Little Szechuan

For some reason, I have rarely ever dined at Chinese restaurants.  Growing up, this makes sense - my dad won't touch Chinese food, so we'd never go as a family to the sole Chinese restaurant in town. But after that, I'm not really sure why.  For some reason, Chinese food is solidly a takeout or delivery only thing for me (other than dim sum).

Which brings me to this review: yup, delivery and takeout from a Chinese Restaurant, Little Szechuan.

Little Szechuan is located right on Broadway on the edge of North Beach, in the area that gets a bit more "interesting" at night.  It is a pretty generic seeming place, albeit with a very large menu.  The place itself is also quite large, multiple levels, including several banquet halls.  I haven't ever really heard people talk about it much, seemingly just always hovering above *** on Yelp, nothing particularly notable, but, its been around quite a while, so, clearly they have some fans.

I haven't ever dined in, but I have both picked up food in person there, and had it delivered.  I was always impressed with how well labelled everything was, and how friendly the staff were.  Above average in both regards.  Sometime, I'd like to actually dine in.

Side note: Stuck doing a lot of takeout and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services?  Here are some codes for free money!

• Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Caviar ($20 off, $10 off your first 2 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]

Appetizers

The appetizer portion of the menu is extensive.  Every type of dumpling, pot sticker, wonton, buns, egg rolls, etc, along with things like salt & pepper calamari or tofu, bbq or roast duck, lettuce wraps, and chilled items like spicy beef tripe, cucumber saad, cold noodles, chicken feet, pork intestines, and so on.  Oh, and of course, all the soups and salads too.

If I was dining in, I'd definitely be interested in trying more appetizers, but our group opted for just one for our delivery order.

Fried Crab Rangoon.  $5.98 for 6.

Well, these just weren't very good, at all.  I thought crab rangoon was hard to mess up, but, sadly, they did.

It was very, very oily.  The filling inside was slightly sweet, cream cheese, and little bits of artificial crab.  Fairly fishy tasting, but biggest issue was how oily they were.

No one liked these.

*+.

Mains

The entree section of the menu was even more extensive.  19 pork dishes.  19 poultry dishes.  19 red meat.  23 seafood.  17 veggie dishes.  40 (!) noodles or fried rice items.  16 clay pots.  10 curries.  And so on.  So many choices.  Too many choices.

Kung Pao Chicken (less spicy). $8.98.

I have really fond memories of kung pao chicken, which, I realize is odd to say as someone who doesn't like chicken.  But when I was in college one of my professors had me over and we made kung pao chicken for dinner, my first time ever having it, and I loved the spice and the concept of having nuts in my stir fry.  It was all so new to me, and left a lasting impression.  From time to time, to this day, when I see kung pao I still try it, just to kinda remember the excitement of trying something new.

The chicken was tiny bits, breaded and fried.  Not bad really, and not too, uh, chicken-y.  Since it was ordered less spicy (not my choice), the sauce wasn't spicy ... at all.  Which definitely goes against my idea of what kung pao is supposed to be.  It was strange to have almost sweet, rather than spicy, kung pao.  Not the restaurant's fault, but, definitely different.

There was a generous amount of vegetables (zucchini and onions) and peanuts included, the vegetables were well sautéed and juicy.

Overall, a very good version, I just wish we'd been able to order it spicy.

***.

Szechuan Beef.  $9.98.

I was very excited for the Szechuan beef, particularly after the not spicy kung pao.  This was legit spicy, as you can see, full size spicy peppers right there in it.  The flavor was good, the veggies crisp, the meat not too chewy.

Solid execution. ***+.

[ No Photo ]

Mongolian Beef. $9.98. 

The Mongolian beef was another spicy offering.  I failed to get a photo, but there was about an equal ratio of pieces of beef to hot peppers!  This packed some serious heat.  The beef was fried, a bit chewy, but not bad.  My favorite element was the extremely flavorful, well sautéed onions.

My favorite of the dishes.  ***+.

Drinks

The drinks portion of the menu, also quite large.  In addition to your basic expected soft drinks, water, beer, wine, plum wine, sake, soy milk, etc, they have a range of fresh juices (6 choices, danger, danger, watermelon!), flavored ice teas (11 kinds), milk teas (14), smoothies (9), and trendy cremas (7), most of which can be customized to add in mix-ins.

Taro Smoothie. $3.98.

I really like taro.  I love the flavor, the starchiness.  I like real taro, particularly when mashed or turned into taro fries.  But even taro flavor from powders, mixed into bubble teas, can make me pretty happy.

So when I saw Little Szechuan had a "taro smoothie" I was intrigued.  They have a large list of milk teas, and taro isn't an option for the milk tea, so this seemed to be something different.  What was a taro smoothie?  I had no idea, but I had to order it.

I placed my order on delivery.com when I was a block or so away, walked in the door, and my drink was already being prepared.  Great service!

So, what is a taro smoothie?  I think it was real milk, blended with ice, and taro powder.  It was a bit too sweet for me, but the taro flavor was decent, and the ice was really nicely done, like a slushy.

I did want tapioca in it, but, Little Szechuan no longer offers tapioca.  They offered to mix in any of the jellies instead, and let me try both options.  One was sweet, multi-colored lychee jellies.  Since the drink was already a bit too sweet, I certainly didn't want to make it sweeter.  The other was the grass jelly, not sweet, and a larger side.  I'd consider adding those next time, as the smoothie sans boba was a bit boring, but really, I wanted boba.

I enjoyed my smoothie on a hot day, and it satisfied my curiosity, but, I don't think I'd get another, unless I brought my own tapioca.

***.

Taro Smoothie with Grass Jelly. $3.98.

Except, of course I craved another taro smoothie.  So I tried again, this time adding grass jelly.

I liked the smoothie itself, nicely blended, although I kinda wanted it a bit icier, more like a milkshake.  The taro flavor was stronger than the previous time.

The amount of grass jellies added was just right.  Enough to have some with most slurps, but not all.  The jellies are pretty flavorless, which is sorta what I wanted, as I didn't want more sweetness.  But they are very soft, which doesn't quite match what I wanted in my smoothie.

Really, I just wanted tapioca.  Not sure what I'd change next to make this work, besides begging them to offer boba again!

