This is a late entry.
Came here with friends for late dinner. Arrived at 10:20pm ish. Luckily, my friends know the owner really well and they prepared our food since kitchen closed at 10pm.
Ambience: casual, plenty of room, the bar comes with 2 big screen tv for karaoke. There were plenty of patrons trying their best to show their talent. Props to everyone who sang. My friends asked me man up and pick up the mic. I told them that if I start singing, the patrons would leave. I don't want to be responsible for the restaurant to lose money!!!
Service: when the owner and the head chef dine with you, service is top notch. The owner kept serving us his most expensive bottle of liquor. It's was a waste on me since I'm a "weak sauce" and can't handle liquor. None the less, it was very generous on the owner to provide free drinks.
Foods: a mixed bag:
The chef special: lightly sauté beef with onion, tomato,
Cucumber, garlic, and green onion. We all agreed that this was not a successful dish. The beef was cut too thick for stir fried; it was cheewy. It wasn't seasoned well, and it was too sour.
The sashimi sample: nothing special since it was pre-order from some distributor; they slide it and serve. Not a lot of work or creativity in this dish.
Roast duck: average, the seasoning tasted like Chicago streak seasoning. The duck was really tender, I was really surprised how tender it remained after 40 minutes of sitting on the table. *****my opinion-- if you want a good roast duck, go to a Chinese person--- around the twin cities, it's "the house of wu" in Burnsville. Go check it out people!!!!
The deep fried salmon head: this is a solid great dish. Not sure what all of the seasonings that were marinated in, but it was done gracefully. It wasn't overwhelming where you can't taste the salmon. The skin was extra crispy, yet the meat was moist and tender. The head chef and I was sharing cooking technique and We discussed sous vie cooking method. I didn't asked how he cooked the fish head, but I wouldn't be surprised if he sous vie it first, then deep fried it second. The fish eyes was amazing!!!
It came with a ponzu dipping sauce, I don't think you need it.
The papaya salad: I've made and eaten plenty of Asian papaya salad on various continents. Hand down, this is one of the top 4. My friend told me that it's only good if the owner's dad or mother makes it, if anyone else (including the head chef) prepare the papaya salad here, it won't be as good. Luckily, my friend requested the owner's mother to make it for us. I'm so glad that she did it. The texture, spicy ness, sweet, sour, salt from the permeated crab/fish paste, garlic, and herbs were just excellent. It was good enough that I had to order one to go for my mother to try. She came to the same conclusion: where did you buy this at, it's delicious. It's a high mark coming from my mother!!!!
Not a bad experience despite hits and misses; but that's a part of life.
Grab your friends, stop by hungry and be ready for a Karaoke Battle!!!! read more