Ben A.
Yelp
In our years taking cross-country roadtrips through our great country, one of the more profound and repeated giggles is seeing how different states handle Chinese food. Hailing from Southern California, and living and working in a predominantly Asian-American community for the last 25 years, I am indeed spoiled rotten when it comes to Chinese cuisine. With full acknowledgement that I can leave my driveway and within 30 minutes, enjoy a meal that is Anhui, Szechuan, Cantonese, Jiangsu, Fujian, Hunan, Shandong, or Zhejiang... we always apply the appropriate level of expectations when looking for a Chinese place in another part of the country.
As turn leads to turn, we found ourselves in Omaha for a few nights this summer, visiting my brother and his family who moved out there a couple of years ago. Someone suggested Chinese food as a great way to order something we could all eat at the house, and not have to go out... and my brother recommended Three Happiness. Always game to try something new, we looked them up on Yelp, found their menu, and phoned in an order for pick up.
About 30 minutes later, we arrived to the small strip-mall restaurant... more of a storefront with a to-go counter, and maybe a couple of tables inside. With COVID, it's hard to tell sometimes if these places were sit-down spots, or what... but seeing that it is very close to the University, I assumed they had just opted to shut down their indoor seating.
Overall, the food was pretty good. What we ordered:
1. Sweet and sour chicken
2. Broccoli Beef
3. Peanut butter chicken
4. Kung Pao Chicken
5. Veggie Fried Rice
6. Triple Delight
7. Tofu Lo Mein
8. Hot and Sour Soup
9. White rice
Wife wanted the curry dish, but I was told no curry. This did not help me to (wait for it) curry favor with my bride...
Almost every dish was the color red. I don't know what this means, but all of it-- including the Broccoli Beef-- was red. Not sure why.
Pro-tip: Every dish comes with a helping of fried rice.... something I wish they had told us BEFORE we ordered fried rice and white rice. More rice that we knew what to do with.
Like I said, everything was pretty good, although to be honest, there was not a lot of difference between the dishes-- all were sort of drowned in reddish sauce, with a mix of veggies and meats. And did I mention a big side of rice in each and every styrofoam clamshell?
Hot and Sour soup is my favorite, and theirs had good flavor-- not a lot of "stuff" in it though. Maybe they poured it off the top instead of scooped it off the bottom, but there was very little egg, only a few pieces of tofu, and really no wood ear fungus, bamboo, pork, or much of anything with a crunch or chew.
Fast food Chinese place in the heart of the country next to a college. C'mon, baby, this ain't fine dining. But it was hot, stuck to our collective ribs, and everyone had more than enough to eat for very reasonable prices. Next time, we're going to ask for chopsticks, too, because there weren't any in the bag.
But yes... next time indeed. See you in a year, Three Happiness. 生意興隆!!!