***.

Strawberry Green Iced Tea with Lychee Jelly. $2.98.

I recently attended a ball game at AT&T Park (company offsite), where I had a mango fruit tea with lychee jellies from Home Plate Boba.  It was perfectly refreshing on a hot day, and I was sorta craving another ever since.  About two days later, on another amazingly warm and sunny San Francisco fall day, I was about to get a taro tapioca bubble tea from Little Szechuan, when I saw that they also had fruity iced teas.  I'm not used to seeking these out, but figured it was worth a try.  It did match my mood better.

I had several choices for the iced tea base, either green or black tea based.  Since I didn't want too much caffeine, I opted for green tea.  My choices were jasmine (meh), honey lemon (not exciting), lychee (too sweet?), passion fruit (too finicky), or strawberry (just right!)

The menu didn't say it, but I also assumed it was ok to add any toppings in that they had available, so I asked for grass jelly, remembering it from when I tried it when I picked up my previous smoothie.  I expected the fruity tea to be sweet, and thought the less sweet jellies would be a nice match.

When my tea was handed over, it was clear that they used the lychee jellies instead of the grass jellies.  Oh well.  I didn't bother protest.

The tea was ... ok.  It was a bit bitter, in a way that seemed perhaps a little over-steeped.  But the real problem is that it didn't taste at all like strawberry.  You can see a tiny, tiny bit of strawberry in the bottom of the cup here, but I literally didn't taste anything fruity.  The strawberry is why I picked it!  It also wasn't sweet at all.  I am fine with unsweet tea, and I'm glad they seemed to use real strawberry instead of a sickly sweet syrup, but, it certainly isn't what I was expecting.

The lychee jellies were nice though, sweet, fun to suck up.

Overall, it was refreshing, just, not what I was hoping for.

The $2.98 price was fine, particularly since they didn't charge me for the jellies (normally $0.50).  I wouldn't get this again.

**+.

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Ariana Restaurant: Special Theme Night - Chinese!

Oh, COVID, dining restrictions, etc.  How it all caused some restaurants to pivot, and try unique concepts, some of which I fully support.  

I was thrilled to discover Ariana Restaurant late in my stay in New Hampshire (staying with family while working remotely during some of the worst COVID times).  It is a lovely, higher end, full service restaurant in the Lyme Inn.  You can read all about my incredible visit here.

But when the pandemic got worse in December 2020, Ariana Restaurant owner/staff/etc made the very hard call to pivot to a takeout only menu, and decided to have some fun (?) with it, introducing themes every week.  So brand new menu, every week, totally different theme, served Thurs-Sun.

The week before Christmas, the theme was Chinese (yes, very random for a restaurant that was fairly classically French ...).  

Now, you haven't read many Chinese food reviews on this blog.  It *isn't* a cuisine I gravitate towards most of the time, yet I do enjoy it.  And yes, I had in my head the thought that what business did a classically french trained chef have doing Chinese?  And yet ... I was really, really excited for this lineup.  I had been craving Chinese food, after having frozen Trader Joe's dumplings, and mediocre lo mein and egg rolls randomly picked up somewhere a few weeks before.  I knew my mother would be up for this, as she *never* gets any Asian food since my father doesn't eat it.

Luckily, during theme week, Ariana also offers 2 dishes in each category (small plates and large plates) from their "Classics", and that week, the Classics included bolognese, which would make my dad happy.  So the whole family could order and feast.  I had a plan.

A Totally Reasonable Meal for 2.

So, takeout day it was.  Dad had just the single item, a dish of pasta, but mom and I, um, ordered ... everything else.  We couldn't decide on just a few things, and hey, this way, we'd have food for, quite literally, at least 4 days for both of us, basically taking care of feeding us until Christmas.

I'll be honest - it was a mixed bag.  The sauce work was standout in general.  Some dishes were good,and  some were just ok.  There was nothing I'd go back for though, and, critically, our dessert was missing :(

Small Plates

Even though theme night, the menu still followed Ariana's format: small plates and large plates, not traditional appetizers and mains.  The Small Plates offering was 7 Chinese dishes, ranging from dim sum style items to fun things like Chinese-style ribs, along with two of their Classic dishes.

The lineup, in full:

• Hot and Sour Soup with tofu, bamboo shoots, snow peas, seasoning V GF $7Pork Shao Mai with steamed seasoned Millbrook Farm Pork with a dipping sauce $9
• Pork Shao Mai with steamed seasoned Millbrook Farm Pork with a dipping sauce $9
• Crab Rangoon, baked with a seasoned crab mixture, sweet sour sauce $13
• Chicken Egg Rolls with seasoned chicken, Asian vegetables, pineapple dipping sauce $13
• Baked Vegetarian Spring Rolls with fresh vegetables, light soy, scallion, cilantro sauce $10
• Romaine Salad w/ cucumber, radish, bean sprouts, snow peas, ginger dressing V GF $8
• 4 Chinese-style Pork Ribs, soy, citrus chili glaze, scallions, cucumber slaw GF $10
• Our classic Blackened Scallops, orange chili butter sauce, scallion ginger rice cake GF $15
• Our Classic Mushroom Crêpes with spinach, goat cheese, arugula lemon cream GF $12

From the small plates, I ... literally wanted all the Chinese ones but the soup (and I wanted one of the Classics).  So, uh, yes, we got them all, ruling out only the soup and both Classics (mom still wanted the Blackened Scallops, but I convinced her that they wouldn't be great for takeout, wouldn't go with our meal, and were always available), and skipped the veggie spring rolls in favor of the egg roles.  So yes, 5 small plates, two people.  I think you can see where this is going.  I was too excited by them all, particularly as they all had fantastic sounding dipping sauces (you know me and sauces!), and I knew the chef was an excellent sauce master.

Pork Shao Mai. $9.

"With steamed seasoned Millbrook Farm Pork with  dipping sauce."

Starting with something nice and light, steamed dumplings, using quality local pork.  The only dish that didn't say what exactly the "dipping sauce" was.

These were good.  The wrappers were soft and pliable, they were delicately assembled and didn't burst open.  Inside of each was a very generous ball of pork, very lightly seasoned.

