Here are the award-winning Asian restaurants featured in the paper today. Agree? Disagree? Send a note and I'll get it in next Tuesday's column.
By Jay Furst
furst@postbulletin.com
What's the most popular ethnic chow in Southeast Minnesota? Not counting pizza?
Though Mexican is catching up, the answer is far and away Chinese. By
my count, there are more than 35 Chinese restaurants in the area, some
just takeout or fast-food shops, but most with enormous menus, bottles
of Tsingtao beer and table service.
Add in a few Vietnamese cafes, a theatrical Japanese steakhouse and
some crossover, "world food" places like Noodles & Co., and Asian
cuisine is pretty well represented here. Sure, we could use some Thai
and Cambodian options, but be patient. As my fortune cookie advised the
other day, "Happy life is just ahead of you."
The big challenge for Asian restaurants is to distinguish themselves
from all the mediocre Chinese food out there. Maybe it's the take-out
and all-you-can-eat orientation of some restaurants, but a lot of the
dishes I tried this month were bland, mushy and unappealing. The menus
may be gigantic, but variety and distinctiveness were often missing.
I won't name those names, but if you're looking for interesting, fresh, authentic Chinese cooking, read on.
The Hunan Garden
in Rochester, which has had good luck for a quarter-century, is a good
example of a restaurant with high aspirations. Another is the Fresh Wok,
on Broadway in Plainview, where the dining room is elegantly put
together — no faded-out photos of the Great Wall or gaudy red paper
lanterns to be seen — and they feature hot, fresh food with great
aromas and flavors.
Here's what I was looking for in awesome Asian entrees:
• Something special: Out-of-the-ordinary, distinctive
dishes that smack of authenticity. We asked at each restaurant, "Tell
us what you're most known for," and that's what we sampled.
• Fresh ingredients, served hot: The latter
disqualified more than a few dishes along the way — hot food seems like
the very basic ticket of admission, but a few plates came out to us
lukewarm at best. Fresh, home-cut vegetables and meats also make the
difference.
• Presentation and ambiance: Some restaurants we
sampled had heaps of generous portions, though not always served in the
most appetizing ways. A few restaurants, such as the Fresh Wok in
Plainview, pay more attention to the design and attractiveness of both
the dining room and the food, and it pays off.
• Knowledgeable servers: Especially when scanning a
menu with hundreds of selections with mystifying foreign names, it
helps to have servers who can answer your questions. At several places,
it was tough to break the language barrier.
• Sit-down service and no buffets: This rules out some popular restaurants such as HuHot Mongolian Grill
at Apache Mall, but it's tough to compare buffet food with specials
served straight from the kitchen. (HuHot, it must be said, has a great
formula — a vast array of healthy, fresh veggies and meats, stir-fried
on a massive griddle that's fascinating for kids.)
• No MSG: That's a joke! But by and large, most make clear that they don't use MSG.
Notable places that didn't make the short list this time include Wong's Cafe in Hillcrest Shopping Center, a popular lunch stop; Jenpachi Japanese Steakhouse, which is always packed and has some amazingly talented guys wielding knives and spatulas at the performance grills; and Tony's Vietnamese Restaurant on North Broadway.
Agree or disagree? Have other favorites? Send a note and we'll get it
on the record a week from today in the Four Stars Feedback column.
Nobody's perfect, and I certainly didn't sample every Chinese
restaurant in the area.
Also, for March I'm looking for recommendations on the best
beer-battered fish dinner in the Rochester area — classic bar-and-grill
type fish dinners with fries and slaw. Friday fish fries in church
basements don't qualify, by the way; to keep this fair, it has to be a
regular menu option.
Restaurants that get our Four Stars recommendations receive a
certificate extremely suitable for framing and a firm handshake from
yours truly.
THE FOUR STARS
Hunan Garden
1128 Seventh St. N.W., Rochester
285-1438
The granddaddy of Rochester Chinese restaurants, Hunan Garden does it
better than anyone else. The menu is ambitious, with more than 125
dishes to choose from; the service is friendly and attentive, and you
can't go wrong with the specials. The classic Happy Family ($11.25)
entree is chock full of shrimp, bay scallops, chicken and pork sauteed
with broccoli and other veggies, served on a sizzling plate. I've
sampled a gallon of wonton soup over the past month and the Hunan's is
the best ($1.75), with firm dumplings, not mushy or rubbery, and a
subtle broth. And the potstickers ($4.25) also were tops in town.
Fresh Wok Chinese Cuisine
330 W. Broadway, Plainview
(507) 534-4388
Top-quality, reasonably priced food in an elegant restaurant on
Plainview's main street. The Mongolian Beef special ($9.75) is laced
with spicy hoisin sauce, with generous helpings of beef, shredded
bamboo and veggies. The General Tso's Chicken dinner special is an even
better deal, $7.75 with pork fried rice and an egg roll, and the
chicken is delicately coated and fried. It's a family friendly place,
but with stylish lighting and music, art on the walls, and charmingly
carved vegetable garnishes on the plates.
Sushi Itto
318 S. Broadway, Rochester
280-0034
Sushi is an acquired taste and my wife hasn't acquired it yet, but I
can confirm that Sushi Itto has more varied, interesting, delicious
things to eat than just about any restaurant, of any kind, in town.
Even if you're not into fishy foods, you'll find things to like, though
you might want a friend who's familiar with sushi to guide you through
the options. You can't miss with the Sushi Itto Roll ($9.95) — crab
surimi, cukes, crispy fried salmon skin and cream cheese wrapped in
avocado, topped with tampico sauce — or the Rock and Roll Specialty
Roll ($12.95) — 10 pieces of shrimp sauteed in garlic and peppers,
wrapped in shredded grilled onions and topped with chipotle. The
service was friendly but s-l-l-l-ow — the night we were there, the
place was jammed after the ice bar events at the Peace Plaza and only
one waitress was working. There's a full bar, though, and the
people-watching is excellent.
Pho Tai Vietnamese Restaurant
1726 37th St. N.W., Rochester
281-9993
Pho Tai's menu offers more surprises and exotic options than most. One
of the best is a rice vermicelli dish, Bun Ga Xao, with stir-fried
chicken, veggies and mint, and the peppery peanut sauce that gives
Vietnamese dishes that distinctive flavor. At $6.95, you can afford to
add two of the best spring rolls in town ($3.50) and have a cup of
sweet, thick Vietnamese coffee as well ($2.75). For something flashier
than the rice noodle bowl, there's Banh Hoi Chao Tom, shrimp wrapped on
a sugar cane stick, with charbroiled pork meatballs and beef ($12.75).
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