So after shedding a tear watching old Meg Ryan Romantic comedies, I suddenly got a craving for some Chinese food. I am a huge foodie, but sometimes ya just gotta stuff your face with a greasy eggroll. With that being said, there is nothing absolutely wrong with some quick chinese takeout- but oh, so many options! I've probably tried nearly every delivery place in the area (to disappointment), but so many new ones keep popping up.
After going thru the 917 menus stashed in that one drawer next to the stove, I decided on this place, solely because in the last 7-8 days, I have had about 5 menu's from this place nicely tucked under my front door. I was like "Hey, that's persistence!" So my order: Combination Lo Mein, Singapore Mei Fun, Wonton soup, Shrimp with Lobster sauce, and pork fried rice. Yes, it was all for me. I had recently gotten out of a relationship, feeling depressed and starved, I decided to binge and eat myself silly out of cardboard white boxes with that cute lil' red china house emblazoned on each box.
The first positive was that when I called in, the person was actually pleasant and spoke GOOD ENGLISH!! How rare this is! Correct me if I am wrong, but how many times have you ordered chinese carryout and some dude who speaks like he has raisinettes in his mouth take your order and is RUSHING you! In 2 minutes u are off the phone, and you are left sitting naked in your living room with the phone on your hand thinking to yourself "I sure hope he got that order right..." Sometimes I feel like yelling "I am your customer you buffoon!! There are NO subtitles on the phone so why don't you ease up, and stop rushing me!! " But this place did the unthinkable! They REPEATED my order when I was done! It was a breakthru!! I felt like running naked in the streets!
Now the food: EXCEPTIONAL! Let me first say that yes, I am rating a tiny little dime-a-dozen chinese food delivery place so my reveiw is based solely on it's 1000's of competitors and not the Michelin star restaurant quality. But I do look for attention to detail- are the veggies fresh and cut nicely? Is the meat and seafood cooked properly? Is there flavor but not from 5 gallons of soy sauce?
The were tons of veggies in the lo-mein and Singapore dish, and were extremely fresh tasting and had a great crunch to them. The crunch is so important for these dishes! It makes a world of difference. The shrimp was cooked perfectly-not rubbery and overcooked like most places, and the shrimp looked and tasted like fresh shrimp, and not those frozen little tiny baby shrimp that tastes like a garden hose. What surprised me was that the Singapore Noodles had beef, chicken, pork and shrimp which was a pleasant surprise as most places just do chicken or shrimp or pork or a combo of 2, but never all 4. The lo-mein was as tasty and perfect as you would want with mounds of vegetables and meat/shrimp.
The fried rice was also very good, and this is why. It is not the usual "soy sauced brown" fried rice, but had a lighter color that is light yellow. For all you true foodies, if you have ever had Young Chow Fried Rice (the BEST chinese fried rice), then you know of this color. I cannot stand overly brown salty soyed sauced lo mein or fried rice and this place did not offend. If I want it more salty or "brown" I will add my own soy sauce. Otherwise, I prefer this type of fried rice- less oil and less soy. These 2 dishes, the lo-mein and fried rice are staple dishes that ANY delivery place should do well, yet so many fail, either being too greasy or too salty with little veggies or meat-yaw know what I mean. The Shrimp with lobster sauce was very good with huge shrimp that again were NOT overcooked, and the wonton soup and eggroll were what u would expect anywhere-nothing soecial about those, but that's understandable. Lastly, the portions are huge-every carton was overstuffed to the maxed, and the Singapore was in those larger black plastic rectangular boxes that I swear would feed 3-4 people easily. Best of all, the true test is that it all microwaved superbly the next day and tasted just as good if not better.
Again, I don't expect much from places like these. Let's face it, when you are drunk, depressed, or just plain binging, and you spend $25 on a huge bag of chinese food, all you really are expecting is something to tame your urge and not put you on the toilet for hours as your butt throws up. So when I get a chinese food kick, all I want is something passable, but what I got from this place far exceeded my expectations. The prices are way cheaper than most places-my entire order was $25 and I got a free pint of pork fried rice for spending $25, portions are huge, andd most importantly, the dishes are executed extremely well and very, very good. Execution. What more do u need? Well, maybe a a 12 pack & a Jessica Alba film, but this will suffice. I did not rate this a 5 because I believe perfection is a journey : ) read more