The dipping sauce was really unique, I have no idea what it was, but it had some real tang and sourness to it.  I think I liked it, particularly just as it was unlike anything I've had before.

I liked these, one of my top 4 dishes, but not something I'd get again as the pork itself was just a bit boring. Serving size of 5 for $9 was good value, particularly given the amount of pork inside.

***+.

Crab Rangoon. $13.
Half Portion.

"Baked with a seasoned crab mixture, sweet sour sauce."

So low-brow I know, but I couldn't resist the crab rangoon.  I was so curious to see a higher end chef take this on.  Would it be cream cheese dominant?  Use real crab or krab?

I love crab, but my mother does not, so I asked if we could get a half order of this one, knowing that the full order of 4 pieces was just too much for me given how much other stuff we had.  The chef nicely accommodated this.

It was ... eh.  Ok I guess.  Seemed like a generic egg roll wrapper, folded over what was mostly cream cheese, and yes, a bit of real crab.  Not really much to say, a mouth full of warm cream cheese is what I got, inside a nondescript wrapper.

The sweet sour sauce though was good, although I may have mixed it up with the eggroll sauce (stay tuned), I really am not sure which was which, but both were good, yes, sweet and sour.

***, just, standard I guess, nothing wrong with it, decent sauce.

Chicken Egg Rolls. $13.

"With seasoned chicken, Asian vegetables, pineapple dipping sauce."

I opted for the chicken egg rolls, rather than baked vegetarian spring rolls, even though I don't care for chicken.  I ... just didn't want baked spring rolls, and really truly love egg rolls.  I had been craving good egg rolls since the ones I had as random leftovers from somewhere a few weeks prior.   Plus, pineapple dipping sauce sounded *much* better than cilantro sauce, which came with the baked ones.

These were good enough.  Yes, likely a premade egg roll wrapper, probably even the same as the rangoon, but they were crispy, reheated well.  This sauce was also good, pineapple dipping sauce, but both this and the rangoon sauce were fairy sweet and sour, and I think I might have confused them, I'm still not sure.  They were both different, don't get me wrong, but I didn't taste one that was clearly pineapple.

This serving really was just two rolls.

Chicken Egg Roll: Inside.

Inside was juicy asian veggies that I liked, and really a large portion of strips of white meat chicken, which I didn't care for because chicken, but appreciated for those who do.

Like the sui mai, very solid execution, good sauce, not really remarkable though, ***+.

Chinese Style Pork Ribs. $10.

"Soy, citrus chili glaze, scallions, cucumber slaw."

Oh, did I mention that I was also craving BBQ, and thus, um, ribs also called out.  Glazed ribs.  Slaw.  Yes.

These were good.  The pork was moist, juicy, fall-off-the-bone.  Nice citrus chili glaze.  

I really liked the cucumber slaw, tart, and refreshing, which with our meal that otherwise had very little vegetable, was appreciated.  I also appreciated the mix of pieces.

$10 price for portion was great.

In my top 4 dishes, again though, just, ***+.

Ribs: Sauce.

I also give kudos for the extra sauce on the side.

Romaine Salad.  $8.

"With cucumber, radish, bean sprouts, snow peas, ginger dressing."

I know we had too much food, so why get a salad ... but, well, I did want something light to pair with leftovers in subsequent days, and figured some vegetables would do me good, as nearly everything we ordered was carbs and protein and sauces, but not much vegetable.  Plus, this sounded good! 

The salad was nice to have the next day with a pile of leftovers.  Fresh, torn chunks of romaine, a few bites of chopped snow peas, a small handful of bean sprouts, a few sliced radishes, and a bunch of sliced cucumber.  Everything was fresh, juicy enough, asian-themed enough.  The dressing was more sweet or gingery or soy-y or something than I really cared for, but it wasn't bad, very asian style, just not really my thing in general.  I liked just throwing some of the other sauces, or even cold general tao's chicken on top, and using the sauce from it.

Fresh, but not special. ***.

Large Plates

Next up, the larger plates, bigger than traditional mains.  Here there were even more options - 9 Chinese and two classics, spanning all types of proteins and vegetarian/vegan items: 

• General Tao’s Chicken: fried seasoned Chicken Thigh Meat tossed in a rich sauce with chilis, broccolini, orange peel, scallions, snow peas, rice GF $19
• Shrimp Cantonese: marinated Gulf Shrimp sautéed with bok choy, ginger, garlic, scallions in a light sauce with egg and scallions, rice GF $24
• Vegetable Lo Mein: sautéed cabbage, peppers, onions, peas, light sesame chili sauce $16
• Pork Lo Mein: the above with seared seasoned local pork $21
• Vegan Fried Rice: sautéed cabbage, peas, broccolini, sprouts in soy glazed rice $15
• Pork Fried Rice: the above with seared seasoned local pork $19
• Moo Shu Beef: pulled beef with shiitake mushrooms, cabbage, onions, peas, classic Chinese pancakes (4) with a rich soy glaze $24
• Stir Fry Scallops with mix of Asian vegetables, orange ginger glaze, noodles $27
• Teriyaki-style Salmon, with sesame noodles and vegetables, teriyaki glaze $25
• Our classic Bolognaise $25
• Our classic Vegan Curry Rice $17 add Shrimp $25

Again, I wanted nearly everything, yes, even chicken dishes, because I wanted the sauces!  We settled on just 4, which, um, again, these are bigger than traditional mains and we had 5 small plates already, again knowing this would make great leftovers.  We left out the veggie version of the lo mein, both fried rice since we were getting lo mein and two dishes came with regular rice, and, at my insisting that we had too much, the scallops and salmon, even though we both love seafood, these seemed like the ones that would travel and reheat the least well.  Dad got his bolognaise, which, as you may recall from my original review, I had always wanted to try.

This area of the menu was rather hit or miss.  I was surprised by some of the smaller portion sizes, and the lack of vegetables in dishes I thought would have them, but, again, the sauce work did impress.

General Tao's Chicken. $19.

"Fried seasoned Chicken Thigh Meat tossed in a rich sauce with chilis, broccolini, orange peel, scallions, snow peas, rice."

Yeah, yeah.  Julie hates chicken.  And broccolini.  And Rice.  But do you know what Julie loves?  DELICIOUS SAUCES.  Who can resist General {whoever}'s chicken anyway?

