Restaurant Review: Verdict is still out on China Bistro in Greenwood

Every once and awhile, I leave the I-465 loop in Indianapolis.  Granted, it's not often.  Pretty much everything in my life is inside this circle around the city, so there's no need.  Today, I found myself on a work-related trip to Greenwood.  On my way back towards the city, I decided to try China Bistro.  Right now, the link to their website appears to be broken, but maybe they'll fix it soon.  Why China Bistro?  Recently, I was craving squid.  Not the typical Italian restaurant, fresh from the freezer bag of calamari rings.  The kind of calamari that is chewy, grilled or fried, and where you actually taste the squid.  I'm particularly fond of Asian preparations.  I searched Google for it, and found just a handful of restaurants with it.  China Bistro was one of them.

I drove past China Bistro at first, looking for a stand alone restaurant or something in a nice, mixed use space.  Instead, it's smack upside Walmart in a really generic strip mall.  It's kind of sad since inside, you find something much nicer than "Walmart" and "strip mall."

The China Bistro space is expansive.  There's a huge chandelier in the entry.  The main dining room has many booths and tables and decorative vases on shelves with lights.  The space is relaxing and comfortable.  It was much more than I expected from strip mall Chinese.  One Yelp reviewer named Joseph nailed it when he wrote that China Bistro "is much too nice of establishment to be located where it sits."  My favorite spot in SoBro to grab a Chinese lunch, Bamboo House, is the kind of place where you'd rather eat in the car.  The dining room is dirty and usually stacked with boxes.  The restrooms are downright scary.  It's definitely a take out kind of place.  But the food makes it all worth it.  China Bistro puts that interior to shame.

Entry at China Bistro.  You weren't expecting this in a strip mall by Walmart, were you?

But anyway.  The China Bistro menu is expansive and varied, with Thai entrees like Tom Yum soup and Japanese fare like seaweed salad.  I ordered tea, seaweed salad, and the salt and pepper calamari.  The server came by after I was seated, and without asking for a drink order or any pleasantries, just looked at me and said "you know what you want?"  So perhaps they sacrifice some of the chit chat for efficiency.

The tea was loose leaf tea in a large pot.  The seaweed salad was a generous portion, fresh, glistening with sesame oil, and icy cold.  All as expected.  Served quickly.

Seaweed salad and tea.

The salt and pepper calamari didn't hit the spot I needed today though.  The little nuggets, with the occasional piece of tentacle chopped up and mixed in, were soggy and heavy.  Also dark, like perhaps it was time to change the frying oil.  While not as light and crispy as a great preparation, it tasted authentic.  It wasn't anything that came from a bag in the freezer.  So I do give credit where credit is due for that.  And it was on a pretty paper doily.  Usually I expect a lighter coating, with visible black pepper.  There was no discernible pepper.  And no photo of it on my phone when I got home.  Oops.

Recently, I gave Formosa Buffet a shot on the northside.  While the food wasn't anything amazing, their salt and pepper calamari was spot on.  It was light and crispy, with the visible pepper.

And an on point fortune.

The total for my one-person lunch of tea, seaweed salad, and appetizer portion of salt and pepper calamari was $14.05 before a sufficient tip exceeding 15 percent (but not overly generous given the shortness.)

The bottom line: gorgeous spot to eat Chinese.  But curt service and soggy calamari left me wanting more on this visit.  I'd give it a second chance though, just not for the calamari.  It's not often I eat Chinese in a spot so aesthetically appealing.  This is a Chinese place you could take a date.  There aren't a lot of those in Indy.  Verdict is still out on the food though.

Wok on over to Side Wok Cafe in Broad Ripple

After last week's disappointing Chinese experience at JS Garden, I wasn't expecting to eat Chinese for awhile.  But today, my administrative assistant wanted take out and convinced the rest of us to join in a carry out order.  Her pick for Chinese in our part of town is Side Wok Cafe in Broad Ripple between the Monon Trail and Broad Ripple High School on Broad Ripple Ave.  When you search Google for the restaurant, a website for Side Wok is one of the first results, but that website is for a restaurant on Heathrow Way in west Indianapolis.  Which, speaking of that website, the photos of fresh food are quite tempting.  I might have to head that way to check it out.

Broad Ripple's Side Wok Cafe doesn't have a website and online menu, but you can search and find photos of the menu online.  We were able to find a photo of the lunch menu on Urban Spoon and made selections.  Side Wok Cafe has 23 lunch specials ranging from $4.35 to $4.85.  All lunch specials include white or fried rice; and choice of soup, egg roll, or drink.  I decided to try a Szechuan do-over from the bland Szechuan beef from JS Garden.  I chose lunch special 17, shrimp with Szechuan, with wonton soup.

Front side of the expansive Side Wok Cafe menu.  Click the photo for a larger view.

Back side of the expansive Side Wok Cafe menu.  Click the photo for a larger view.

Close up on the lunch specials on the Side Wok Cafe menu.

Our assistant phoned in the carry out order and picked it up.  All of our lunches were packed in styrofoam clam shell boxes about 9x6 inches, and about 1.5 inches deep, that were stapled shut.  The packaging at JS Garden is better for keeping half of lunch for the next day.  Other than the packaging, Side Wok easily beat out JS Garden.  The shrimp with Szechuan was spicy.  Every so often, I took a break to let my mouth cool off.  The dried chilis had been minced and dotted the packaging, a much better way to add heat than the two huge dried chilis left whole, and left in my food, from JS Garden.  Bamboo, carrots, green pepper, a few scant pieces of red pepper, a few pieces of baby corn, and lots of chopped onion accompanied the 11 medium shrimp in the lunch portion.  All of the veggies were crisp tender and the shrimp were a pleasant texture--not overcooked.  Side Wok was very heavy handed with the onion slices, but supposedly onions have a natural antibiotic effect.  Since it's cold season, I hope that's true.

