Tommy Tong is back!
After a brief absence, Tommy has opened another fantastic restaurant concept in Mooresville. The new space is in the Mill One complex, just off Main St in the heart of downtown Mooresville. The ambience is casual and fun, and the restaurant is spacious with plenty of room. The mural-style art gives a funky, urban feel to the space which feels just right.
As you walk in, the host stand is in front, with tables to the left and behind. In addition to the tables, there are two other serving areas - a sushi bar mid-restaurant, and a Boba Bar to the right (plus there are plans to open a ice-cream window to the street!)
We started (and coincidentally, ended the meal) with a fantastic boba tea from the BoBar. They offer multiple flavors, in green, black and oolong teas, with many boba options, not just the traditional style. We enjoyed a peach fruit tea, half sweet, with popping strawberry boba. It was delicious, and a great way to start the meal.
Once seated, we dived into the appetizers - starting with the classic crab rangoons, and then Xiao long bao (soup dumplings) and a pocket sushi sampler. We also tucked into a very tasty sake flavored with apple as a light refreshment during the meal. The rangoons were great, crispy, tasty and perfect. The dumplings though, were the best I've had outside of Chinatown in Manhattan. We'll be coming back regularly just for these dumplings!
The Inari (pocket sushi) was so good and unusual for this area - a small "pocket" made from a tofu batter and filled with sushi rice, then salmon, tuna and yellowtail, each with a unique sauce. Each was delicious, but the yellowtail was my favorite.
We then had a sushi course - a Tommy classic, the Kaptain Krunch roll. It was wonderful, but as much as we live the rolls, the noodle bowls were that star of the show. I cant rave enough about the Wok Hei Noodle bowl, made with Cheung fun noodles. Again, not a common dish here in the Carolinas, this tasted straight out of Chinatown. Simple amazing! I can't recommend it enough. The noodle is a long flat one that is rolled up and stir-fried with a protein, sprouts, veggies and sauce. It carries the xhar of the wok beautifully. So good!
We also had the shoyu veggie bowl - great option for something lighter - and the braised beef bowl. The shoyu broth was savory and sweet, served with a thin noodle and a variety of vegetables - bok choy, carrots, green beans, zucchini. My wife loved it, and enjoyed the leftovers again for lunch the next day. :-). The beef bowl was delightful, with tender beef giving a deep favorite note to a ginger-scented broth, and a very good ramen-style noodle. It also made for great leftovers! As a kicker for the whole meal, we also had a small bowl of Tommy's classic curry surprise, extra spicy, and it was as good as ever!
We finished the meal by stopping at the BoBar again. We ordered a peach fruit tea again, this time with green tea. Part of what we loved was that you could taste the high-quality floral notes in the tea - this didn't taste like green tea concentrate from the big chain coffee bar. We also ordered the "special" Orange Creamsicle Boba and it was an unexpected delight. Orange tea, sweetened and perfectly blended with cream, with mango-flavored boba. It made off a surprisingly light and refreshing dessert as we walked around downtown Mooresville.
Tommy Tong is back. Go see him! read more