a good foil for the dishes.

We are not the only ones to think so. A glance around the room reveals a growing number of pancakes turning up on tables. Aficionados are enjoying them with Easter pots. Those are popular communal hot pots featuring beef, lamb or a combination in a broth with other ingredients. Our server also acknowledges the sliced fish with wine sauce and steak with black pepper sauce are customer favorites. All are from the Chinese special menu.

Why the wine-sauced fish filet is a favorite becomes apparent as soon as we taste it. The slightly tart wine sauce is a refreshing change from the usual ones.

Another chef's suggestion from the Chinese special listings comes to the table sizzling as advertised. The seafood on a hot plate is a dazzling and delicious array of shrimp, scallop, squid, vegetables and wedges of fried tofu in a white sauce.

Chicken curry hot pot Tai style, from the page appended to the printed menu, is a vibrant, flavorful presentation.

Our five selections from the Chinese special menu and one from the Southeast Asian menu are all winners. Both categories would reward further exploration. If the zesty and plentiful shredded pork with hot garlic sauce is any indication, the regular menu selections can hold their own, too.

As entrées mount, we realize our eyes are bigger than our stomachs. Happily, these bountiful servings will provide a repeat performance at home.

Next week marks the start of The Year of the Rooster. If you take notice of the Chinese zodiac printed on many placemats, you learn that Roosters (born in 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981 et cetera) are pioneers in spirit, devoted to work and the quest for knowledge. It's not all rosy; roosters are also selfish and eccentric. The Chinese lunar New Year is a time for families and friends to celebrate together, enjoying symbolically lucky foods. Peking Eastern House offers a combination family New Year dinner (appetizers, soup, eight main dishes and dessert) serving 12 to 14 people, for $188. If you are adventurous, you don't even have to be Chinese.