Dining in Dallas.com

Tasty Egg Roll (part 2)

Didn’t think we’d go back to Tasty Egg Roll so soon, but we were hungry and they served big portions. This time it was the guy owner who took our orders, and he didn’t offer us the student discount. Not that we’re expecting it mind you. We were just lucky the first time.

I ordered the curry chicken because I had an urge to try it. The curry was surprisingly mild and light in flavor. I’m used to curry being too strong and spicy. This curry was on the other end of the spectrum. I would’ve preferred something in between.

This string bean chicken was supposed to be asparagus chicken, but they ran out of asparagus so we had to substitute. Didn’t turn out too bad.

Again, portions were huge, and we had a bunch rice leftover. I hate to see food go to waste, so I made fried rice the next day. Leftover rice from takeouts actually makes awesome fried rice because they’re usually drier and not as sticky. Overnight storage in the fridge makes them even easier to work with when you make fried rice.

Tasty Egg Roll
710 W. Renner Road, Suite 216
Richardson, TX 75080
Phone: 214-575-6868

Tags: Tasty Egg Roll

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Tasty Egg Roll

You can be sure that you’ll get your money’s worth at Tasty Egg Roll. We ordered a pineapple chicken fried rice ($6.75) and a beef and chicken lo mein ($6.40). Little did we know that we’d be getting over 5 lbs worth of food.

The chicken fried rice wasn’t particularly special, but there was a lot of it. Cooking the pineapple brings out its sweetness.

The beef and chicken lo mein had generous amounts meat, vegetable, and noodle. The beef was unusually tender (probably a long soak in corn starch water), and each noodle strand was infused with flavor. The downside was that it was too oily.

Obviously egg rolls are their specialty, and luckily our entrees came with one each.

The owner was pretty nice. She thought we were current UTD students. We told her we were not, but she gave us the 10% student discount anyway.

Tasty Egg Roll
710 W. Renner Road, Suite 216
Richardson, TX 75080
Phone: 214-575-6868

Tags: Tasty Egg Roll, UTD student discount

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Plano Chinese B.B.Q.

First Impressions are always important. Either Plano Chinese B.B.Q. is oblivious of this concept, or they’re just ignorant. Whatever the case might be, they probably cost themselves many future clients, including me.

The very first thing I noticed when I walked in was that the restaurant was packed, but nearly half of them were waiting for… for what? For service. Turns out Plano Chinese B.B.Q. had lacked the foresight to hire enough people to serve customers at their grand opening. A very bad move. Many of the people at these tables looked a bit irked to say the least. I would’ve turned around and left had it not been for some heavy persuasion from those who were there with me.

Luckily we got a table fairly quick, and after about 5 minutes our waiter showed up to take our orders. We went ahead and orderd a fish and vegetable stir-fry over rice, a barbequed pork and egg combo over rice, and per our waiter’s recommendation a fish with cream sauce served on fried rice and baked. Everything seemed okay so far, but that’s when it all started.

After about 30 minutes, the fish and vegetable stir-fry was served. Generous pieces of white fish was cooked with plenty of greens and mushrooms in a thick clear sauce. The rice was long grained and tasted loose, grainy, and dry. If there were no sauce it would’ve been hard to swallow. The dish would’ve been better if a shorter grain, more glutenous rice was used.

15 minutes later someone other than our waiter (he was frantically trying to tend to all the other customers at his tables) came to our table and told us that they were out of the barbequed pork for the barbequed pork and egg dish. She asked if it was okay to substitue roasted pork instead. This came after we had waited more than 45 minutes. At this point we didn’t care, we just wanted our food. So we agreed with the substitution.

Another couple of minutes passed, and the baked dish was served. Instead of the fish with white cream sauce, what they brought out was pork with red tomato sauce. The guy who brought us the dish wasn’t our waiter. He came somewhere from within the kitchen I think. At first I thought they only got the sauce wrong, and the guy who brought it tried to persuade me to take it. I was about to, but when I found out that they got the fish wrong too, I had to put my foot down.

Another 15 minutes passed, and the pork dish was served… but where were the eggs? Eventually we flagged down our waiter, and after apologizing profusely he brought out the eggs. Turned out when the lady asked if we wanted to substitue earlier, she actually meant to substitute dishes, not just the meat. It was a miscommunication, but after waiting for so long we felt we were entitled for the exchange to go in our favor. I took a bite of the roasted pork, and to my dismay found out that the signature crispy skin on this pork was literally inedible. The skin was crispy alright, but crispy to the point that trying to eat it was like trying to eat chicken bone. Rice again was the same rice as before, and the eggs were regular pan fried eggs. Nothing special.

Finally, after nearly a hour and 15 minutes of waiting, the baked fish dish was served. This time it was fish covered in a white cream sauce. I’ll just say that though it was an okay dish, it definitely didn’t warrant the hour and 15 minutes of wait. The fried pieces of fish were the same white fish from the dish earlier. On top of them was a thick creamy sauce that tasted very much like a thickened cream of mushroom soup. On the bottom was plain fried rice with a little bit of eggs. The rice tasted like it was pan fried in lard, not the healthiest of things.

