Meowzz "Eating my way through the world"

Absolutely my favorite roast beef sandwich anywhere. There are a few other fantastic places a bit north and west of here, one of which does actually rival Mike’s sandwiches, but still…. Mike’s is always fantastic and its just generally a nicer experience to go there than the other places. Mike’s is not a glamorous place. One can feel totally comfortable coming in regardless of how they are dressed. During the day they get all kinds of folks from truck drivers to mechanics to businessmen in suits. At night they get people who live nearby and an often fascinating assortment of people out on the town. In addition to having great roast beef sandwiches, Mike’s also has fantastic fried clams, seafood plates, fries, onion rings, and pastrami sandwiches to name a few things. As far as I can tell, Mike’s just does it right for everything on their menu.

Great food – If you can tolerate very poorly ventilated cigarette smoke! Even trying to circumvent this by ordering take-out is no help – Take-out is ordered and waited for AT THE BAR with 9999 cigarettes going at any given time.

That being said, their fried rice is some of the best anywhere. Their veggie dishes are amazing. Their beef dishes have some of the tenderest beef around. It is just a shame you have to choose between eating here or breathing!

Flavorful sauces for every dish. Service is attentive and efficient (something rare in the area!) I would say this is a very New York style Chinese restaurant but with it’s own unique flair. Cleanliness is top notch as is the freshness of the food and ingredients. This is not a terribly busy restaurant so you should have no problem with crowds or waiting. (I am almost surprised they are not packed every day for every meal! Then again, thats rare in this area too!)

There are several Mongolian Barbecue restaurants in the general area. This one greatly outshines all of them. First, this restaurant gets top marks for cleanliness and food freshness. Some of the others… well, they just don’t. Secondly, the food quality is superb. They manage to consistantly have top quality beef, chicken, lamb, pork, and crab to create your Mongolian Barbecue dish of the evening with. Their vegetables seem as though hand picked as they are always fresh and colorful. The selection of ingredients is not quite as large as some of the other Mongolian Barbecue restaurants in the area but you can rest assured that you are not missing out by eating here. Last but definitely not least, the service is friendly and usually very efficient. There are times when very busy where you might have to wait for some things but overall no big complaints about the service. Their general attitude really does make up for any wait times though as they employ some of the nicest servers of anyplace I know of. They really do get to know you and what you generally order for your soup and your drink. Sometimes after only waiting on you once before! Oh and don’t let me forget to mention, speaking of soups – they only have two soups, egg drop and hot and sour – but they are fantastic soups! Seriously, this restaurant is worth going to for the soups alone!

Okay, I personally think this place is a bit overrated. They have a great reputation locally and when you view their website they seem great! However, when you actually go there, well… Lets just say my first attempt, I missed the place! I was looking for a nice restaurant – This is actually a shop in a strip shopping center. Now that in itself doesn’t have to make a place less than, but this one kind of has all the appeal one would expect from such a location. Very little in the way of decor or atmosphere. Plain booths in the seating area, a counter for ordering your food if to go – They do have table service but its a bit sketchy at best.

The food itself is about what one would expect from such a location too. Its rather bland in general and while I’ve eaten there a couple of times, nothing stands out to distinguish it in any way.

Cleanliness and freshness are, while acceptable, rather so so in my opinion. In other words, this is not the place I’d be willing to try a rarely ordered seafood dish. I’ve pretty much stuck to what I’d perceive as frequently ordered foods here.

I’ve gone back a few times though as the folks who run the place are generally nice and they are open a bit later than many Chinese places in the area. They also don’t seem to mind a bit if you are a “sitter” after you finish your meal so its a good place to go if you have a bit of work to do with your dinner or something like that.

I couldn’t really recommend this restaurant for their food as there are many places with much better food but if you want a place to just go and be comfortable and hang out for a while, this may be the place for you.

While I feel a need to give this restaurant the 5 stars, this does not mean ALL their dishes rate 5 stars. What is good there is very very good there, what is not good there is well, not good.

They have wonderful, personable, friendly staff and management. Service, whether eat-in or take-out is very quick and efficient. Call-in orders are almost always ready by the time you get there. Delivery is only to a tiny area but that too is quick and efficient.

Food quality rates very high with me but they have a few blind spots when it comes to the cleanliness and freshness areas. I doubt if anyone would ever get ill from eating here but I don’t think I’d really want a kitchen tour here.

Some of their best dishes include (but are not limited to): All fried rice types, sesame chicken, sesame beef, lumpia (yes lumpia in a Chinese restaurant!), teriyaki, and their orange beef.

Some of their eh not so great dishes are their chop sueys, chow meins, and moo goo gai pan. In other words, they do better with more of the less common items than with the day to day stuffs here.

You’ve undoubtedly heard the tale of the gal, “when she was good, she was very very good, but when she was bad, she was rotten (or horrid, depending on version!)”? Well, Kin’s Wok could be her restaurant! When they are good, they are very very good, excellent even! Thankfully this is a good solid 90% of the time. But if its a bad night, and theres no telling what makes for their bad night, you can really order several items and have nothing taste satisfactory. The difference between this place on a good or average night to a bad night is stark. You’d almost swear you were eating in completely different restaurants. I don’t know if its maybe some specific cook or what but I will say, a few years ago I ate there quite frequently, and then, there were no bad nights. I’d like for them to get back to that level of consistently being excellent again.

Okay, now all that being said, please bear in mind THEY ARE GREAT 90% OF THE TIME. It is well worth risking a 10% night to allow yourself the pleasure of their average taste sensations. I include this info as I’d hate someone to read a glowing review with nothing but praise and end up there on one of those rare off nights. So if you go and get there and its just kinda not so good, go back again! You are incredibly unlikely to get 2 bad nights in 2 visits. I don’t think I ever have. Its really like 1 out of 10 to 15 visits thats not so good.

They do many items in classic New York style Chinese food. They have items that most others do not carry such as sesame pancakes and shrimp toast. They have absolutely the best Moo Shui Beef I’ve had anywhere. Just go with what you like or what sounds good to you. Nearly everything on the menu is great (90% of the time).

If you are not into spicy things, ask the level of spiciness of what you are interested in ordering. Most things can have their spice level altered to suit your preferences but believe them when the menu says something is HOT! It REALLY is!

The restaurant itself does not look impressive. They have a half dozen or so tables with chairs. Not elaborate at all and more like old timey fast food (before the chains took over fast food!) than like a finer dining Chinese restaurant. It is a comfortable atmosphere though and often customers mingle and strike up conversations table to table. There is usually a number of people waiting for their take out orders too as really, the bulk of their business is take out or delivery.

And that, today, in this area, is one of the wonderful things about Kin’s Wok! They deliver!!! Do not however assume you are within or outside of their delivery area! Call and ask! Some places you would think would be in it are not, some you would think likely too far or outside delivery area are regular delivery areas. So call and ask! When you do get delivery from them, they are almost always very accurate with the time frame they quote on the phone and delivery people are very nice so try to make sure to tip them at least as well as you’d tip a waitress or waiter serving you the same price meal. They work very hard all night and I know so often delivery people get missed for tipping so I just like to remind people its totally appropriate to tip your delivery people!

Try this place for yourself. Once you do, you’re almost certain to become a regular whenever nearby. Its just that kind of place.