When I called to order, I did ask about this dish, was it their play on general tso's? And was told it was a mix between general tso and orange chicken, which sounded pretty fabulous to me.  Spicy and sweet, and likely with quite interesting balance.  I was in.

This dish was good.  Yes, it was chicken thigh, and yes, fried takeout bits of chicken do get kinda soggy, but, the sweet and spicy sauce was complex (it really was both sweet - lots of orange flavor, and spicy - particularly if you went for one of the three whole chilies in it!).  The broccolini was actually good (I know, I know), just the very tops, and only 4 pieces (!), but it soaked up the sauce well.  Snow beans were paltry portion at only 3 in the dish, and kinda soggy and overcooked.

Overall, a decent dish - I liked the flavors, appreciated the sweet and spicy balance, and the juicy broccolini doused in sauce was nice to have with my ridiculous pile of carbs and protein.  Portion size was a little small.  In my top 4 dishes.

I wouldn't get again, and it wasn't extraordinary, but, ***.

Rice (with General Tao's Chicken and Cantonese Shrimp).

I asked to have the rice on the side so we could easily save/reheat food, but also, because I don't really eat rice, and knew I didn't want it to steal all the delicious sauces.  I didn't try it.

Shrimp Cantonese. $24.

"Marinated Gulf Shrimp sautéed with bok choy, ginger, garlic, scallions in a light sauce with egg and scallions, rice."

Probably the dish I was least excited for, as I don't care for bok choy, and shrimp in general is ... ok, but it was one of my mom's top picks, and I knew that having a lighter seafood dish would be welcome, particularly a few days into our leftover fest.

I expected large hunks of bok choy, so I was surprised to see it all chopped up.  In this form, much like the broccolini, I found it didn't bother me, and appreciated, again, like the broccolini, having a bit of something juicy, particularly when it soaked up the sauce.  The peas I really didn't care for though, and wasn't sure what they were doing in there, not listed on the menu, and really didn't seem to fit in.

But that sauce.  Definitely a highlight of the meal.  Totally not what I was expecting, not that I really knew what to expect.  There was so much going on here with the ginger and soy (?) based sauce.  I loved the depth the ginger brought to it.  The egg was integrated to add richness.  I couldn't get enough of the sauce.

The shrimp themselves were a decent portion, I think 7 pieces, all big, juicy, larger wild gulf shrimp.  Well cooked, well cleaned, not rubbery, quite succulent actually.  I really liked the shrimp too.

Overall, a shocker for me, and my favorite dish overall.

**** - great sauce, nicely prepared shrimp, juicy bok choy, slight ding for all those random peas.

Pork Lo Mein. $21.

"Sautéed cabbage, peppers, onions, peas, light sesame chili sauce with seared seasoned local pork."

Rarely a noodle girl, yet the lo mein was way at the top of my list.  I had some mediocre random leftover lo mein a few weeks prior, and it hit the spot tremendously.  I couldn't wait to try this.  Even cold, leftover lo mein is one of my most favorite indulgences randomly.  

Both a vegan and pork version of lo mein were available, we opted for pork.

Well ... um ... it really, really, really let me down.

The noodles were as boring as can be, definitely not house made.  The veg, also very boring.  The sauce, fairly non-existant.  And the "seared seasoned local pork"?  I found it chewy and unremarkable, and flavorless.  My mom thought it was tender though.

A real letdown for me, I had a few bites, and moved on.  Seemed a bit pricey too for mostly noodles.  *+. 

Moo Shu Beef. $24.

"Pulled beef with shiitake mushrooms, cabbage, onions, peas, classic Chinese pancakes (4) with a rich soy glaze."

I may have never ordered moo shu beef before.  From anywhere.  I am certainly familiar with the dish, but I think perhaps I've never ordered.  This called out however, the great ingredients, and I think I had been craving beef as well, having really just had a lot of seafood.

It was decent, a huge portion of shredded beef, tender, well, shredded beef.  I liked the hunks of shiitake.  Cabbage, scallions, peas were all kinda eh for me.  Decently flavorful sauce, dark soy based.  Not remarkable, but not bad.

Really just "fine" in my box, wouldn't get again, but nothing wrong with it. **+.

Classic Chinese Pancakes (with Moo Shu Beef).

The Moo Shu came with Chinese pancakes, they were good, soft, supple. I used them to soak up all sorts of sauces.

Standard. I doubt they made them in house, but I appreciated with my meal. 

***+.

Classic Penne Bolognese. $25.

"A rich meat sauce of Robie Farm sausage, local veal, and Tensen Farm beef with marinara and cream."

And of course, Dad's bolognese, which I stole a bite of.

This *was* a good bolognese.  Very tender, flavorful beef, sausage, and veal.  Deep rich sauce, cream based.  Dad however didn't like it, sigh.  "It tastes funny" or "there is something strange in there" is what he said to my mom.  Sigh.  I gladly would have taken it if he didn't like it!

The penne was not too mushy.  Not much else to say, besides, yes, clearly a refined recipe, and about as good as a penne bolognese takeout is going to be, using standard generic penne.

The $25 price for the portion did seem a touch high though.

***+.

Dessert

The dessert menu was also tailored to the Chinese Menu, 3 equally sounding tempting offerings:

• Green Tea Cake Roll with honey buttercream $9
• Rice Pudding with coconut milk, ginger, cinnamon and star anise $8
• Mango Mousse with sesame coconut shortbread cookies $9

I had a really hard time narrowing down to just one dessert, which I finally did, picking the rice pudding, but ... IT WAS MISSING FROM OUR ORDER.  My mother is the one who went to pick up the food, and I did give her the full list, but, alas, she didn't check the order for correctness, and since we live a full 35 minutes away, and it had started snowing, going back was out of the question.

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Enjoy Vegetarian Restaurant

“Vegetarian meets Chinese cuisine”. 

This is the premise of Enjoy Vegetarian Restaurant, an entirely vegetarian restaurant with two locations in San Francisco (Chinatown, Sunset).  It is family owned and operated, and has won a number of awards in the vegetarian and vegan dining realm.