All in all, we spent nearly 2 hours at that restaurant mostly just waiting for stuff. Seeing the faces at other tables in the restaurant, we weren’t the only ones. It amazes me how a restaurant can allow something like this to happen, especially at their grand opening. Ambiance was not that pleasant because I felt a general frustration in the air. Food ranged from okay to inedible. Our waiter was actually pretty helpful, apologizing repeatedly for the mistakes and bringing us the egg. When he asked how I thought of the baked fish dish that he had suggested, I told him it was good because I’d feel bad if I told him the truth. If not for our waiter, the service rating would’ve been much lower.

First impressions are important, and Plano Chinese B.B.Q. has impressed upon me to never go back and suffer the same ordeal again.

Plano Chinese B.B.Q.
930 W. Parker Rd., Suite 410
Plano, TX 75075
Phone: 972-943-1010

Ambiance: 3
Food: 3
Service: 4
Cleaniness: 6
Value: 3
Overall: 3.7

Tags: Plano Chinese B.B.Q., grand opening

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E Ji Bon

Restaurant grand openings are great because at the expense of promoting themselves, we usually benefit from their special prices and deals. A prime example is E Ji Bon, a new Japan & Asian fusion restaurant that just opened in Frisco. 30% off for the whole month of September on all their menu items!

The inside decor is simple but clean. The kitchen is hidden, but their sushi bar is open for all to see. Because of its central location, your eyes can’t help but be drawn to the chef working behind the counter.

Since it’s 30% off everything, we thought we’d take advantage of the deal, so we ordered a whole slew of items over the course of two trips. I think we might check back one more time before the month’s over. Here’re all that we ordered in no particular order.

Sea Sweep Salad - marinated/pickled seaweed salad. A bit slimy but very tasty.

Squid Salad. Even though it says squid, I think it’s made from octopus. Has a savory sweet and sour flavor.

Vegetable Tempura - deep fried assorted vegetables. It has onion rings, string beans, green bell pepper, sweet potato, and zucchini. Comes with a warm tentsuyu (mix of soy, stock, and sweek sake) sauce.

Salt and Pepper Calamari. Their menu says calamari AND shrimp, but really it’s calamari OR shrimp. First the calamari’s deep fried, then stir fried with salt and green & red chili peppers. Its got a spicy kick to it, but the combination of deep frying and stir frying made it quite oily.

Roasted Pork Ramen and…

…Miso Ramen. The main attraction in good ramen noodle soup is the soup. It makes or breaks the ramen. These pass the test, but ever since our trip to Japan years ago, we have never been completely satisfied with the quality of ramen here. That’s not to say these aren’t good. They’re actually the closest we’ve had so far, but they’re still not as perfect as the ones we’ve had in Japan. Our search continues.

Triple Pan-Fried Noodles. I think the triple means the trio of shrimp, chicken, and beef stir-fried with vegetables. Instead, we got shrimp, scallops, and beef. Not a bad trade-off. It’s served on a bed of crispy fried egg noodles.

Seafood Dan Dan Noodles. While we may have gotten lucky with the Triple Pan-Fried Noodles, I think we got shafted here. Supposedly the seafood should have shrimp, scallop, and crabmeat. I didn’t see any crabmeat. Overall the dish is okay, but they went overboard a little with the sauce.

Kat Su Don. Fried pork cutlet over rice topped with egg, onions, and mushrooms. Simple but tasty. The juices from the stir-fried onions and mushrooms seeped down to flavor the pork and rice underneath.

Bul Gu Gi Asia Grill. Marinated slices of beef with onions and mushrooms served on a hot sizzling plate shaped like a bull. Comes with rice and…

…miso soup and…

…salad.

Portions at E Ji Bon may be a little lacking by the norm here in the States, but it was enough to satisfy. Overall the food tasted good, and service was above average. Our waiter was dressed in a casual like tux of some sort, without the jacket, and he was available whenever we needed. As for the prices, without the 30% discount I think it’s a little bit overpriced. So if you want to try it out, you have until the end of this month to do so.

E Ji Bon
7151 Preston Rd., Suite 201B
Frisco, TX 75034
214-705-8381

Ambiance: 7
Food: 6
Service: 8
Cleaniness: 8
Value: 5
Overall: 6.9

Tags: E Ji Bon, Japan, Asian, fusion, grand opening, 30% discount

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Sichuanese Cuisine Restaurant

I sometimes chuckle at the dish names in a chinese menu. The other day we went to Sichuanese Cuisine Restaurant to get some dinner, and I saw a dish named “Ant On The Tree.” I immediately knew I was going to get that because I was curious to see what it’ll look like.

Well, it didn’t turn out exactly what I had expected. Ant On The Tree was actually a clear rice noodle dish cooked with pork and a spicy sauce. The “Ants” I gather were probably the loosely cooked pork meat, but I couldn’t figure out how the noodles came to be the “Tree” that the “Ants” were on. Even though it’s a noodle dish it was flavored quite heavily, so it came with a side of white steamed rice to neutralize it a little. I thought it tasted okay, but afterwards I had a funny aftertaste in my mouth.

