|
ORIENTAL DALLAS
RATING: 9.5/10 (lunch)
MUST HAVE: salad roll appetizer
Have you been frustrated because you have to go all the way downtown to get any kind of asian cuisine?
Well, you've waited long enough. The Oriental Dallas is located at 3855 17 Ave SW and serves up Vietnamese
and Thai cuisine. We sampled the house special PHO and the egg noodles with seafood soup. What a
treat! The broth for both soups was the best, by far, of any Pho place in town! The noodles were
tender and firm. Very impressive offerings, as you can see from the rating given. We also taste
tested the cold noodle dishes (bun). The chicken with spring roll was excellent, although the
barbeque pork with spring roll was pretty good, too. The fish sauce is ok. Stay tuned for a
review of the dinner menu.
SAIGON Y2K
RATING: 9/10 (lunch/dinner)
MUST HAVE: Spring rolls
Previously the home of the Golden Jade on Centre Street, the Saigon Y2K took over the Vietnamese
theme. The menu appears very similar to the Golden Jade, but we weren't convinced that they would
cook as well. We were both pleasantly surprised with the combination crispy egg noodle and the
chicken with lemon grass and chili for dinner. For lunch, our tasters tried the vermicelli shrimp
paste charbroiled pork meat ball which was excellent, and the vermicelli lemon grass chicken which was
also very good.
What really defines a good Vietnamese restaurant for me is the fish sauce. If it's tasteless, than the
dish can be really bland. The Y2K has wonderful fish sauce, in my opinion one of the top three in
town. As always, if you have a peanut allergy of any kind, stay away (my sympathies!).
THAI-SA-ON
RATING: 9/10 (lunch)
MUST HAVE: Stuffed chicken wings
This restaurant has been around on 10th Ave for a long time and deserves a review. The menu has expanded
to over 100 items. Catch a glimpse of the Jackie Chan production notes for Shanghai noon. The
sample appetizer was a great start to the meal as it had stuffed chicken wings, dumplings, shrimp,
tarts and sate. Each came with its own dipping sauce.
Our main dishes were also exceptionally good; chicken with pineapple and ginger; beef with kafir leaves, and
Pad Thai. Round out your meal with coconut rice and your guests whill be satisfied. One word of
caution, however, the restaurant is closed between 2 and 5. The good news is that they serve a
lunch buffet on Thursdays.
FORBIDDEN CITY
RATING: 8/10 (dim-sum)
MUST HAVE: ha-gow
Forbidden City has just opened in the T&T Mall in the northeast. When we went, we waited for an hour to get a table
on a very buzy weekend. Other taste testers who had been there previously reported that
they didn't get a dish that they had ordered. Unfortunately,this was also our experience. They do,
however,
get top marks for decor.
Now to the food: a few dishes were really good, and the rest were above average in quality. There was no cart service for dim-sum,
we had to order by card. This ensures that the food is fresh, but it does take a long while to get
it. We won't rush to go back, but it deserves another try when they're not so buzy.
|
Last update: Nov14/00
Copyright Black Dragon Productions
|
|