Patrick P.
Yelp
I took advantage of a Grubhub "perk" that offered $10 off if you ordered more than $30 worth of food. Since I live in a "very difficult to locate specific buildings" apartment community, I chose to go take a ride and pick up my meal. It was about a 10 minute drive from where I live, and having moved here recently it was nice to see other parts of the area that I have not yet been to.
I ordered some items that I normally wouldn't order, to try them- as well as some classic Chinese dishes that I enjoy to make sure I was going to be happy. This is a very unique concept, one that mashes up what is considered mainstream Chinese here in the US with a SE Asian flair and spice.
Starters:
1) Chicken Samosas- they gave me an extra one so bonus points there. These aren't your typical deep fried crunchy cone shaped samosas, I think this was more phyllo dough triangles wrapped with cilantro, chicken, and other spices. My order came with several sides of different sauces- I'm sure one of them was for this dish because it was a little dry. Still, quite tasty.
2) Cheese Corn bites- There is 8 to an order, and these are like the shape of a gumball. They were fried well done, so crunchy on the outside and creamy and cheesy on the inside. I wish they were larger, so the textural juxtaposition (Bonus big word used here...) would be more apparent. But these are delicious. Also, unsure if any sauce was to be used with this but it's pretty good on its own.
3) Sweet Corn and Chicken Soup. I got the 24 oz, it came in a paper container with a plastic lid which was actually surprising. I like the idea of recyclable packaging, and there was no leakage or spillage. The soup was good, salty and got its thickness from most likely a cornstarch slurry. Plenty in the 24 oz size, so I had leftovers.
4) Crispy Chili baby corn- this was something that I never would have expected to order, but I went for it and it was a healthy portion for sure. Every dish came with spice instructions. I generally think I can handle spice (this is a more recent development with my palette lately) but medium spicy is pretty HOT. I ate a few of these (they are bite sized pieces, not full baby corn like in the movie "what about Bob" with Bill Murray) and I was needing some spice relief quickly. I drank a ton of water, which was more indicative of the spice vs the salt level (I think). Plenty large enough to share with more than one person.
5) Dry Chicken Bullet- I thought this would basically be like popcorn chicken, and it was pretty much the same type of look as the item above (Baby corn). The only way to tell the difference is to pop one in your pie hole. Also, the spice level at Medium Spicy was HOT...I saved most of this dish also, as it's just me and I didn't want to overindulge. My eyes were bigger than my stomach over the weekend apparently.
6) Curry Fried Rice- I went with beef as my protein and it resulted in a $1 upcharge, but since my final dish I chose chicken because I wanted to mix it up a bit. This is a large portion, and these are not small chunks of beef in the dish. Larger pieces that many people would choose to cut further before eating because they are not bite sized. This is a robust dish- also chose Medium Spicy but expected this to be hot and it was perfect. Over time, I have become more adventurous when it comes to curry as I want to understand the different types and styles from country to country- this rice was pretty dry, it wasn't like using your standard Asian or jasmine type stickier rice. Just a point of reference.
7) Garlic Fried Noodles: these noodles I chose chicken to mix it up. Also a very healthy portion and resulted in a TON of leftovers. The noodles are very thin, almost like you would expect with a Singapore Rice noodle type dish. This was also pretty hot at medium spicy, so I will be sure to play around with my levels if I order another time here. Tasty dish, but on the dry side as well.
The restaurant wasn't busy as they don't offer dining in at this time. Looked very clean, and they were ready with my food within minutes of my arrival. I would say that not knowing what kind of sauce goes where was a little confusing, but that's not a deal breaker for me. Overall, the spiciness of the food may drive some folks away- but I would start with mild or just above mild and see how that treats you before you go all gangster with Medium Spicy and burn your taste buds out.
If you like Spicy- this is a place for you. Unique and different flavors, I like their concept and apparently I'm not the only one since they have 4 locations. My fridge is FULL of leftovers, so I expect I'll either be eating this for the next week or so- or I'll just give it my best shot and then move on.
Apologies for not having any photos for this review. When I picked it up, it took me about 20 minutes to get home (Made a quick stop at a gas station) and then by the time I got home some was soggy.
WORTH TRYING! USE THE DISCOUNT-