"From our menu, you will see dish names like Mongolian Beef, Kung Pao Chicken, Eggplant & Sea Bass. However, they are all made with soy products. We use the substitutions of soy products, yam and mushroom in many of our dishes. We also have a lot of dishes made with natural soy protein. We do our handmade Bean Curd Rolls, Soy Bean Sheet, Wheat Gluten, Golden Knoll and many more"

I remember visiting once or twice many, many years ago, with vegetarian friends, but don't remember much about it.  But I recently rediscovered it, during COVID-19 days, and the desire to get flavorful takeout, something different, and, well, living with a newfound vegan.  I'll admit that Chinese cuisine is never the top of my list, and I'm certainly not vegetarian (or vegan).

Lunch!

My first encounter however was quite positive.  The food was above average, hot and fresh, and my fellow dinner loved it too.  We quickly planned to order again.

Side note: Stuck doing a lot of takeout and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services?  Here are some codes for free money!

• Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Caviar ($20 off, $10 off your first 2 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]

I ordered pickup via delivery.com, and that part of the experience was quite smooth - my order was ready right after I arrived, no issues acknowledging the order quickly, everything was nicely packaged, etc.  Enjoy Vegetarian is listed on (quite literally) every delivery service.

Setting

I visited the location closest to me, but they have a location in the Sunset as well.

Curb Appeal?

I visited the Kearny Street location, right on the edge of Chinatown, a block off Columbus.  Very easy to find, with a bright green sign.

The "Dining" Experience.

As my visit was during COVID-19, the restaurant was closed for dine-in, and operating as takeout only.

They had the most impressive setup of anywhere I visited during this time, with separate, clearly labelled, tables for each delivery service.  Entirely contactless.

It was amusing to see so many delivery services, they clearly are listed on ... all of them.

I intentionally arrived a bit early, to ensure hot fresh food, and, as I expected, it was literally just being finished off as I entered, the rice scooped into my container, condiments added, etc.  Quick and easy.

Bag of goodies.

They also scored points with me for the bag of goodies included, which they had pre-bagged, and threw in to every order: a fork (no spoon, no knife), chopsticks, napkins (2! thank you!), soy sauce, and hot sauce.  I didn't need to ask for these things, and, I would have.

Food

"With over 125 dishes to choose from, each visit to our Chinese restaurant can be a new experience!"

Yeah, they aren't messing around.  The menu is *extremely* expansive, with 15 appetizers, 8 soups, 7 "Chef's Special", 19 "House Special", 10 Tofu and Bean Curd based dishes, 10 "Spicy", 7 Chow Mein, 5 Noodle Soup, 7 Rice ... and an additional 46 item menu for lunch.  Seriously.

And yes, everything is vegetarian.  Almost all is vegan (it is noted when not, e.g. dishes like Walnut Prawns w/ Mayonnaise Sauce), and anything gluten-free (or gluten-free option) is designated with ***s.

Lunch Specials 特價精選 

My visit was for lunch, to try a special, served Monday – Friday 11am – 2:00pm (except holidays).  Lunch specials are served with Spring Roll & Steamed Rice or Brown Rice, unlike the main menu (also available at lunch) that is a large portion but no rice, no appetizer, and higher price.

Specials are $11.99 from the restaurant directly, marked up to $13.50 through delivery.com ($12.99 on DoorDash, and regular $11.99 price on Caviar.  Boo hiss, I picked wrong!).

The lunch special lineup is 46 dishes, all numbered for easy ordering, a selection of rice, chow mein, noodle soup, spicy, and standard dishes from the full menu.

Appetizer: Fried Spring Roll (part of lunch special).

The first thing I pulled from my bag was the spring roll, packaged in a paper bag.  It was visibly quite greasy, but strangely, it didn't seem much oil came off on the paper towel I set it on.  

It did taste more of oil/grease than I'd like, but it wasn't a stale or bad oil taste, just, well, a lot of oil.  It was hot (kudos), crisp (double kudos!), and filled with shredded veggies.

Nothing particularly remarkable about it, it was a standard fried vegetarian Chinese spring roll, but I appreciated that it was not soggy.  I planned to use the provided soy sauce/hot sauce, but my main dish was so saucy, I ended up just dunking it in there, to avoid needing to open a soy sauce packet and figure out how to drizzle/dunk without a container.

Spring rolls are also available as a regular appetizer, 3 to an order, for $3.99.  I wouldn't order them intentionally, but I appreciated having an included appetizer with lunch.

L28: Braised Spareribs w/ Daikon & Cooked Lettuce 蘿蔔素腩. Brown Rice. $13.50.

When I opened my container, I'll admit I was a bit disappointed.  It looked like a ton of brown rice, and really not much of the main dish.  Which, granted, is common for lunch specials rather than a la carte.  But it turned out looks were deceiving - that entire side was not just rice, it was actually filled with the main dish under the rice too, the rice was just packed in on top.  

I selected brown rice at the request of my co-dinner, as I'm not really one for rice in general, and I expected most of it to go to him.  I did end up eating some, as the saucy nature of the dish required it, and it was really good rice, at least, to me.  Again, not a rice girl, but I liked the texture (slightly crunchy), the flavor (slightly nutty), and it certainly wasn't clumpy or mushy.

As for the main dish, I selected it because I read good things about the vegan spare ribs, and the option of daikon and lettuce sounded far more exciting than the other choice, broccoli.  I like cooked lettuce in general (I love to grill it too!), and had been on a daikon kick at the time.

The daikon ended up being kinda meh to me - it was fine, juicy, and soaked up lots of sauce, but, for some reason, I just wasn't into it.  There was plenty of it.  The dish also included a few chunks of carrot (major meh, I'm not a cooked carrot girl, basically just braised carrots like in a stew).

It was very, very saucy overall, in a sauce that was fairly sweet, thick, and had some, uh, "Chinese flavor" to it.  I found it a bit too one note, but I added plenty of the provided Chinese hot sauce, and it was good that way.  I wouldn't want this sauce again though.

On the a la carte menu, this dish is a "House Special", for $13.99 (or $15.50 with delivery.com), the broccoli version is a "Chef's Special" for $14.99/$16.50, for lunch it was "L28", $11.99/$13.50.  The portion was good, and included the appetizer, but the delivery.com markup did make it feel overpriced.

