Cuisine: American, Chinese,

Restaurant Features: On-Site Parking, Counter-Service for Take Out

Location: Roseville, MN

Address: 1163 Larpenteur Ave W St Paul, MN
55113-6382 (651) 488-6687

Links: Google map

Atmosphere: House of Wong is a large restaurant located within a large strip-mall in Roseville.  The restaurant is long and narrow shaped, with several high-backed booths that run all the way to the back of the restaurant. The taller booths give you a sense of privacy and the way they are placed might make you forget the restaurant is as big as it is. The decor of the House of Wong is more casual and homey than sophisticated Asian, but the hand-carved wooden doors and  handful of Asian vases serve to remind you this is indeed, a Chinese Restaurant.

Menu: Appetizers include Egg Rolls, Cantonese Chicken Wings, Fried Potstickers, Szechuan Wings, Chinese Barbeque Pork, Crispy Chicken Fingers, Jumbo Golf Shrimp, Meat Wontons, Cream Cheese Wontons, Shrimp Toast, Fried Chicken Livers, and Onion Rings.

The House of Wong has several variations of Chow Mein including Meat, Diced Chicken, Sliced Mushroom, Subgum, Chicken Mushroom, Chicken Subgum, Shrimp, and Barbeque Pork.  Lomein entrees are made with either Chicken, Barbeque Pork, Beef, Shrimp, or the House of Wong Special Lomein.

Fried Rice specials include Chicken, BBQ Pork, Beef, Fresh Shrimp, Special Fried Rice, and Meatless.  

Chinese Chicken dishes include Sweet & Sour, Sesame, Orange, Moo Goo Gai Pan, Chicken and Broccoli, Chicken Almond Ding, Kung Pao,  Szechuan, Chicken in Garlic Sauce, General Tsao's, and Curry Chicken.

Beef Dishes include Beef & Broccoli, Beef & Snow Peapods, Beef Pepper Steak, Mongolian, Kung Pao, Szechuan, and Mandarin Beef.  Pork entrees include Sweet & Sour and Sesame.

Vegetarian and Seafood plates include Gulf Shrimp & peapods or Broccoli, Szechuan Shrimp, Kung Pao Shrimp, Triple Kung Pao, Hunan Triple Crown, Szechuan Vegetarian Tofu Stir Fry.

You can also get a  Noodle or Rice Bowls topped with either Mandarin beef, Teriyaki Chicken, Szechuan Garlic Chicken, Pepper Steak, Chicken Almond Ding, Kung Pao Chicken, Beef and Broccoli, and Szechuan Vegetarian Tofu.

There are a number of combination plates as well.

Besides the large amount of Chinese dishes, House of Wong also has several American Items on their menu with Entrees such as Hamburgers, Fresh Roasted Turkey, Grilled or Breaded Pork Chops, Leg of Pork, Pork tenderloin, Frilled Round Steak, Cod Filet, Baby Beef Liver, Sauteed Chicken Breast, Breaded Pork Cutlet, Jumbo Golf Shrimp,  Hawaiian Ham Steak and Fried Chicken.

Sandwiches include Triple Decker Club, Grilled Cheese, Cold Turkey, Hot Turkey, Grilled Chicken, Grilled Ham and Cheese, Chicken or Tuna Salad, and Fish & Chips Basket.

You can even order Italian entrees like Spaghetti, Meat Lasagna, Mostaccioli, Chicken Parmigiana, and Fettuccine with Chicken and Broccoli.

The homemade pies at House of Wong include Banana Cream, Coconut Cream, Chocolate Silk, Apple, Custard, Pumpkin, and on Sundays there is also Carrot Cake.

Price guide: Prices vary depending on whether you dine-in or order take-out.  Take out prices seem to be a couple $$ less.  Appetizers $5-10  Chinese Entrees $8-14 American Entrees $10-16

What we ordered: We started with the Shrimp Toast, which was fabulous! The bottom was made with a piece of cocktail-sized bread and then large pieces of shrimp were butterflied, seasoned, and then placed on top and then battered and deep-fried.  What a delightful combination of textures! The toast was crispy yet the top was light, fluffy and crunchy.  Served with hot mustard and a mild sweet and sour sauce.  I have only had shrimp toast at a handful of restaurants and I think House of Wong has the best :)

We also ordered the Barbeque Pork appetizer.  Unbelievably good!  The pork was so tender you could cut it with a fork and the outside was glazed with a sweet sauce, complimenting the natural flavor of the pork.  This is a must-have every time I visit the House of Wong!

