This place has a website. Click HERE to visit it. (http://www.pekingpalacespokane.com/)
Once there, you can check out their menu, get directions, see what time karaoke starts and read about their history.
Located on Sprague Ave in the Valley, it was a bit of a drive, but we love Asian food, so off we went. Actually I had no idea where we were going until we were almost there. The Peking Place is quite a place. As you enter, the ornate entrance with it's golden walls, pagoda type of architecture, gold dragons/lion statues at guard and enormous paneled doors do sort of give you the feel of entering a palatial estate as does the rest of the inner decor. (Never mind that you are on Sprauge Avenue, in Spokane.)
I loved the hanging decorations, Chinese Lanterns, I think they are called. These were really large, and beautiful. Not only that the ceiling was decorated with tiles making it appear that it was covered in ornate gold. The music was not 50's rock and roll, like SOME places we have eaten. It was a pleasant oriental classical style and I liked the the atmosphere of it all.
It's a pretty modern place too, meaning they have touch screen computers that their servers use to order food for the tables and it's definitely "Chinese." A lot of Chinese is spoken in the kitchen and the receipt you are given is written by computer is both English and Chinese.
Our lovely and very efficient waitress, with a cute sounding Chinese name was pleased when we ordered what said said were "very traditional Chinese dishes!" She also liked the fact that we ordered it a little spicy. We ate with chopsticks too so maybe we scored some points being the Americans that we are. Hey, ya know, when dining is a Peking palace, it is good to eat like the Chinese! For our dinner, Geo ordered us an appetizer of Egg Rolls, Hot and Sour Soup, Ma Po Tofu and Kung Pao Chicken.
So how was it?
Well let me begin by saying, 1) Geo likes oriental food very much, especially Ma Po Tofu and 2.) Geo is a really agreeable guy when it comes to food in general, especially if he skips eating lunch. He eats my cooking and he is usually happy with what I make and serve. (There is only one thing he has EVER complained about and asked me not to make again, and that is spaghetti sauce made with peanuts and sunflower seeds!)
The eggrolls were quite greasy. Now, maybe they are supposed to be that way, Geo thought they were great...but he didn't eat lunch and he was hungry too. I ate some of it, but I actually prefer when they are not so greasy.
The soup was made fresh for us and it was pretty good. I have had it other places that use maybe more fresh stuff...whatever that "stuff" is... (seaweed, mushrooms, lily stem...) that they usually put into this kind of soup. We enjoyed our portions and had left overs for tomorrow too.
The food they brought us was very pretty. The Kung Pao was colorful from the de;icious assortment of vegetables and it was saucy too. The Ma Po Tofu, was attractive too. Both dishes were tasty but to me they seemed a little salty. Our dinner was served with rice. We did not have to order it separate, which was nice because with saucy dishes like Kung Pao it's nice to have some rice.
I asked Geo if he would come back again and he said yes. Me, hmmm, it depends on why. If it was just to eat Chinese food, I would probably opt to hit some of the other places I like more. One thing for sure is a lot of people like it; it was a pretty busy place. It's been in business for over 30 years! Apparently some things never quite go out of style.
I might go back sometime, if I was in the area and particularly if it just happened to be Wednesday. Wednesdays, you see, are a discount for people like me.
Wednesday is ladies night!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Teriyaki Express
Teriyaki Express is Asian food but in addition to the food, they also have drive-up or order- in espresso. The restaurant has gone through several changes, even a change of ownership, but the most recent addition is that of a sushi bar. Personally, I was sad to see the Teriyaki bowls disappear, I still think it would be good for them to have at least a low cost item on their menu for the drive by eater... a small "to go"teriyaki bowl, but apparently they do not. Most items on the menu are around 8.00. Also, I do not get too excited about sushi, (except the kind with veggies only.) We do drop in here from time to time because of the convenient location, the cleanliness of the place and we like the people there too. Besides that, it's Asian food.
Nate almost always orders Bolgoki, which is a beef stir-fry sort of dish. Hew like it here because they are light on the onions. I ordered the combination plate, which I really enjoyed. I loved the way it was served on a plate with little compartments. They are a little light on the sauces in their foods, mostly they serve soy sauce, which to me is rather boring. It's like a staple food when it comes to oriental flavors, so its nothing "special."
