I was happily surprised with this tiny, fast- Chinese-food take out place. They have always been polite and accommodating, always have gotten the order correct, and by now know me when I call. The menu looks identical to Hong Kong Kitchen up Dickory, a couple of miles, but I've never really liked the blandness of the dishes I had at HKK. The menu is the usual Americanized Chinese food, but it's better fast food than McDonalds.
At Red Apple, I've had:
Hot and Sour Soup
Subgum Wonton Soup
Szechuan Tofu
Szechuan vegetables
Vegetable Mei Fun
Mushroom Egg Foo Young
Mapo Tofu
Sauteed Mixed Vegetable dinner combination plate (comes w fried rice & eggroll)
Mussaman curry
Green curry
They will substitute brown rice for white if you ask. (Megan now remembers I like brown rice if I forget to ask, and even called me back to verify).
I've ordered the hot and sour soup each time I've gone-- it's not the most gourmet, but it was very flavorful, wasn't over thickened like at other Chinese places in NOLA, and had a pleasant balance of hot and sour, and lots of ingredients ( bamboo shoots, tofu, water chestnut, mushrooms) which I enjoy. The Subgum Wonton soup ( Subgum are meat dumplings) was ok, but bland to me. In the plate dish the Subgum are fried. The soup had a lot of slices of pork and chicken in it as well as being packed with vegetables, in a standard broth and four large Subgum.
I really like the Szechuan stir fry, which they will make with tofu or just all vegetables, if you don't want meat. It's slightly sweet, a bit hot, and they will adjust the heat as you request, and the vegetables seem fresh and still slightly crunchy, ( not over cooked). They don't make it with Szechuan peppercorns which have a unique piney, flavor and tongue numbing sensation, but this is still tasty, though not what a real Szechuan cook would use. (They're from Fujian Province, north of Hong Kong and across from Taiwan.)
My other favorite is the Mei Fun which are very thin rice noodles, stir fried with your choice of meat(s), or tofu, and/or vegetables.
I've tried two of the curry dishes, Mussaman and Green. None of the curries are listed on the printed menu. They're on the board inside. Both were good, but a little bland for my taste.
After reading the other reviews, I checked out the cleanliness and it looked clean to me. It is small and there are 4 tables. I didn't know they deliver as another review mentioned, so that's a big plus for lazy evenings.
This isn't a gourmet or "authentic" Chinese restaurant, but it's clean, gives good service, good prices, large quantities ( I always get several meals from one dish) and is flavorful and healthy enough for me to keep going back. read more