We also had the Pork Fried Rice, which had large pieces of the Barbeque Pork that I like so much.  The  rice was so hot it was steaming and my photo ended up turning out blurry.  Sorry I didn't take a better one! The rice was deliciously flavorful with green onions, scrambled egg, mushrooms and bean sprouts and the portion was  very generous. 

We also tried the Egg Foo Young with shrimp and mushrooms.  I am not typically a big fan of egg foo young, but this was really good! There was a nice mix of both vegetables and shrimp.  The sauce was on the mild side.

We also ordered the Beef Tenderloin Lomein.  This was a generous portion of thin, pan-fried noodles with stir-fried pea pods, onions, carrots, bean sprouts, and thin slices of beef tenderloin.  This is a mild dish that compliments each of the individual flavors of the ingredients.

We also had the Orange Chicken.  The portion was pretty large with several pieces of crispy, batter-fried chicken.  The sauce was very thick and tasted very strongly of orange.

Service:  Our visit was right at the beginning of the dinner rush and we were lucky enough to get a table immediately- (You can almost always expect a short wait during the dinner rush because the House of Wong is very popular! ). Our server was very nice and very busy attending to us as well as her other tables, she was very attentive to getting refills

Overall Impression: House of Wong has been one of my all-time favorite Chinese restaurants since I was just a toddler.  You get large portions for the money the food is consistent and the quality of the meat is always very good.

Cuisine: Vietnamese, Thai, and Chinese
Restaurant Features: Bar, Happy Hour, On-Site Parking

Location: Maplewood
Address: 1715-A Beam Avenue  Maplewood, MN 55109   651-747-1000  ***Located at the end of a large strip mall (next to Marshall’s)
Links: Bambu Website * Bambu Facebook Page * Google Map

Atmosphere: Very romantic with dim lighting, candles atop white table-cloths, and richly colored walls.  There are both circular and square tables, which can easily be combined for larger parties.

Bambu also has a lovely bar area and boasts wonderful drink specials.

Menu: Appetizers include Chicken Wings, Egg Rolls, Pot Stickers, Fried Tofu, Calamari, Spring Rolls, Wontons, Shrimp, Fresh Mussels, and Pan-Seared Scallops.  Salad/soups include Bambu Asian Salad, Thai pineapple Chicken Salad, Spicy Thai Beef Salad, Vietnamese Noodle Salad, Egg Drop Soup, Hot & Sour Soup, Wonton Soup, Vietnamese Chicken Noodle.

Chinese Entrees include General Tso’s Chicken, Sweet & Sour Chicken, Sesame Chicken, Beef or Shrimp, Kung Pao Chicken, Orange Chicken, Mandarin Chicken, Lemon Chicken, Cashew Chicken.  The following entrees can be served with either chicken, pork, tofu, mock duck, beef, shrimp or scallops: Broccoli Stir-Fry, Hunan Chicken, Sizzling Duck, Tiger Pork, Sizling Black Bean Sauce, Coconut Curry, Ginger or Oyster Stir-fry, Garlic Baby Bok Choy, Egg Fu Young, Chinese Chow Mein, Vietnamese Chow Mein, Singapore Noodles, Pineapple Stir fry, Hong Kong Wontons, Lomein, Fried Rice, Mu Shu Wrap and Chicken Almond Ding.

Thai Entrees include Thai Hot Curry Fried Rice, Pineapple Fried Rice, Yellow Chicken Curry, Pad Thai, Penang Red, Thair Stir-Fried Rice Noodles, Red Salmon Pineapple Curry, Green Mahi-Mahi Curry, Spicy & Sweet Blast Curry, Massaman Chicken Stir-Fry, Spicy Chicken, Basil Stir-Fry and Spicy Thai Basil Fried Rice.

Vietnamese Entrees include Salted Shrimp, Fried Rice, Garlic Catfish, Vietnamese Rice Platter, Fried Potato with Beef, Lemon Frog legs, Tamarind Shrimp, Grilled Beef and Shrimp & Beef.

Bambu also serves a large variety of Pho, an authentic Vietnamese beef broth served over rice noodles and Asian vegetables.

Seafood Entrees include Waleye, Seafood in Black Bean Sauce, Sea Bass, Triple Delight, Thai Seafood Linguine Curry.

