We reserved a table (10 people). The banquet was to be from 7:00-10:00 or so with cocktails at 6:30. We arrived at 6:40. The tiny parking lot was overflowing. Inside, almost all of the tables were already full. The upstairs had 14 round tables of 10 packed fairly tightly together. Place settings were gold flatware and ivory chop sticks with a large lazy susan in the center. The first course, some sweets, were already on the table. These were interesting to good. I especially liked the coconut noodles and the individually-wrapped candy bars that reminded me of the Butter Fingers bars of my childhood. About 7:00, Chef Chu made his grand entrance a la Johnny Carson. He was dressed in a long black Chinese jacket with red dragons. He had a wireless mic so he could walk among the tables. His opening monologue was entertaining and enthusiastic, if a little hokey at times. He gave some background on the restaurant, the banquet, and the winery (Picchetti, www.picchetti.com) that was providing the wine. I forgot to bring home a menu so I will not be able to name all of the 10 courses and will probably get some of the details wrong. The first course was a plate of various cold appetisers, mostly vegetable, arranged in wedge plates in a circle. In the center, was a large bowl of brasied duck with a plum sauce. The duck was excellent, the vegetables were good and unusual. The next course was a soup. I think it was pumpkin, but it was definitely some type of squash, with the meat from a lobster claw. This was very good. Between each course, Chef Chu came back on for a performance . These consisted of a (very) small amount of information about the course, more about the restaurant, and even more about his personal adventures with Chefs without Borders . Don't get me wrong, now. I am all for charitable work and I don't mind being told about it at a banquet and even being nudged a little to contribute. But this was not billed as a charitable event and the repeated plugs were excessive. Even more annoying were the plugs for the restaurant - some of them kinda amateurish. They had 2-3 contests in which the winery rep would go through the croud asking us to guess things like How long have I been coming to Chef Chu's ? or When was the winery founded? . The prizes were (surprise...) a bottle of wine! We didn't know it at the time, but this was going to continue throughout the evening. It got more than a little tedious by the end. Some of the other dishes were (probably not in order): Half of a quail on a mini egg foo young. The quail was delicious as was the egg foo young (a little patty). Rack of lamb without the rack. This was possibly the best course. It came in a large bowl for the lazy susan. The meat was perfect and the sauce and veggies delicious. Stir fry veggies. This was billed as a lotus dish. It was very good and I am not usually fond of vegetables. Lobster. This was a half tail on a bed of very spicy sawdust. The seasoning was excellent. I usually like things very mild, but this was spicy and good. The wine and water helped put out the fire. Sweet and sour fish. This was served on a large plate with the fish head on end end, the tail on the other, and the sweet and sour meat in the middle. Several fo the ladies at the table were a bit squeemish about the fish head, but the dish was delicious. The last main course was a rice disk that I did not like at all. I forget what it had in it, but it had a bitter taste that I did not like. Most of the others also found it less appealing as most of that one was left. Dessert was a sweet tea with two sesamy-covered balls (I forget the name now) with a jam-like filling