Well-wishers beware: friends of the new Amazing 66 restaurant on Mott Street have set quite a standard for beneficence. From the hip-high clusters of gift baskets and flower arrangements so plentiful that they spill out of the dining room and down the stairs, decorating the entire width of the sidewalk in front of the shop, to the dozens upon dozens of orchids and ribbons festooning the entrance: we got the opening night message loud and clear–plenty of people want to see this restaurant succeed. And while hundreds of people appear to have sent gifts, we were surprised to find Amazing 66’s dining room still more than half empty on its official grand opening night. Nevertheless, we were greeted with big smiles by the manager and told, “Welcome! It’s our first official night. Sorry about the flowers, but we have lots of friends.” Clearly. She then led us to a table and gave us two menus, explaining that the restaurant’s focus is on Cantonese cooking, but with inventive twists. Fittingly, she then returned to the front desk to sign for yet another incoming bouquet.

As we scoured both menus– one for specials, one for permanent offerings– we noticed right away that several appealing dishes we saw on our way in were not listed. Chinese restaurants often get a bad rap for menu apartheid: Chinese customers get one menu, while non-Chinese patrons are offered another, usually less spicy and less adventurous, version. However, we’ve been told by chefs at some of these establishments that often, it isn’t so much that there is a second menu, as that the kitchen staff is willing to cook off-menu items for patrons who know what they want. And when we asked one of our five waiters for the evening (they kept swapping off, course by course, dish by dish) about the particularly appetizing baby bok choi we spotted, he announced, “It’s not on the menu. But we’ll make it if you want it. It’s delicious.” So we took him up on the offer, all the while thinking how strange it was that a newly-opened restaurant already had diners cobbling together their own meals off-menu. Regardless, he wasn’t wrong about the baby bok choi ($9.50). It was excellent, and quite easily the best thing we ate at Amazing 66. Each of the matchbook-sized heads of bok choi were brilliant green and tender at the tip, while still just a bit crunchy at the base. The sauce was very simple: just minced garlic, soy, and a little vinegar, but it was the ideal accompaniment to the fresh greenness of the little cabbages. This should be added to the menu, STAT.

Our other appetizer, the stuffed conch ($5.50) was listed in the chef’s special menu that night. Our (new) waiter described it to us as chopped conch meat baked with oil inside the conch shell. And while this wasn’t a misleading précis of the dish, we didn’t expect that it was an actual list of every single one of the ingredients, save one: smoked pork. The result was a messy, chewy stew of sorts–as the shell is baked in a very hot oven, the juices from the conch meat filter down through a layer of smoked pork and pool in the bowl of the conch chamber. As much as I adore pure, fresh seafood that is cooked with as little adulteration as possible, this dish lacked depth of flavor and complexity. It wasn’t much more than a rubbery and bland chowder. I kept looking longingly at the sprig of parsley laid atop the shell as garnish and thinking that the whole dish might have been saved, had the chef just chopped up a bit of it and mixed it into the conch meat. But it certainly was beautiful, even despite the fact that it was served in a disposable aluminum baking cup.

HungryMan opted to go off-menu once again with his choice of the Fried Shrimp with Chili and Spiced Salt ($13.95). There is a close cousin of this dish on the permanent menu (substituting squid for shrimp), but when we saw a nearby party noshing on fat, juicy prawns, we knew we had to give them a try. What arrived at the table was a very hot, very ample serving of large, golden shrimp– so far, so good. But someone must have tipped off the kitchen that we weren’t Chinese, because there were no more than six or seven tiny slices of green chili on the entire platter. Just to be sure, we stole a glance at our neighbor’s dish and saw that their shrimps were liberally sprinkled with the hot stuff, and unfortunately, without plenty of chili slices, this dish falls flat. Yes, the spiced salt is lovely, but without the high-note heat from the green chilis, this dish isn’t radically different from what you might find on the menu at your local Popeye’s.

Despite our disappointment, HungryMan and I both held out great hopes for one of the permanent menu’s more creative-sounding offerings: the Honey and Peach with Fish Cubes ($16.50). Reassured by yet another new waiter that the ‘fish cubes’ in question were really just large chunks of boneless striped bass meat, we decided to order it; after all, we wanted to see some of that innovative cooking that the manager had mentioned as we were seated. Visually, the dish was a great success, with pieces of red and green pepper, quartered onions, and wok-seared peapods. But the peaches… oh the peaches. Our suspicions began the very instant we spotted their garish yellow hemispheres on the platter. Could they be? Then we tasted the tell-tale metallic sweetness of kindergarten fruit cocktail and confirmed our worst fears: these were, we believe, canned cling peaches. Yet the dish itself was still remarkably pretty good– the fish/fruit combination worked to bring out a meatiness in the bass that is otherwise hard to taste. The textures of the dish also were well-considered, moving from the snap and crunch of the peppers to the firm fleshiness of the fish (and even to the soft pulpiness of the peaches). I couldn’t help but imagine how much better, how much more aromatic and zesty the dish would have been, had it been prepared with fresh peaches– even woefully out-of-season ones. This, I thought, is what possiblilty tastes like.

With so much goodwill behind Amazing 66, it would be unfortunate to see all of its potential go unrealized. As it is now, it is a very decent Cantonese restaurant in the middle of a neighborhood where it will need to do better to really succeed. And all the signs are there that it can do this, from the willingness to take chances with flavor combinations, to an eagerness to showcase ingredients like pickled cabbage, scrambled egg, and pork intestine on its permanent menu. All the stars seem aligned to allow Amazing 66 to live up to its name, and it really would be a shame to see all those flower arrangements go to waste over slipshod service and a few ill-advised canned peaches.

Amazing 66 Restaurant, 66 Mott Street, 212-334-0099