Price guide: Appetizers $4.50-8  Salads/soups $3-11  Seafood $12-17  Chinese Entrees $9-13  Thai Entrees $9-17  Vietnamese Entrees $ 8-17  Pho $7-9
What we ordered: To start, we tried the calamari.  It was lightly breaded and served with stir-fried green and white onions.  I had never had calamari prepared this way, but I really enjoyed the blend of flavors.  I thought the serving was quite generous.

We ordered the Masaman Chicken Stir-Fry, a sweet green curry with chicken, onions, avocado and cashews.  I have never had a curry like this before, but I loved the flavor and texture of the dish.  This was also a very large portion of food.

We also ordered the Fried Potatoes with Beef.  The potatoes were crispy and the beef was tender and plentiful.

Fried Rice.  I cannot remember which fried rice we ordered, but it was pretty good.

My companion also ordered  lemonade and it was not only homemade, but hand-squeezed to order; both sugary and tart at the same time!

Service: Our service was exceptional! The server was very friendly and offered several suggestions from the menu.  Food was prepared in a timely manner and after compliments to the chef, the chef came out to talk with us.  By chance the owner was visiting the restaurant and also stopped to talk with me and my companion.  Everyone was really nice and talkative.
Overall Impression: Bambu is the total package and is my new favorite restaurant in the Northeast suburbs! The food, atmosphere and service were all superior.  A must-try!

***Formerly known as Wild Ginger under the same ownership***

Cuisine: Thai, Chinese, Asian Variety,
Restaurant Features:Lunch Buffet, On-Site Parking

Location: White Bear Lake, MN
Address: 4440 Highway 61 North  White Bear Lake, MN 55110  651-653-9781

Hours: Dine-In /Take out  Mon-Sat 11am-8pm Lunch Buffet M-F 11-2pm

Links: Sam Thai Cuisine Website Google Map
Atmosphere: Located within a strip mall, Wild Ginger has just 10-12 tables available in the dining room (seats 24).  It is decorated with a variety of Thai art and sculptures.

Menu:
Thai appetizers include  Beef Jerky, Chicken wings, cream cheese wonton, dumplings, egg rolls, spring rolls, chicken satay.  Thai salads include Laab, Som Tum, Yum Nua, and Yum Woon Sen.  Thai curries are Gang Dang (red),  Gang Keow Wan (sweet green), Gang Pah (country curry),and Panang.  Thai noodles offered are Pad Thai, Rad Na, and Pad See Yew.  Thai entrees include Rama Long Srong, Pad Him Ma Pam, Pad Hoo Raa Pha, Pad Khing, Pad Priew Wan, Pad Prig, Pla Rad Prig.

Chinese dishes include fried rice, chow mein, egg fo young, lomein, chop suey.  Entrees include (chicken, beef, pork, or shrimp)  Sweet & sour, Almond ding, Cashew, Lemon grass, Broccoli, Kung pao, Szechuan, Mongolian

Price guide:
Lunch Buffet $7.50  Thai entrees $8-10
What we ordered:

Chicken satay I especially loved the peanut sauce and the cucumber garnish that came with the satay.

Thai Beef Jerky

Green Curry (Gang Keow Wan ) A combination of coconut milk, Thai green curry paste, herbs, bamboo shoots, vegetables, and chicken.  This is one of my favorite  Thai dishes! It has a ton of kick and the vegetables soak up the flavor of the coconut milk just perfectly. 

Rama Long Srong- Mixed of gold peanut curry sauce with coconut milk on the bed of steamed young spinach. I love the sweetness of this dish, the peanut sauce is wonderful.

Chicken Panang-  Chicken in a zesty blend of herbs, kaffir lime leave and coconut milk.

Sweet and Sour Chicken (Thai style)- Mix of pineapple, tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, scallions and onions stir fried in Thai sweet and sour sauce.

Service:
The owner of Wild Ginger, Sam, is a very nice man and provides 100% of the service at Wild Ginger.  Refills are do-it-yourself.
Overall Impression: Awesome Thai cuisine, decent Chinese. Excellent lunch buffet with a variety of both Thai and Chinese dishes, at a very reasonable price. The small space of the restaurant often is completely filled during lunch buffet hours (11-2pm).

Cuisine: Chinese

Restaurant Features: Counter Service, On-Site Parking

Location: Vadnais Heights

Address: **After a 2 1/2 year hiatus, Tai Pan is back in a new location!**

Vadnais Heights Shopping Center

925 East County Road E, Suite 140 Vadnais Heights, MN 55127  651-426-7737

Hours Mon-Fri 11am-9pm, Sat-Sun Noon to 9pm

Links: Google map

Atmosphere: Located in the corner of a large strip-mall, the new location of Tai Pan is more geared to the take-out crowd, but does offer a couple of tables in the brightly-painted restaurant.

