Ocean China, Bartlesville, Okla,

During my recent family visit to Bartlesville, Okla., we only got out twice to eat at local restaurants. There's one new place in town, opened in the location of one place that moved to another address, but we never got around to going there. So, we went to places I've been before; not much has changed.

One evening, my mother and I went to Ocean China, a Chinese place across the street from the hospital. With an expansion into the adjacent space in their strip center building, the dining room has a calm but modern look now. Wall niches allow them to display some Chinese vases and art, improving their theme ambiance.

They offered a "family dinner" for two with soup, appetizers, and main dishes for a price cheaper than what I'm used to paying for just a main dish in D.C., so we go that, since it seemed like a great deal. My mother got the egg drop soup and I got the hot and sour soup.


Then, for appetizers, we each got plates with a little fried spring roll and a large crab rangoon.


For our main courses, we shared a platter of a rather mild but flavorful Hunan chicken and a platter of shrimp with vegetables. The shrimp was okay, but it seemed to me as though it was frozen shrimp. The dishes came with individual bowls of rice.



As is traditional in Oklahoma, with the check, they brought fortune cookies and wedges of fresh oranges.