Reviews for Yu's Tiki Wok

12/29/2008 - aARON
Decided to try a different place for take out because our usual place had been sub par the last few times we ordered. Ordered the dinner special with Mongolian beef, General Tso's Chicken, Fried Rice, Pu-pu platter, Hot and Sour soup.
The service was efficient, although the blank stare I received when I requested chop sticks was surprising, they eventually found some, (I guess not many people ask for them in the area)
We found the food bland, The fried rice had, well nothing in it, no onion, no eggs, nothing, it was like they stir fried the rice with a dab of soy sauce for color and that's it. The Mongolian Beef had a decent base flavor in the beef, although it was more BBQ like than what I've experienced before, and the other ingredients diluted the flavor enough to continue the bland theme. And the fact that there wasn't much beef in the dish didn't help. (
Gen Tso's Chicken is my go-to when I try a place for the first time, it gives me a baseline for the style of the restaurant. The main things that struck me about this version was the sauce is a sweet, almost jelly like base with zero heat or depth of flavor to balance it out (this is popular in some places I've been, it's just not to my taste) and the chicken breading wasnt crispy at all. And it wasnt that long till I got home, so thats not why, it obviously just not a crispy breading style they use.
A quick FYI, to let you know our baseline tastes, and it would be of no use to say that my favorite Mongolian beef was in a dive in Grapevine Texas, or that my fav General Tso's Chicken was at Flaming Wok in Charlottesville Virginia, the national chain P.F. Changs hss good (if overpriced) Mongolian Beef, and their fried chicken/shrimp entrees have a decent level of crispyness to them)

the food here was not horrible, just bland. The quality seems fine, it's fresh just not to our taste. The portions were generous, and the prices reasonable. We've lived in many places and enjoy a lot of different styles of asian food (heck, all food!) We've eaten (and enjoyed) food prepared by Iron Chef Morimoto, as well as cheap carb and fat laden Chinese Takeout, and like it all when done right. I wouldnt choose to go back here again, I would get frozen food at Fresh and Easy first. but if I had to, I would stick with appetizers, and load up on the hot mustard.
Actually, if I had to, I would choose to go to the Panda Garden down the street than try this place again.