Menu: Appetizers include egg rolls, fried pork or cream cheese wontons, fried or steamed dumplings, BBQ pork, chicken wings, butterfly shrimp and shrimp toast.  Soups include hot and sour, egg drop, wonton soup, Chinese vegetable soup and beef noodle.  Chow mein selections include plain, subgum, mushroom, chicken, chicken subgum, chicken or beef with mushrooms, beef, beef subgum, shrimp, shrimp subgum, and chicken, beef or shrimp chop suey.

Main dishes include pork, chicken, vegetable or shrimp egg foo yung,  Sweet & Sour (pork, chicken, shrimp or combo).  Fried Rice (pork, chicken, vegetable, shrimp).  Lo mein (chicekn, beef, pork, vegetable, shrimp, Pad Thai, beef or chicken Chow fun, Singapore Chow fun with curry flavor.  cantonese pan-fried noodles (shrimp, chicken, beef or pork).

Beef dishes include Mongolian, sesame, Szechuan, beef in garlic sauce, mandarin beef, Hunan beef, beef in oyster sauce, kung pao, beef with broccolo, beef with black bean sauce.  Poultry dishes include orange chicken, Mongolian, Hon Sue, Lemon, Moo Goo Gai Pan, Chicken almond ding, chicken with snow pea pods, chicken cashew, eight treasure mandarin chicken, spicy sesame chicken, chicken in garlic sauce, Kung pao, Moo Shu chicken, chicken with pineapple, chicken with broccoli, Szechuan chicken, hunan chicken, Thai yellow curry chicken mandarin cashew, chicken bean curd Malaysian style.

Pork dishes include Moo shu pork, pork in garlic sauce, Mandarin cashew, Hunan Pork, Ma Po bean curd with pork, pork with string beans.  Seafood dishes include shrimp with lobster sauce, shrimp in garlic sauce, mandarin cashew shrimp, shrimp with cashew, Kung pao shrimp, scallops sauteed in garlic sauce, pan fried scallops, kung po delight, Szechuan shrimp.

There are a number of healthy choice specials, chef specials, and daily combination specials as well.

Price guide: Appetizers $3.25-6.25  Soup $2.95-4.75  Chowmein  Pint $3.50-8.50  Quart $6.25-8.50 Egg Foo Young $5.75-6.50, Fried Rice $3.50-3.75/pint  $6.50-6.75/quart.  Beef dishes $8.75  Poultry dishes $8.75  Pork dishes $8.25-8.75  Seafood dishes $9.25

What We ordered: Sesame Chicken.  Spicy, but absolutely delicious! Best sesame chicken I’ve had anywhere!! Large chunks of white meat chicken, plenty of sauce and garnished with peppers and carrots.

Pork fried rice.  Amazing! Loaded with chunks of meat, fried egg, and other veggies. Excellent flavor and texture.

Cream Cheese wontons.  Crispy, hot.  Excellent flavor!

Service: Fast and friendly.  Order and pay at the counter.  Tai Pan now accepts major credit cards.

Overall Impression: Best sesame chicken and hot and sour soup that you will find! I very much missed my favorite chinese restaurant and thankful they have reopened after sucha  long time.  The food was just as excellent as it always was!

*****A NEWER Review of Big Bowl Chinese & Thai dated 5/6/12 can be found here*****

Cuisine: Chinese and Thai

Restaurant Features: Bar

Locations: Roseville (site of this review), Edina, Wayzata

Addresses:

Roseville (Rosedale Center)  1705 Highway 36 West  Roseville, MN 55113 (651) 636-7173

Edina 3669 Galleria Edina, MN 55435 (952) 928-7888

Minnetonka (Ridgedale Center)  12649 Wayzata Blvd Minnetonka, MN 55305 (952) 797-9888

Links: Big Bowl Website * Big Bowl Facebook Page * Google Map

Atmosphere: Located inside Rosedale Mall, Big Bowl is a large restaurant with a trendy Asian flair.  There are several booths around the edges of the dining area and in the bar area, with many smaller tables within the middle.  At the back of the restaurant near the kitchen is an area for make-your-own stir-fry.

