Website: wangskitchenusa.com/
Cuisine type: Chinese Indian fusion
Atmosphere: cafe style seating, open dining room
Meal: dinner
Overall score: 7.5
Nina
We stumbled on this place on its grand opening day - it’s a medium sized restaurant with cafe style seating and glass walls on three sides which identifies itself as a Chinese Indian fusion. There wasn’t a big crowd as one might expect on an opening day, even though they were offering an amazing deal - 50% off the entire bill today and tomorrow to launch their new place. The down side was that with this deal they didn’t offer carryout for these two days, but we were intrigued enough to change plans and eat at the restaurant. The menu seemed more Chinese than Indian, but there were a few dishes that seemed to represent the fusion aspect nicely.
The service still needed some kinks ironed out, as one might expect from a brand new place with new staff. The waiters were a little awkward, there was a guy walking between the tables collecting dishes on a rolling cart that was a bit of an eye sore and also making somewhat arbitrary decisions on what to take and what to leave (he took away my tea cup even though I was still drinking from it, but left the dirty bowls on our table for a little while even though we were done).
My first course was a Lung Fung soup - I ordered a little bowl which was definitely plentiful. It was a garlic creamy soup with mushrooms (which seemed like they might have come from a can, but were still tasty), chicken and egg whites, and garnished with parsley and scallions. The flavor was quite a bit richer than any egg drop soup I’ve had before, and the creamy texture contrasted nicely with the crispy scallions and tender mushrooms.
Even though it took quite a while to get the soup (almost half an hour), my entree came 5 or 10 minutes later, so I had both on the table until I was able to finish the soup. I ordered the Manchurian lamb, which seems to be one of the most representative Chinese Indian fusion flavor profiles. The dish, as most others, came with two options - dry or gravy. It wasn’t gravy in the traditional American sense, but rather a thick sauce that came with the meat as opposed to a dry rub. My dry flavored lamb was perfectly cooked and had a warm spiciness that was just hot enough to be fun, but milk enough to not be overwhelming. The Hakka noodles that we shared on the side were a noodle version of fried rice - with vegetables and bean sprouts, and a lightly oily sauce that was just enough to flavor the dish wihout making it too heavy.
The service still needed some kinks ironed out, as one might expect from a brand new place with new staff. The waiters were a little awkward, there was a guy walking between the tables collecting dishes on a rolling cart that was a bit of an eye sore and also making somewhat arbitrary decisions on what to take and what to leave (he took away my tea cup even though I was still drinking from it, but left the dirty bowls on our table for a little while even though we were done).
My first course was a Lung Fung soup - I ordered a little bowl which was definitely plentiful. It was a garlic creamy soup with mushrooms (which seemed like they might have come from a can, but were still tasty), chicken and egg whites, and garnished with parsley and scallions. The flavor was quite a bit richer than any egg drop soup I’ve had before, and the creamy texture contrasted nicely with the crispy scallions and tender mushrooms.
Even though it took quite a while to get the soup (almost half an hour), my entree came 5 or 10 minutes later, so I had both on the table until I was able to finish the soup. I ordered the Manchurian lamb, which seems to be one of the most representative Chinese Indian fusion flavor profiles. The dish, as most others, came with two options - dry or gravy. It wasn’t gravy in the traditional American sense, but rather a thick sauce that came with the meat as opposed to a dry rub. My dry flavored lamb was perfectly cooked and had a warm spiciness that was just hot enough to be fun, but milk enough to not be overwhelming. The Hakka noodles that we shared on the side were a noodle version of fried rice - with vegetables and bean sprouts, and a lightly oily sauce that was just enough to flavor the dish wihout making it too heavy.
Food 8
Drinks 7
Atmosphere 7
Service 6
Value 8
Drinks 7
Atmosphere 7
Service 6
Value 8
Ben
We were looking to grab a meal by a plaza near our place with primarily Chinese markets / restaurants, and stumbled on this place and saw it happened to be their grand opening. A Chinese / Indian fusion restaurant with locations around the world, this is their first restaurant in the in the U.S. They wouldn’t let us take food to go, since they had a 50% off special for their opening so we stayed anyway. Aside from the lack of an option for takeout, there were quite a few other growing pains (which I do find completely forgivable as it is their first night in operation, but I will list anyway). The service was a little awkward between the waiter and hostess to seat us, and they split a double table as we sat down, despite several empty tables. We ordered two soups, a Manchow chicken (which lacked the fried noodles in the description), and an egg-white chicken soup. We did wait about 30 minutes before the soup was out after we ordered. They were both very intricately flavored, served with fresh herbs and strong flavors (though with what we presumed were canned mushrooms) , definitely a full step above most soups I ever have at Chinese restaurants.
After such a long wait for the soups, the entrees were brought out only a couple of minutes later, before we were halfway through the soup, crowding the table. We ordered a manchurian lamb (dry, with the option of gravy or no gravy.. they even said they can’t serve the gravy on the side.. weird) and a blackbean gravy spicy prawn dish. They were both very generous portions and I found them to be delicious and both the lamb and prawns were perfectly cooked. We also had a good noodle dish that was randomly brought a couple minutes later. While the whole time we were chuckling at the little awkwardnesses, I have to say they had someone who knew what they were doing in the kitchen, amongst the chaos the food surprised me that it was really spot-on. They serve a fresh oolong tea with the meal, and the drink menu is pretty limited, with tea/coffee, salt lassi, sweet lassi, mango lassi, milk, and soda. The restaurant is one large open room with several tables, which gives it a little bit of an empty feel despite having a good amount of customers. The decoration is a little in-progress, with oriental panel walls along the entrance, and the rest of the restaurant sparsely decorated. The value is pretty good (even without the 50% discount), with most entrees around $10. Overall I think it is a pretty quality place, especially once they iron out a few of the small issues, and think based on the food itself, they have a chance to establish themselves among an area so densely populated with restaurants.
After such a long wait for the soups, the entrees were brought out only a couple of minutes later, before we were halfway through the soup, crowding the table. We ordered a manchurian lamb (dry, with the option of gravy or no gravy.. they even said they can’t serve the gravy on the side.. weird) and a blackbean gravy spicy prawn dish. They were both very generous portions and I found them to be delicious and both the lamb and prawns were perfectly cooked. We also had a good noodle dish that was randomly brought a couple minutes later. While the whole time we were chuckling at the little awkwardnesses, I have to say they had someone who knew what they were doing in the kitchen, amongst the chaos the food surprised me that it was really spot-on. They serve a fresh oolong tea with the meal, and the drink menu is pretty limited, with tea/coffee, salt lassi, sweet lassi, mango lassi, milk, and soda. The restaurant is one large open room with several tables, which gives it a little bit of an empty feel despite having a good amount of customers. The decoration is a little in-progress, with oriental panel walls along the entrance, and the rest of the restaurant sparsely decorated. The value is pretty good (even without the 50% discount), with most entrees around $10. Overall I think it is a pretty quality place, especially once they iron out a few of the small issues, and think based on the food itself, they have a chance to establish themselves among an area so densely populated with restaurants.
Food 9
Drinks 6
Atmosphere 7
Service 7
Value 8
Drinks 6
Atmosphere 7
Service 7
Value 8
1 comment:
Sounds delicious, thanks for the review and pictures. My Teacher was there for the grand opening and loved it so much, he went back with his family the next day! I can't wait to taste and review as well. Peace be upon you.
Post a Comment