Wok Cuisine needs to turn up heat on food, service

Tucked into a modest strip center off busy Boy Scout Drive, Wok Cuisine has managed to survive when many more obvious establishments have failed.

Originally owned by the woman who also runs the adjacent Asian grocery store, it was a reliable purveyor of fresh, flavorful Chinese fare.

The restaurant changed hands a couple of years ago. I made my first trip to Wok Cuisine under the new management last week and, although the menu and décor remained unchanged, there were marked differences in both the food and service, neither for the good.

We were greeted warmly by the hostess who led us into a deserted dining room - an ominous sign on a Friday night during season. Two more parties straggled in after us, but it was clearly a quiet evening.

The one change to the menu has been the addition of sushi and the requisite sushi bar, situated in the space that once connected the establishment to the grocery store. It looked clean and neat, but devoid of people. We weren't given sushi menus when we sat down and it's just as well. I make it a point never to order raw fish in a place in which business is obviously slow.

 

Kung pao sea

We started off with hot and sour soup and vegetable spring rolls. The soup came out immediately, a goodsized bowl with a fragrant broth. Following proper etiquette, I waited for my companion's spring rolls to arrive before starting to eat. It was a good 10 minutes before that occurred, making us both wonder: 1. What was taking so lo long when we were virtually the only diners, and 2. Why deliver the soup so far in advance of the spring rolls?

The soup had cooled considerably by the time I got to it, but it was good nonetheless, with strips of tofu, mushrooms, ro pork and veggies floating about in a broth that had a mild bite. The two spring rolls were molten, requiring they be left on the plate for a few minutes before it was possible to touch them. The crisp shell held primarily seasoned Chinese cabbage with a bit of carrot. It wasn't bad, but not terribly exciting either.

 

My companion was barely halfway through his first roll when his entrée, kung pao seafood, arrived. The server brought his entrée, a tiny bowl of white rice and his plate. Meanwhile, I'd already finished the soup, but there was no sign of my entrée, the pan-fried noodles, or a plate.

PHOTO KAREN FELDMAN Buddha

Now my companion - and his food - waited for my dish to arrive. The noodles lagged behind the seafood by close to 10 minutes. Again, we were puzzled. If one entree or the other was to arrive first, why not make it my dish, since it was my appetizer that had come first?

Considering that the noodles were overdone - cooked to the point of being hard, rather than simply crisp - they could well have been served earlier.

 

These timing issues are the sort that newcomers to the business might have, not people who have run a restaurant for months or years. Aside from customers who order combo platters, is there anyone who goes to a Chinese restaurant without the intention of sharing dishes? That being the case, it would seem a given that, even if the dishes don't arrive all at once, it's a simple matter of delivering the plates on which they are eaten at the same time. That way we could have both started eating when the first dish arrived, working on first one dish then the next.

Both entrees were disappointing. Although the vegetables were obviously fresh, the shrimp in both dishes and the mussels and scallops in the kung pao entree had little flavor. Both dishes had an overabundance of brown sauce on them. The sauces tasted somewhat different, but they overpowered the more delicate flavors of the vegetables. I should note here that both selections came from the chef's specialties lists, presumably the best dishes in the house.

As for the atmosphere, everything looked untouched from the days of the previous owners. Little paper lanterns hung near each booth, a bright paper dragon stretched across the ceiling in the middle of the room. The tables were neat, if unadorned. Overall, however, the dining room looks tired.

Our server was polite and friendly, but obviously unschooled in the basics. The same could be said about the kitchen.

These problems are not insurmountable for restaurateurs who appear to want to please, as seems the case here. Smooth out the service. Take a more subtle approach to sauces. Upgrade the seafood quality and slap a coat of paint on the room. Such simple improvements would go a long way toward bringing back the Wok Cuisine of old.