Menu: Appetizers include steamed Chinese dumplings, veggie or chicken pot stickers, hot buns filled with pork, chicken satay, egg rolls, Thai-beef lettuce wraps, shrimp summer roll, teriyaki spare ribs, calamari, and a few soups and salads.  Thai curry dishes include yellow curry with chicken or veggies, panang curry chicken, scallop and shrimp citrus curry, thai green vegetable curry.  Chicken dishes include kung pao, orange peel, lemon chicken, chicken with vegetables, and Thai hot pepper chicken.  Beef dishes include Mongolian, Kung pao, and beef with broccoli.  Seafood dishes include crunchy sichuan cashew shrimp, Thai hot pepper shrimp with basil and peanuts,  crunchy sichuan scallops, sweet ginger sea scallops and shrimp, and teriyaki glazed fresh salmon.  Pad Thai is Big Bowl’s signature dish, try it with vegetables/tofu, chicken, shrimp or salmon.  Big Bowl also has a make-it-yourself stirfry bar option.  You choose your vegetables, meat, sauce, and noodles and they will cook it for you.

Price guide: Appetizers $6-9  Entrees $8-15

What I ordered: My companion and I started with an order of the veggie pot stickers (Classic pan fried northern Chinese dumplings stuffed with cilantro, green onions, crushed peanuts)  It was also served with three dipping sauces, sweet and sour, plum and sesame mustard.  Excellent choice! These pot stickers had a ton of flavor and excellent texture.

I wanted to try a curry dish and decided to go with the Panang Curry Chicken
(chicken, light peanut-coconut curry, peas, snow peas served over jasmine rice).  This dish was packed with flavor! The sauce was indeed “light” if they mean “thin”.  It was delicious, but I think would prefer it with a little more peanut flavor and if it were a tad bit thicker.  The vegetables were very good, but the texture of the chicken was kind of slimy.  I enjoyed the first ten bites or so and then got kind of bored with it.

My companion ordered pad Thai with vegetables.  This seemed to be a hit! I tried a little bit of it and thought the noodles had good flavor.  As you can see, there were a lot of veggies in the dish.

Service: The host staff was very friendly, as was our server.  I think the server may have been new though, as he was not as knowledgeable about the menu as he could’ve been.

Overall Impression: Great ambiance and decent food.

Cuisine: Chinese

Restaurant Features: Bar

Location: Edina

Address: Southdale Center 2700 Southdale Center Edina, MN 55435 (952) 926-1713

Links: PF Chang’s Website * PF Changs on Facebook * Google Map

Atmosphere: PF Chang’s considers themselves  a “stylish, high-energy bistro” and I would have to agree; swanky and dimly-lit, this is not your typical Chinese restaurant!  The tables are all set within this massive space (nice for accommodating larger parties), with large booths lined around the outside of the room.  Large bar spaning thew back of the restaurant, with Chinese murals painted on the wall.

Menu: Appetizers include include Chang’s chicken lettuce wraps, crab wontons, peking dumplings, spring rolls, seared tuna, and fried calamari.  Hot & sour soup, wonton soup, shrimp salad, and salmon salad are the popular soup & salad choices.  Entrees include almond cashew chicken, lomein, shrimp with lobster sauce, Cantonese roasted duck, Chang’s Spicy chicken, ginger chicken and broccoli, black bean chicken, orange peel, lemon or sweet and sour chicken.  There is a large variety of scallop and shrimp dishes (kung pao shrimp, Chang’s lemon scallops, etc).

Price guide: Appetizers $9-14 Entrees $14-24

What We ordered:

Black Bean Chicken (Slices of chicken, stir-fried in a black bean sauce).

Salt and Pepper Prawns (Stir-fried in a salt and pepper mix of chili peppers, black beans, ginger and green onions. Served with a sweet mustard sauce. ) Nice texture to the shrimp and I loved the sweet mustard sauce for dipping.

Spicy Chang’s Chicken (Lightly dusted and stir-fried in a sweet Sichuan sauce).  I loved this dish! The chicken had just the right combination of sweet and spicy.

Chow mein (Egg noodles stir-fried with chicken).

Combination fried Rice (Mixed with egg, soy and sliced scallions, beef, chicken, pork and shrimp.)

We were celebrating a birthday and got this complimentary chocolate cake (Six layers of rich chocolate cake frosted with semi-sweet chocolate chips and served with raspberry sauce. ).  Delish!

Service:Pretty good, considering our server had a big section and was very busy.

Overall Impression: Food is excellent, but expensive!