King Wok

Time to talk about some good, cheap eats. So, we went over to one of the richest areas of cheap, local, ethnic foods in the city. The corridor on Lafayette Road on the west side (from about 34th to Georgetown Road) has such diversity - from several Indian options to numerous Mexican and South American options. And, if you need some groceries, you can go plunder the variety of region-specific aisles in the Saraga grocery store.

Anyhow, this evening found us at King Wok. And, do you know what a kind of funny thing is? I really like that they don't have a web page (I realize that doesn't make a ton of sense). They just have a restaurant. Too many places can get all the media and social networking items in place, but may not serve any good food. I feel like King Wok does a nice job on the food, and you can't beat the prices. Mom joined the me and the Better Half, and we were in business.

The Better Half is partial to the Bun, or noodle dishes. She lived in Toronto for 6 years, and we went to some great, cheap places there near Kensington Market in the Asian neighborhoods (great place to visit!) nearby. We have struggled to find the same quality of Asian restaurants here, but King Wok is pretty decent. Now, the thing we both found that stood out about the Bun dish is that typically, I believe Bun is to come with vermicelli... and, King Wok seems to server more of a spaghetti... and, I don't think that their noodles are rice noodles, but I could be wrong. Beyond that, the flavors seems in line, and there was a nice portion of the pork, beef and the cut up egg roll. Mom had the same.

I ended up with a rice dish with the same mix of marinated pork and beef because of the thicker than normal noodles. Very tasty all around, and I appreciate the sweet chili sauce that is provided to add to the rice. Best of all, none of the dishes was over $7 (we also started with some pretty decent vegetable tempura and the cold, garden rolls). So, for under $40 we three could have a hearty meal, full of spice and flavor. Hard to beat......

Indy Restaurant Scene has spoken well of Saigon, further south on Lafayette Road. And, one of her commentors mentioned they have a Vietnamese sandwich (banh mi), so I really need to get there. I definitely prefer King Wok over Viet Bistro in Castleton, though many who are a bit iffy on "divey" looking places would most likely prefer to have a Vietnamese meal at Viet Bistro rather than a location like King Wok or Saigon.

The verdict: 3.75 belly rubs (out of 5). What lacks in some food quality is made up for in great value.

And, I'm so proud of myself I never made a punny joke about wok-ing this way.....