Lettuce.

It didn't look initially like there was much lettuce included, but again, looks were deceiving.  Once I dug in, I found the entire base of the container, both sides, under the rice as well, was covered in the cooked lettuce.  It was absolutely drenched in the sauce, so very very very sweet, but again, I added hot sauce (and some fried shallots I brought), and enjoyed it.  It needed some rice to balance the sauce though, hence, my unplanned rice eating.

Mushroom!

As I dug around, I found ... mushrooms!  There were only a few (I think 4?), and all were hiding under the rice, but they were my favorite part: meaty mushrooms, with a nice chew to them.

Veggie Spare Ribs.

And finally, of course, the main attraction: the spare ribs.  Vegan.  This was the part I was most ... interested in of course.  I am not vegan, I am not vegetarian, and I enjoy meat and seafood and duck ... yeah, all the things (except chicken!).  But people really do find the vegetarian proteins at Enjoy compelling, and in particular, I heard great things about the spare ribs.

Now, I ... really dislike tofu (especially firm tofu), I *loathe* tempeh, but, these I believe were made from seitan.  Unlike tofu and tempeh (made from soy), seitan is derived from wheat gluten.  It has more chew to it, more meatiness.  I am not positive this was seitan though (it might have been mushroom based? Who knows, really?).

Anyway.  It was ... actually kinda good.  Definitely fascinating, and not an immediate 'no way!'.  It was chewy, it was meaty, it was ... a bit spongy.  The taste was hard to distinguish given all the sauce, but, it wasn't bad.  Basically, just quite interesting, not unpleasant, and, well, fun to try.  I certainly could have believed it was some form of highly processed meat, but it was more like a meatball than a spare rib.  

I was glad to try this, but I want to try other proteins next.

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China Lane, Sydney

I was very excited to visit China Lane, a modern Chinese restaurant in Sydney, the sister restaurant of China Doll, a restaurant in Wooloomooloo I had visited years ago.  While China Doll wasn't particularly memorable, China Lane gets fantastic reviews, and the menu really called out.

So when I needed to organize dinner for a group of 8, it was right near the top of my list.

A highly underwhelming meal.

I don't have much positive to say about this meal.  The pacing was odd, the service worse than standard Sydney service (non attentive, empty water glasses all the time, needed to wave them over o get refills, etc), and the food highly mediocre.  The restaurant was not busy.

I have no desire to return.

Setting

China Lane, is, actually, located down a lane, Angel Place right in the CBD.  A convenient location at least.

Birdcages.

As every post reviewing China Lane will note, you reach it by walking under an art installation of assorted bird cages, complete with bird sounds.

You can tell who is a tourist/new to the area and who is not by just watching them walk through here, looking either where they are going, or ... not so much.

Outdoor Seating.

As with many Sydney establishments, much of the seating spills out onto the laneway, with heaters if required.

Indoors.

Our group of 8 was seated inside however, at a long table along one wall.  A private room is also available, but we opted for main dining room seating given the fairly high minimum spend requirement for the room.

The restaurant was *very* empty that night, with only a handful of small tables occupied.  I was fairly surprised.  This did mean it was peaceful and quiet, and a private room was certainly not needed.

 Cocktails

The cocktail menu had a series of drinks that were all almost appealing, but with one ingredient I wasn't excited about.  I still found a drink I was excited enough for, but alas, I didn't care for it.

Big Trouble in Little China.

"Los Altos Blanco Tequila, Rose, Raspberry & Soda."

The first, this wasn't bad.  It was pretty, and the garnish lovely.  I tasted the tequila, and I liked it.  It was fruity though, and I found myself wanting salt.

But by the second sip, it seemed ... more sweet.  By the third ... just too sweet.

I could taste the tequila at least, but, it was just too sweet for me.  After a few more sips, I gave my cocktail away to a dining companion.

Not trusting the bar to make a balanced drink, I moved on to wine.

Cuisine

We skipped everything from the "生 san - raw & nibbles" section, but ordered a few dishes from every other section of the menu.

We had one vegetarian in the group, but since everything is share plates, I created a menu that had a dish from each category, with one vegetarian and 1-2 not, paired together, e.g. a veggie dumpling and a seafood dumpling, veggie san choy bao and pork san choy bao, veggie fried rice and pork fried rice, a tofu main to go along with the beef and pork belly mains, etc.  I thought I had a great plan.

But the meal pacing was odd, with major delays between courses, and, in all cases, the vegetarian versions of dishes coming out long before the non-vegetarian, which defeated my purposes of ordering in the way I did.  I was hoping to have everyone eating ... together.

The pacing, and order of the dishes, was frustrating.

蒸 zheng - steamed 

The steamed section of the menu offered several types of dumplings, sui mai, bao, and duck pancakes.  I selected one pork & seafood and one vegetarian dumpling for the group, doubling up on the non-vegetarian.

I didn't get a photo, but the vegetarian dumplings were the first item to arrive, finally 45 minutes after we were seated.  The non-veggie ones however took another 15 minutes!  We instructed the vegetarian and those who wanted the veggie ones to eat before they got cold, but people clearly felt polite.  And the rest of us, having been there for a full hour (!) before our dumplings arrived, tried hard not to take the limited number of veggie dumplings.

 Pork, prawn & scallop sui mai w sichuan chilli oil. $20.

When they finally came, in steamer baskets, both orders were placed on one end of the table, rather than one for each side of the table.  Sigh, Sydney service.

The sui mai were .. ok.  The wrapper was good, had a nice chew.  Inside was a too chewy chunk of shrimp, a firm pork ball with good flavor, and a thin scallop perched on top, with a bit of roe.  I liked the mushroom bits inside as well. The chili oil on the side was nice, spicy.

Overall, this was fine, but not great, yet sadly my second favorite item.  I wouldn't really want it again.  I forgot that I had ordered these, and felt the same way, at China Doll.

炒 & 炸 chao & zha - wok & fried

Moving on to the "Wok and Fried" section, we went for an assortment of items, although honestly I would have been happy ordering exclusively from this section.  So many tempting things.

And again, pacing was way off, the vegetarian dish arriving long before the pork.

 Vegetarian san choy bao. $14.

