When I first moved to Connecticut, my mom was looking through the Connecticut magazine and found that the Butterfly restaurant was rated the number one Chinese restaurant in Middlesex County. My mom loves Chinese food, and she wanted my sister and me to try it.

Upon arrival, we were greeted at the front desk by Jennie, on of the restaurants owners. I remember how warm and kind she was to my sister and me, asking us how old we were. I replied by holding up my hand, to symbolize the number five. My sister stuck her hand inside her mouth, she was only one and a half at the time. We were seated by this huge fish tank, and I was hypnotized by it. To a five year old, a huge fish tank takes you to a whole other world, seeing all the bright colors of the fish was my entertainment.

I gazed around the room, taking my surroundings in. There were two rooms, divided by a small wall with the fish tank embedded in it, with two openings on either sides for doors. There were tables clustered in the middle, with booths lining the walls.

When our food came, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I liked beef and broccoli. As the years passed, I developed new favorites, such as Sesame Shrimp, Lo Mein, egg rolls, and mooshu pork. After our dinner, fried bananas dripping with honey would come out as a complimentary dessert. This soon became my favorite. Ken, our waiter, would give my sister and me virgin strawberry daiquiris as treats on special occasions, such as the last day of summer.

We loved Butterfly so much that we established a tradition of going there on our birthdays as well. We did not only fall in love with the food, but those who served it as well. We developed relationships with the staff there, such that on certain days they did not even have to take our order, they already knew what we wanted! Throughout the years, the food has only gotten better, and even though my preferences for types of food have changed, I still have the same favorites at Butterfly that I did when I was five.

I love Butterfly, but I have become spoiled by it. The service there was excellent! I never feel that any other Chinese food can even compare to that of Butterfly’s. If you want to experiment with a new Chinese restaurant, then I would highly recommend Butterfly. Fair warning though, once you have Butterfly’s food, you’ll never want any other Chinese food in Connecticut. It will be very hard to top. Butterfly is located in West Hartford on 831 Farmington avenue.