The portion was very generous.  When I started eating the shrimp and vegetables, I noticed that the rice was spread underneath so a substantial amount of the container was rice.  Nevertheless, it was an excellent value for $4.85.  I ate so much shrimp and rice that I did not have room for the wonton soup.  I kept it for lunch the next day. 

All of this for $4.85 plus tax!  Shrimp with Szechuan, wonton soup, and white rice from Side Wok Cafe.

The container is really heavy because of all this rice.  The rice is under the shrimp and vegetables, making it look like there is more shrimp and veggies than the box actually contains.  Regardless, it is still a very good value.  If all of that had been shrimp and vegetables, I don't know how they'd turn a profit!

Overall, I spent less than half as much for lunch than at JS Garden and received tastier food.  I wish Side Wok Cafe had a website or online ordering since explaining an order to the staff over the phone is a little difficult, but overall, this could be my new go-to Chinese carry out spot.  Flavorful, spicy food that is well-prepared and a fantastic value.  One lunch special is ample for two day's worth of lunches.  I'm definitely giving Side Wok Cafe a thumbs up on Urban Spoon.

Just So-So at JS Garden

I love it when somewhere new opens.  I'm always game to try something different, so when my office received a postcard of coupons for the grand opening of JS Garden at 5425 N. Keystone Ave. in Indianapolis, I squirreled the coupons away for my next crab rangoon craving.  The same coupons are available online here.

Sure enough, on February 13, 2014 I was in the mood for some lunchtime Chinese.  My usual spot is Bamboo House, a generic Chinese takeout joint at 52nd and Keystone in a shabby strip mall.  The service at Bamboo House is nothing special, but the food is tasty, fast, and remarkably inexpensive.  I struggle to spend $6.00 when I stop in for lunch.

JS Garden is also in a strip mall, behind Rally's and next to a clothing store, but it is newer strip mall than Bamboo House.  Inside, JS Garden has trendy colored pendant lights and dark wood.  It looks immaculately clean, and newer and nicer than Bamboo House.  The advertised steam table with numerous wells runs down the center of the restaurant.  No food was out on the steam table when I arrived just before noon.  I was instantly disappointed that I wouldn't be able to use my $1.00 off steam table lunch coupon.

The kind female employee pulled a chair out for me and encouraged me to sit while I looked at the menu.  It is smaller than the Bamboo House menu, but with most of the usual suspects on Chinese menus.  I had to spend $10.00 to use my $2.00 off coupon, so I ordered the large Szechuan beef ($8.49) and an order of crab rangoon (six for $2.95).  The smaller size beef would have come to just shy of $10.00.

Front side of the JS Garden menu.  Click the photo to make it larger and easier to read.

Back side of the JS Garden menu.  Click the photo to make it larger and easier to read.

Service was prompt and the female employee made pleasant small talk as I waited.  She offered some sweet chili sauce to accompany the crab rangoon.  The subtotal was $11.44.  Minus the $2.00 coupon, plus tax but before tip, the total was $10.29.  The restaurant has Pepsi products, but I passed on a soft drink.

Back at the office, I opened all the take out.  The crab rangoons were large, folded like envelopes instead of triangle-shaped samosa packets or flower-like wontons.  The outside was crisp, and had the telltale bubbles of freshly fried dough.  Inside was disappointing.  A lump of filling the size of an almond sat in a large empty cavern.  Usually crab rangoon filling is smooth, sweet, and melty.  This was a chunky ball of filling.  I craved more creaminess and sweetness.  I hoped the next crab rangoon would be better, but it was more of the same.

Large, square crab rangoon folded like envelopes from JS Garden.

A small lump of filling inside the cavernous crab rangoon at JS Garden.

I moved on to the Szechuan beef.  I asked for medium spiciness.  It was slightly spicy.  I picked two large dried chili peppers out of the mix as I ate.  I prefer when restaurants remove these peppers  before serving since they are inedible dried if they are not in tiny pieces.  Fresh red bell peppers and green bell peppers abounded, with some celery, carrots, and water chestnuts also in the mix.  The vegetables were sliced lengthwise in long, slender pieces.  It wasn't a bad attempt at Szechuan beef, but it was unremarkable.  I'd have preferred a clingy sauce with more garlic, one of the main ingredients in Szechuan food.  The most positive aspect of this dish was that JS Garden did not skimp on the vegetables.  Sometimes Chinese dishes are all meat with vegetables as a garnish.  I love fresh vegetables, and they were generous in this dish.

Szechuan beef from JS Garden.

One of two giant dried chili peppers that had to be picked out.  These are like bay leaves...better removed before serving.

I ate half the Szechuan beef and half the rice, and saved the other half for lunch the next day.  The serving was ample for two meals.  I was pleased that the Szechuan beef came in a resealable plastic container instead of a paper Chinese food box so that I could put it in the work refrigerator.  The plastic container was about seven inches in diameter and slightly less than two inches deep.  This is about the size of the foil lunch container at Bamboo House for under $5.00, perhaps slightly larger.

Bottom line: The pleasant service and fresh interior isn't enough to overcome the sad crab rangoon and bland Szechuan beef.  I'll stick to Bamboo House unless I'm on that side of Keystone and just want soup.  It's hard to turn across Keystone, so I'd stop back in at JS Garden if I was on that side of the street and traffic is bad.

Insider tip: if you try JS Garden, ask for some sweet chili sauce.  They do not put a container of sweet and sour in the bag to dip the crab rangoon.