At Butterfly, a few friends and I ordered an inordinately large feast: mini pork buns, scallion pancakes, pork dumplings, chicken fried rice, beef & broccoli, sliced pork with hot chili oil and ma po dofu. The first items were basic American-Chinese mainstays, but the last two were more interesting. This is one of the best parts of Butterfly — it has a special side menu with Szechuan and Gourmet specialties that you can’t get anywhere else in the Valley. Since I was in a rush throughout the meal, I didn’t peruse the menu fully, but what I saw was tantalizing enough to make another visit soon. The rice and the beef were super good, but why make the trek all the way down Route 9 when you can get these things at home?
While the mainstays were certainly good, the specialties will really attract you to Butterfly. The sliced pork with hot chili oil came in a giant soup dish — a mix of wide noodles, boiled pork and vegetables in a spicy chili broth — and was enough for five people. The waiters laughed at us several times and asked if we’d had the dish before — we were obvious noobs. It was definitely an interesting experience. If you’ve had food with chili before, you will probably know what to expect and will find the dish delicious. If not, you might require several glasses of water to get through the meal, as my friend did. The ma po dofu, which is basically a stew of tofu, beans and ground pork in a hot chili sauce, was amazing, and the spiciness numbed your tongue in the most delicious way.
Unfortunately, Butterfly failed at some of the most basic recipes. The dumplings, pancakes and buns were mediocre, bordering on bad. Fried dough is hard to mess up, but those scallion pancakes were much too chewy and doughy. The dumplings and buns had no flavor whatsoever, and the texture was unpleasant and gummy (the worst!). We left most of these dishes unfinished.
Butterfly, like Panda East, also offers Sushi and Japanese food, though we didn’t try any of it. They also have an entire menu devoted to Vegetarian food, which seems to of the regular Chinese menu with the word Vegetarian in front of each item. Vegetarian Ginger Beef? Vegetarian Moo Shu Pork? If you’re wondering how they pull it off, Butterfly’s website explains how they make their own “meat”:
Q: What is in Vegetarian Chicken and Vegetarian Beef?
A: Our Vegetarian Chicken and Beef consists of Chinese mushroom, soybean, vegetables, and seaweed.
Butterfly is an ideal place for large groups, with the ability to please the palates of people who are looking for a wide variety of entrees. The décor revolves a bit too much around plastic for my taste, definitely not the coziest. We were seated in the corner of a mostly empty, enormous room, which also included a large bar tucked away in the darkness — a somewhat unsettling place to eat. The prices are closer to Amherst Chinese than to the less expensive Panda East, so the restaurant might not be college-budget friendly for an everyday Chinese meal.
The best part, though? It delivers for free (meaning no ridiculously high Delivery Express charge). You have to order a minimum of $20.00 if you’re outside of Hadley, so get some friends together and order a banquet. You’ll save yourself the long journey down Route 9.