King Yen

We went to King Yen last year...and I think it was before beginning this blog.  It was a funny experience...

We ordered our food spicy and it came covered in chili sauce.  The funny thing was that we knew the food underneath the sauce was yummy, and we wished they had instead just offered us the sauce on the side... and so it was an unusual situation.  We left vowing to return and try this place again...  this was the night.

 We found this place to be friendly, and with a nice atmosphere too.  Located on Monroe St.,
King Yen lis a great place with good food.  Only being there for dinner, I wonder how busy they are for lunch.


As you walk into the door there is a wall with photos of various dishes you can order.  I imagine that this is in case you do not know what what you want or want to explore ordering something else, you can see what it looks like.  Also if you are in for a quick lunch... you can choose something while you are in line without waiting for a table. Here you see what is on the menu.  You can also see some dishes and prices at their website..




The menus is kind of pretty.  The restaurant is pretty too.  there is lots of room as it is rather large.

I think they like very much to celebrate holidays here.   It was decorated for Valentines day... (and there were flags as if for fourth of July and some Christmas remnants too..) Actually I exaggerate just a little there, only to say it is very colorful and they like holidays.  You could definitely tell Valentines day was coming


I loved watching the cook cooking while we were waiting.   I could see flames firing up in the kitchen as he was sizzling stuff back there.  It was pretty cool, cool too is that this is a family business.

The first thing we ordered was a Thai tea,  but they were out.  We had water instead.

Then we ordered hot and sour soup.  I have to say, I thought it was the best ever anywhere.  Not sure why...maybe a secret recipe or something... very tasty!

Most restaurant make you order a huge bowl, but we were able to order these little cups. (Cost was 1.50.)

It was nice to do this, but it was so good we wished we had ordered the larger portion.


I let Geo orde the food... and he ordered the Ma Po Tofu, (he added Pork to their otherwise vegetarian offering,) and Chicken Chow Fun, which we had never had.  (He thought it sounded... fun!) There special feature is that they are made with rice noodles.  Seemed to me to be a lot like those extra wide egg noodles... only "rice" instead.  Nice flavors. 

Here (on the top) is the Ma Po Tofu, which came with rice.






Here (below the MaPo)  is the picture of the Chicken Chow Fun, which was something we had never tried before.   In addition to the wide noodles, and chicken, this dish had bok choy cabbage and zucchini too.  Maybe also some onions, I do not quite remember.




The food was yummy.  After dinner I thought to look and see if they has any desserts.  They did.  Two choices, ice cream or cake... with no descriptions.  In the mood for ice cream I ordered us an ice cream for us to share.  After a little discussion with out waitress, we decided to get two.  You can only imagine our surprise when they brought us this:

.....yep.... Too funny! 
Hey, it was icecream....and it came complete with wooden spoon.  It was quite surprising to us, but we ate it and it was good.  I hadn't had orange sherbet for a long time.  I forgot how good it was.  This was also a nice ending to our meal.  I was sort of wondering what they might have brought has we ordered cake.

One other interesting feature this restaurant has is the art corner, and traditional shrine too... The art displayed kids artwork from a local art school on display.  I enjoyed looking at the pictures.

King Yen is good.  Try it sometime.

We will be back...
Love that hot and sour soup!
Nice art work too..... good job kids!