Small but ambitiously decorated joint off a side street from Lakeview Avenue. Small bar, eight…read morebooths, and a separate section for sushi.
Egg Roll: Golden, crunchy outside, crunchy inside, and moist. Mostly cabbage, with celery and an unusual flavor from five spice but closer to allspice or nutmeg. No protein I could discern. "And for that reason," as the Shark Tank investors like to say, I'm pegging this one as merely average, but a very interesting average. I'd still get it again.
"Andy" Wings: An appetizer offering a spicy alternative to the regular wings, striking me as what Kowloon's Saugus Wings could be if Kowloon still cared enough to put effort in. Scoldingly hot, fully coated, lightly breaded, bumpily crisp even under the thick hot sauce, and flanked by an assortment of hot peppers, onions, and I think minced garlic. The sauce blended oyster or black bean sauce with garlic, sugar, and heat. Impressive preparation on the wings, "Frenching" them into lollipops to expose the ends of the bones (no meat is removed; they push it up to make a plumper formation). I've seen that before with the drum parts, but here they did that even with the flats. Inner meat not quite juicy but definitely moist. Elite for sure.
Sweet and Sour Chicken: Ordered requesting sauce on the side per my eating buddy. The chicken fingers were fairly standard (as are roughly 80 percent of the fingers out there), so no praise, no faults. Meat-to-batter typically on the somewhat low side. Batter flirting with puffy while still crisp. Sauce closer to ruby or brick in color than typical, while also closer to straight sweet than sweet and sour. Zero glop. Nice inclusion of onion and pepper in addition to the pineapples. Overall, average.
Pork Fried Rice: Not the 1970s by any means, but probably the best PFR I've had in the past year. I've had darker in the past year but not better. Good feel that felt better--moist to the brink of greasy but not quite--than the color would suggest. Onion, egg, bean sprouts all included. Pork nuggetry impressively dense. Took me back to the fried rice glory days of my childhood. Came back a week later, tried it again, and it was even better. Great flavor, great texture, unquestionably elite.
Spareribs: The wings and rice arrived first and the server said the spareribs would be out in a bit. For this reason, I'm guessing they felt guilty that the ribs weren't ready and brought them out possibly too soon. So I'll start with the biggest flaw: the surfaces were light on char and lighter on crust, feeling like they weren't really ready yet. That said, there was a lot to like, most notably the very meaty cut, the scored surface, and the gushing juices. Pinkish red glaze very lightly applied, with a brown puddle from a different flavorizer underneath. A little on the fatty side, but another few minutes under the broiler would take care of that too. Gonna say above average this time, but I can envision another try coming in at near-elite.
Chicken Wings: Had to give the basic version a test drive on visit 2. Six jointed pairs (drums and flats) to the order, so 12 pieces for $12.95, barely more than a buck a wing. I'm not into breaded wings, but these were breaded, although lightly. Decent crunch, but not much going on flavorwise on the surface. Inside, fully moist to juicy and noticeable flavor from five spice and maybe even hints of curry. Well above average but not elite or near-elite. Good enough to get again.
The scorecard: two visits, six items, two average, one above average, one well above average, and two elite. In Dracut, of all places? Who'd a-thunk it?
