This family-owned Asian cuisine restaurant began out of the love of a Cambodian lady and a Salvadorian gentleman. And this love is reflected in their delicious food and in their togetherness as a couple and as a family.
After being awarded the Triad Yelper of the Year 2024 Award at the Yelpies Award Ceremony last year, an event that honored the highest-performing Yelp Elites, I decided that it would be appropriate this year to go back to this restaurant and write a follow-up review, since my initial review was one of my reviews that contributed to me obtaining this highly esteemed Award.
Wok N Roll Kitchen as we know it today is located at 120 Campbell Avenue, a prime location in downtown Roanoke. It was conceived and founded in 2016 by Mario and Celi, who met online, fell in love, moved to Roanoke, married, and with their years of experience in the restaurant business, decided to establish this restaurant serving a mix of Asian cuisine with a home-cooked, family-style approach, aiming for warmth and flavor in their fresh, made-to-order dishes. The
Restaurant first opened in the Crafteria on Church Avenue, and then in 2020 moved to its current location.
I first learned of Wok N Roll Kitchen through a good friend of mine. I went to visit him one day and he had just arrived home with a takeout order from this restaurant and shared it with me while he talked about how much he loved this food. It seems like today and always, word of mouth has been and always will be the best form of advertising.
Today when I visited the restaurant, I realized that the person taking the orders and serving the food was the co-owner of this family-owned business, together with his wife. He had a wonderful personality and made you feel at home while he took your order and served your food. He talked highly of his wife and I could feel the chemistry between the two that had been the key to the success of this small business
I enjoyed the ambiance of the restaurant. It was very clean, with framed inspirational sayings on the wall, and many Assian items decorating the place, starting from the Lucky Cat to other very interesting items. I invite you to view my photographs and video clips.to get a better sense of the restaurant's decor.
To start with, I ordered a Mango Smoothie with Boba, remembering that this had been the place where I had Boba for the very first time. As appetizer I ordered the Pork Fried Dumplings and for the main course, the Combo Lo Mein with chicken, beef and shrimp. Everything was so fresh and tasty. I liked the quality of the meats and vegetables in their food. The beef was tender, the shrimp was plumpy and the chicken was very tasty. And those skinny noodles tasted so good. And the amount of food was amazingly plentiful. I was even able to take part of my food home. As I was eating, several customers came by to pickup their To Go orders that they had probably made over the phone. One of their customers wearing a Virginia Tech t-shirt, had such a large order I don't know how he was able to carry it all.
Another thing that was interesting was their Hours of Operation. Many of the restaurants around the area were closed on Mondays, I guess because it's considered the slowest day of the week for restaurants. Yet they were open. And they were closed on Sundays. Their reverence in God and love of family is reflected in the hours of operation of the restaurant.
In conclusion, I highly recommend this Asian family-owned restaurant to everyone in the area, whether they are locals or just visiting. It is one of those rare places that you feel good about inside that they exist. read more