They seem a little conservative, that is, not wasteful, which is a good thing in my opinion, but for example, in a large group we ordered two orders of goyza, and they brought it to us all on one plate. (made me wonder, "Are they conserving plates?") The service might be described as a little conservative too, tea is not served to the tables unless you order it. Also, because we lacked silverware at our table, and had to request our check, it seemed like they were not quite on top of things all of the time, but they are sometimes a busy place and I think perhaps there maybe a little bit of a language barrier to cross as well. None-the-less, these are very friendly and considerate to all their customers, the food is good, and good portions too.
I got a chance to peek at the sushi bar. I love the colors of sushi when it is on a plate and I love the flavors of ginger and wasabi, I like the rice and nori seaweed too, (mostly when it's filled with veggies.) I must say, the sushi bar looked wild and fresh!
I mean, there were octopus legs and to me that is just plain wild! There were many other delicacies I am sure, but what struck me the most was the octopus legs. (If you like octopus and other ocean wild things, this could be for you.) Everything was packed beautifully on ice in a beautiful array in their showcase and I could tell, they take their sushi making seriously. It kinda made me think about ordering a California roll, but I didn't.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Thai On First
Tonight we went to Thai and Beth came with us. The place we went is one we have passed by several times and finally decided to try called, Thia on First. We are glad we tried it, the food was superb.
Located in downtown Spokane on First Avenue, it's kinda mixed into the storefronts as you drive down the road and I was surprised at how empty it looked as we drove past looking for a place to park. I even thought it might be closed, but Geo read the posted hours and someone came out through the front entrance so we knew they were open.
It was Friday and they did not close until eight o'clock.
Beth said she thought the place looked "a little scary." I think that was because the front has iron gates and the main entrance is not right on the street and one must go through the open gates down a small corridor to the restaurant's entrance. There was, as usual downtown, an interesting assortment of people walking by.
Once inside I better understood why it it looked closed. It is easy to think that the outside edge of the restaurant was the whole restaurant due to it's storefront location. It's not. It's actually a fairly large facility as you enter the building. The tables you see from the street side are actually on the outer edge of the place, spots mostly likely filed when the place is most busy. It seemed to be a fairly popular and well liked place. There were several groups of people eating when we arrived, mostly groups of men in casual attire as if they were their for a business meeting after hours, some college students and some families too. The restaurant was busy when we arrived and more people came in after us as well. Closer to 8:00 they even filled a take-out order.
The dining area was bright and festive. A lot of natural light came in to the restaurant from the windows. I liked the big plants and colorful umbrellas inside that decorated the room, and Beth liked the colorful plates. It felt a little island-y. We also enjoyed the photographs and decorations around the rooms. It was very pleasant atmosphere to say the least.
The male servers wore khaki shorts and striped shirts which made me think of a cruise ship and all spoke the language on the menu. Our server even understood Geo's rendering of the menu items that we ordered and tonight we actually got to have some of that incredibly wonderful coconut milk soup that we like!
In addition to the soup, we had spring roll appetizers, then the rest of our order came at once, the soup, a curry with chicken dish, an order of rice and a noodle dish. Unfortunately, I could not tell you exactly what the dishes that we ordered were as I did not write it down and Geo ordered them. With the exception of Thom Ka Gai, which I have learned to differentiate between Thom Yum Gai, the best I could do is remember the number on the menu. (One of them was 16) As time goes by I will perhaps get better at knowing the various names of the dishes, until then, I will just let Geo do the cooking. : )
The appetizers were yummy. The soup (ordered @ number 4 on the spicy scale) was pretty SPICED, although Geo thought it was perfect. The curry was delicious, especially with the rice. (You have to order rice separate if you want it with your meal here.) The noodle dish was something both Beth and Geo loved, but I really didn't care for it. They certainly did. Geo even woke up this morning telling me that he couldn't believe I didn't like it. I told him that I couldn't believe that Beth really liked it even though the spice level was at a three! She had thought it was spicy at first bite, but said several times during dinner that she thought it was really good. She didn't eat the soup much more than tasting it. At a four star spiciness, I tell you, it was spicy... yummy and spicy, and even a little hot for my liking.
Geo thought it was some of the best Thai food in all of our food adventures in Spokane. I thought it was good, but then I didn't like the noodle dish as he did. I thought the heat index for spiciness was a little above the average I would expect, well... no, actually, I have to turn that around and say that usually the spiciness of Thai food in Spokane is below what I would expect. The scale at this restaurant is hotter than other Thai restaurants that I have been. I should have known that though by the way the man happily smiled when Geo said he liked his Thai food spicy. I should have sensed the camaraderie.