I haven't ever had san choy bao before, but I know reviews favored it, and China Lane offered up three varieties: pork, shrimp, and vegetarian. 

I didn't try the vegetarian version, but it went unfinished.  Those who had it said, "eh, it was fine".

 Pork san choy bao. $18.

I skipped the pork version too, since it ran out before it reached me, and I didn't really care to try these.  No one said much about them.

 Tempura whiting with sichuan pepper, wasabi mayo and sesame salt. $32

.

Now we were getting to the dishes I wanted.  Fried fish! Wasabi mayo!  We had also been there a full hour at this point, and I was hangry!

The fish was clearly freshly fried, so I'll give a point for that.  But it was extremely oily.  At least it had good crunch?  The fish inside was ... boring, mild, uninteresting.

The wasabi mayo was good, creamy, but, it didn't really deliver much in the way of the wasabi.  I liked the sesame salt though, as I really do like to amp up the salt level in my dishes.

Overall, this had promise, fresh, and I liked the idea that it came with lemon to drizzle for acidity, creamy mayo, and the sesame salt to dunk in, but ... it wasn't actually anything special.  My third pick, I wouldn't want it again.

 Togarashi cuttlefish with garlic & chilli vinegar. $18

.

If I was excited for the tempura whiting, I was even more excited for the togarashi cuttlefish.  I like cuttlefish, and love that its a regular menu item around Sydney.  And yay to togarashi!  Not only was it visibly seasoned with it, more came on the side.

The texture of the cuttlefish was good, not rubbery nor chewy, and the flavor from the togarashi was nice, the salt level to my liking.

Again though, not really special. 4th pick.

配菜 pui choi – sides

To round out the meal, just like China Doll, we could select from a very limited number of sides, just steamed jasmine rice or fried rice, and a couple asian greens.    Not being a rice eater, I didn't really care about this section, but I ordered fried rice (both versions, including the vegetarian one), to fill the others up.

The rice came 20 minutes after the fried items, 10  minutes before the mains.  And yes the veggie one was 5 minutes before the other, and yes we actually wanted these *with* the mains.

Fried rice with char sui pork & prawn. $24.

.

The pork and prawn version didn't even look appealing to me, so I didn't bother try it.  The rice didn't look particularly seasoned, sauced, nor fried really, the shrimp were visibly not cleaned, the pork looked tough and dry, and there was way too much green onion just dumped on top.

辣 酸 lah & sup - spicy & wet 

Moving into the main attractions, the larger "spicy & wet" dishes.  Here I selected two for the group, a beef option per the request of one diner, and the pork belly, because it is one of their most known dishes.  This section had plenty of seafood options too, but since everything else I had picked was seafood, I went more for meat in this category.

These dishes did not arrive until the 1.5 hour mark.  Yes, really.  And yes, the vegetarian main came 8 minutes before the others.

 Soy braised crispy pork belly with chilli caramel. $34.

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Pork belly.  Its ... everywhere in Sydney.  On my of my visits to Sydney, I'd say I eat pork belly 6 out of 7 days, at least once per day.  Seriously, everywhere.  So, although I love pork belly, I wasn't particularly craving it, but this is China Lane's most known dish, everyone raves about it, so, I had to get it, right?

Note that I had the same dish at China Doll, and found it underwhelming then, although I liked the caramel sauce.  

I liked it even less here.  It was crispy, yes, but, my chunk tasted burnt.  It was kinda chewy, and had no nicely rendered fat. I liked the fried shallots on top more than the pork belly.

My least favorite dish, although others thought this was ok.  Maybe I just got the worst pieces?

Wagyu beef massaman with sweet potato & thai cardamon. $36

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We had a request for a beef dish, and the options were a filet or the wagyu massaman curry, which won the vote.  Not really my thing, but the sauce was flavorful, and this dish had really a substantial portion of beef.

斋 jai – vegetarian

So, for the vegetarian, we had the aforementioned veggie dumplings that I failed to get a photo of, the lackluster vegetarian san choy bao, veggie fried rice, and a tofu main dish.  Other vegetarian main dishes included soba noodles, a hummus based dish, and one featuring mushrooms that actually sounded good to me, but, I had the vegetarian pick the main, and he opted for tofu.

Vegetable fried rice with green bean, indonesian soy and crispy eshallot. $15

.

Out of boredom, and the fact that it was going uneaten, and it at least had tons of crispy shallots on top, I tried the veggie fried rice.
.

It ... was just rice with some mild soy sauce flavor.  Although I did like the crispy shallots, just like on the pork belly.  That doesn't mean the fried shallots were actually anything special though.

 Wok fried tofu with bamboo shoot, zucchini & confit garlic. $24

.

And finally, the fried tofu, a dish I would have never ordered, as I don't care for tofu, or zucchini.

But, it also turned out to be the most delicious dish of the night.  As in, it was genuinely good, at least, the parts I had were.

I tried this too, out of boredom.  We were sitting there soooo long, and, besides the vegetarian, on one was going near this dish, as it looked like a fairly banal dish of tofu and veggies.  So, bored, feeling bad for the uneaten food, I took an onion.  I do like onions!  The onion was good, cooked just right, slightly crisp still, full of flavor from the sauce.

Feeling more bold, I took a chunk of bamboo shoot.  It was juicy, nourishing.  Not really my thing, but, not bad.

Still, I pressed on, skipping the tofu and zucchini, but going for the confit garlic.  Now ... now THAT was good.  Really good.  Soft, amazing mild flavor, again, it soaked up all the sauce.

After nearly 2 hours of lackluster, I finally had something that I liked.  The confit garlic in the veggie tofu dish.  Go figure.

I gleefully told the others how good it was, and slowly, others decided to try it.  They were worried about garlic breath, but I tried to explain that it was slow cooked, confit, and mellow, and eventually someone else tried it and agreed.  Those who had the garlic, onions, etc, agreed they were among the better bites.

So, thank you to the vegetarian for ordering this.  Not that I'd get it again, but it was my favorite dish, I guess.

甜品 tian pin - something sweet

After such an uninspiring meal, it was time for dessert, well, once we tracked someone down to get a menu.  I considered skipping dessert there, because, really, how long would *that* take, and since nothing else was very good, why would I expect dessert to be good?  But you know me, I *need* my dessert, and I had seen the menu in advance and wanted sooo many things.