We also got their cashew chicken because it’s a basic dish in Chinese cuisine, and we know what it’ll taste like without any major surprises. It turned out pretty much as we expected. The dish had chicken, cabbage, onions, and a generous amount of cashew, and it was by far the more pleasant of the two to eat.

Sichuanese Cuisine Restaurant
2001 Coit Road, #315
Plano, TX 75075
972-758-0808

Tags: szechuan, chinese, fusion

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Asia Grill Restaurant

This restaurant is in the same square as Central Market and the recently closed-down EZ’s in Plano. We ventured here after another Friday sports night as we were pretty hungry and wanted something that wasn’t fast food. So, we checked out this place.

One thing I will say before I get into the specifics. This restaurant will probably eventually close down just because of the location. There are so many vacant buildings right next to that place that it makes me wonder why they chose that area to open up a restaurant. That being said, I sincerely hope this place doesn’t close down because the food is actually pretty solid for an Americanized Chinese restaurant. The prices are manageable.. about $7 to $8 for a dinner entree. The place itself is relatively trendy and modern. A couple of wide screens are place strategically at opposite ends, most of their transactions are run by computers, and it has a relatively spacious surrounding.

The food itself, as I mentioned before, is Americanized Chinese food. I ordered the cashew chicken (which incidentally is my default entree whenever I try a new chinese place) and Jason ordered the thai curry chicken dish. The chicken was actually pretty good.. very tender which I have found not to be the case in most other Americanized Chinese restaurants. The portion was satisfactory as well with a good mix of veggies and the mandatory eggroll on the side. The eggroll, I will say, was a bit too “chewy” I guess is a good word to put it. I judge an eggroll by one general criteria when it comes to outside texture… it needs to be easy to bite into and you shouldn’t need to use a lot of effort to pull it loose with your teeth. That tells me it’s a little undercooked for a fried eggroll.

It took a while to get our order though (~20-25 minutes) but I imagine they were probably nearing closing time as we went at around 9:15 pm. We didn’t mind the wait terribly much but I felt it was worth mentioning for our faithful readers who do mind. However, this might’ve been an isolated incidence so I just want to put that out there as well.

I guess the only reservation I have with this place is the outrageous tax they charged. Last time I checked, tax was 8.25%. This was more like 12%. I saw no signs or notes anywhere that hinted at take-out fee or to-go box fee. And I guess if I were to be really critical, the staff seemed a bit slow and unbalanced. During our wait time, I just kind of half-stared at the TV and half-stared at the work area.. and I saw through the course of my wait.. another to-go order finished and waiting on the counter ready to be boxed and packaged. Well there was one lady who was apparently taking a gentleman’s order (I have a pet peeve about this guy which I’ll get into later) and two other ladies who worked there.. cleaning up a table together. I dunno, I just think priorities can be adjusted just a bit. The restaurant was relatively empty since it was pretty late so why would you delegate the majority of your outside wait staff to be cleaning a table rather than boxing up the to-go order that’s sitting there unattended. Anyway, there might’ve been other factors at play that I wasn’t aware of but that’s just my unbiased observation.

So on to that gentleman that was being attended to by the woman at the register. He was probably a white male in his late 50s.. who looked kind of like he trotted over from a retirement home or made a pitstop from an evening walk. Anyway.. I find it so annoying when I see people order and do countless substitutions and changes to the entree itself.. make small-talk that’s obviously for his/her own benefit, talk with euphemisms and slang that the workers apparently don’t comprehend, and talk loudly among other things. Now I can understand very small variations of those annoyances that I’ve listed above but overuse and abuse of those annoyances is intolerable. I felt like smacking the guy in the face but his one redeeming factor was that he seemed genuinely courteous about it even though it was annoying. Anyway, I won’t go into detail of what he specifically did because I think everyone who’s dined out has encountered such individuals. It wasn’t any specific instance anyway.

Asia Grill Restaurant
208 Coit Road Suite 700
Plano, TX 75075
214-473-6647

Tags: Asia Grill, Plano

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Dim Sum @ Maxim’s Restaurant

Lunch on a weekend at Chinatown is always super packed, especially at dim sum restaurants. Go with at least 6-8 people. Oddly the big tables free up faster than the small ones. We saw at least two large groups come in after us and got their tables before we did. Go figure.

Started off with some tea

Shrimp dumplings were tender

Chicken feet, gruesome looking but doesn’t taste too bad

THE dim sum staple, these pork shumais were topped with shrimp

These meatballs are perfect for spaghetti

Basically pork ribs chopped into small pieces

Rice porridge, we were sweating by the time we finished this

Turnip cakes, softer than firm tofu and packed with flavor

Unfortunately the shrimp in these rice noodles didn’t taste too fresh

Fried sesami balls with red bean paste, great way to end a meal. They look like beaks of baby birds opening up for food don’t they?

Maxim’s Restaurant
310 Terrace Dr.
Richardson, TX 75081
972-231-6371

Tags: dim sum

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