Thai restaurants like to give their costumers candies after dinner, and this is always a nice touch. Tonight the three of us got four different kinds of hard, sweet candies to sweeten the bill. I like this better than fortune cookies which I never read anyhow. We had fun picking out who would get which candy. Beth took the Werthers Caramel, I took the butterscotch round and Geo got the A&W rootbeer and the peppermint candy too, since he got the "leftover" choice after we made our selections.
He let the ladies go first.
Located in downtown Spokane on First Avenue, it's kinda mixed into the storefronts as you drive down the road and I was surprised at how empty it looked as we drove past looking for a place to park. I even thought it might be closed, but Geo read the posted hours and someone came out through the front entrance so we knew they were open.
It was Friday and they did not close until eight o'clock.
Beth said she thought the place looked "a little scary." I think that was because the front has iron gates and the main entrance is not right on the street and one must go through the open gates down a small corridor to the restaurant's entrance. There was, as usual downtown, an interesting assortment of people walking by.
Once inside I better understood why it it looked closed. It is easy to think that the outside edge of the restaurant was the whole restaurant due to it's storefront location. It's not. It's actually a fairly large facility as you enter the building. The tables you see from the street side are actually on the outer edge of the place, spots mostly likely filed when the place is most busy. It seemed to be a fairly popular and well liked place. There were several groups of people eating when we arrived, mostly groups of men in casual attire as if they were their for a business meeting after hours, some college students and some families too. The restaurant was busy when we arrived and more people came in after us as well. Closer to 8:00 they even filled a take-out order.
The dining area was bright and festive. A lot of natural light came in to the restaurant from the windows. I liked the big plants and colorful umbrellas inside that decorated the room, and Beth liked the colorful plates. It felt a little island-y. We also enjoyed the photographs and decorations around the rooms. It was very pleasant atmosphere to say the least.
The male servers wore khaki shorts and striped shirts which made me think of a cruise ship and all spoke the language on the menu. Our server even understood Geo's rendering of the menu items that we ordered and tonight we actually got to have some of that incredibly wonderful coconut milk soup that we like!
In addition to the soup, we had spring roll appetizers, then the rest of our order came at once, the soup, a curry with chicken dish, an order of rice and a noodle dish. Unfortunately, I could not tell you exactly what the dishes that we ordered were as I did not write it down and Geo ordered them. With the exception of Thom Ka Gai, which I have learned to differentiate between Thom Yum Gai, the best I could do is remember the number on the menu. (One of them was 16) As time goes by I will perhaps get better at knowing the various names of the dishes, until then, I will just let Geo do the cooking. : )
The appetizers were yummy. The soup (ordered @ number 4 on the spicy scale) was pretty SPICED, although Geo thought it was perfect. The curry was delicious, especially with the rice. (You have to order rice separate if you want it with your meal here.) The noodle dish was something both Beth and Geo loved, but I really didn't care for it. They certainly did. Geo even woke up this morning telling me that he couldn't believe I didn't like it. I told him that I couldn't believe that Beth really liked it even though the spice level was at a three! She had thought it was spicy at first bite, but said several times during dinner that she thought it was really good. She didn't eat the soup much more than tasting it. At a four star spiciness, I tell you, it was spicy... yummy and spicy, and even a little hot for my liking.
Geo thought it was some of the best Thai food in all of our food adventures in Spokane. I thought it was good, but then I didn't like the noodle dish as he did. I thought the heat index for spiciness was a little above the average I would expect, well... no, actually, I have to turn that around and say that usually the spiciness of Thai food in Spokane is below what I would expect. The scale at this restaurant is hotter than other Thai restaurants that I have been. I should have known that though by the way the man happily smiled when Geo said he liked his Thai food spicy. I should have sensed the camaraderie.
Thai restaurants like to give their costumers candies after dinner, and this is always a nice touch. Tonight the three of us got four different kinds of hard, sweet candies to sweeten the bill. I like this better than fortune cookies which I never read anyhow. We had fun picking out who would get which candy. Beth took the Werthers Caramel, I took the butterscotch round and Geo got the A&W rootbeer and the peppermint candy too, since he got the "leftover" choice after we made our selections.
He let the ladies go first.
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