So, dessert time it was.

I surveyed the group to find out their dessert desires. Many didn't want dessert.  And those who did all wanted different things, except for 2 people, who wanted the same, but didn't want to share (or, so they thought).  I asked the server for guidance on portions, asking if the desserts were large.  She told me they were small. 

Somehow, we ended up ordering 7 desserts for 8 people, even though 3 had declined dessert entirely, 2 were getting their own items, and even though there were only 5 desserts total anyway.

It turns out, our server's guidance that they were small and not for sharing was just crazytalk.  They were huge.  We had way too much.

And ... it was all just as lackluster as the rest of the menu, no matter how good the dishes sounded.  Sigh.

 Penfold’s grandfather rare tawny port. $20.

I paired my dessert with the port recommended on the menu.  I haven't had much port in my life, but recently discovered that I adore the port they serve on Air New Zealand flights, so I was excited to try another one.

It was ... fine?  Not nearly as smooth and caramely as the one on Air New Zealand.  I mostly drank it because I felt bad wasting, when I had given away my cocktail earlier too.

Mah-jong Chocolates. $16.

One person didn't really want dessert, but said he'd have a chocolate.

The menu did not tell us anything about these chocolates, but, they came in a group of 4, all shaped like mah-jong tiles.  They might have all been different? A few people, not myself, had them.  No one said much about them.

Hokey pokey parfait with charred nashi pear. $16.

Next, we have the dessert that the two people who didn't want to share wanted.  They are both from New Zealand, and were excited to see a hokey pokey dish.

I wasn't particularly excited for this one since honey isn't my thing, so I was planning to skip it entirely, but, um, when the two "individual" portions arrived, it was clear that these weren't really individual, and that there was plenty to share.  This ... was not a little parfait.

It also wasn't really much of a parfait, as it was in a large wide dish, and didn't really have any layers.  Is my understanding of what a parfait is just wrong?  Anyway, it was rich, thick, and sweet, with plenty of honey flavor.  The toppings were arranged nicely, some bits of pear, little pearls (honey?), a drizzle of honey, and some random herbs.

The folks who ordered this commented that it was far too big and rich to finish.  They both managed about half, but it was clear they were forcing it, taking frequent breaks.  I think it was just way too heavy to enjoy more than a few spoonfuls of.  It needed ... whipped cream, texture, and, well, layers?  Like a ... parfait perhaps?

Apple yuzu granita with roasted white chocolate ice cream & passionfruit curd. $16.

Next came another one that I didn't want, as granita is not my thing, nor are citrus flavors (yuzu), nor is passionfruit curd (I love fresh passionfruit, just, not curd, usually ...).

But again, since only one person wanted this, and he had already said he didn't want a full dessert, this had plenty left over, so I tried it.

The granita was refreshing, but, it was granita, bo-ring.  The white chocolate ice cream was ... fine.  But nothing special, just sweet ice cream, reasonably creamy.  The almond crumble was nice for a bit of texture, but I wanted more.  And no, basil leaves don't count as texture.

If you wanted a lighter style dessert, this might be nice, but for me, it was just incomplete.  It needed more texture, or some fruit, or ... something.  That said, I did avoid the passionfruit curd.

Vietnamese banoffee with 5 spice, sesame praline & Bailey's cream. $16.

Ok, now we were getting to interesting deserts, this was my third pick before trying the desserts, and since one other person said they'd try this, we ordered it.

This excited me for several reasons.  First, I do love banoffee.  It has a special place in my heart, since discovering it on my first trip to Sydney.  I was interested to see this Vietnamese spin on it.  And ... I love praline, sesame, and, Bailey's and cream ... so everything else certainly called out.

While I knew it wouldn't be traditional banoffee, I didn't quite expect ... this?  It looked like a dessert version of a trendy, artisinal toast.  The only "banoffee" element seemed to be bananas, sliced and cubed.

The base was not a caramelized biscuit crust, and there was no toffee.  Nope, instead, the base was ... cake.  Just ... cake.  Fairly dry cake.  I think the 5 spice was in here.  Boo, hiss to cake as a primary component.  I certainly wouldn't have been interested had I known that.

On top though was a thick, rich Bailey's cream.  I didn't necessarily taste Bailey's, nor understand what that had to do with banoffee nor Vietnamese flavors, but, the cream was good.  The sesame praline I also enjoyed.  And this one also had random herbs perched on top.  The pastry team really seems to like adding herbs.

But overall, since I disliked the cake, this isn't something I'd get again . My second pick of desserts though, just for the toppings.

Oh, and also, ridiculously large.  Easily shared by at least 3 people.  Our waitress was ... so wrong.

Black sticky rice with seasonal fruit / Coconut sago with seasonal fruit. $12 each.

And finally, the two I was looking forward to, the sticky rice and sago, both of which, it turns out, I had at China Doll too.  Both served warm, with coconut milk.  And yes, both in big bowls, and both portions that would be too much for a single person, really.

The black sticky rice scores points for being warm, and for the fine texture of the rice, but there was something about the flavor that I really did not enjoy.  I don't know what it was, but, I didn't care for it at all.  Ginger maybe?  It was strong, and took over the flavor profile.  The coconut on top was candied, and also tasted a bit odd.  The mango was uninteresting, and there wasn't much of it.  This went largely untouched, with myself and 1-2 others trying it, and not wanting any more. 

And finally, the one I had liked at China Doll, the sago (although there it came with different toppings).  It came topped with coconut, strawberry, coulis, and ... yup, herbs.

The sago was fine.  Again points for warm, points for texture.  Decently creamy, good coconut milk/cream flavor.  The shredded coconut on top here was fine, although there was too much for my taste.  The fruit made me sad, as it wasn't fresh strawberry, it really seemed like frozen berries, mushy.  Stewed fruit, compotes, those make sense, but this really seemed just like frozen soggy, not intentional soggy.  Really a shame.

My favorite of the desserts, but not something I'd get again either.  I did take the leftovers home (minus the berries and coconut), since we had so much untouched, and added passionfruit, kiwi, mango, and lychee, and ate it the next day, chilled.  It was better, but, this wasn't really good to begin with.

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