The General Tso Chicken is Super Spicy
In the mood for good Chinese food,
Lee Bistro Asian Cuisine was in the neighborhood and easy to reach off John Young Parkway. Their chef specializes in Cantonese and Polynesian cuisine and recommends hot and spicy dishes, including the triple delight, seafood delight, happy family, salt pepper shrimp, salt pepper squid, beef pan fried noodles, seafood pan fried noodles, 1/2 of a golden roasted duck, or salt spicy scallops.
Their appetizers reminded me of childhood favorites. While offering the standard egg roll or spring roll, the menu blossomed to include Krab Rangoon, Shanghai soup dumplings, crispy soft shell crab, fried calamari, shrimp tempura, vegetable tempura, steamed or fried dumplings, BBQ or boneless spareribs, chicken on the stick, beef on the stick, chicken wings, and Buffalo or BBQ chicken wings. I went for a childhood favorite in scallion pancakes. I don't think I've seen them on a menu since New Hampshire, so it was nice to see in the Southeast as well. I didn't even have enough room to order the edamame which is another favorite. I'm glad the restaurant is close enough to return often.
They have 10 beef dishes, eight seafood dishes, eight vegetable dishes and Miso soup, wonton soup, egg drop soup, hot sour soup, seafood, tofu soup, vegetable soup, as well as green, avocado, or seaweed salad. And, if you have a taste for fried rice, they have eight kinds with a choice of four proteins. They offer six lo meins and a beef udon.
The new dish for me was their selection of mei fun. It, too, is offered with a variety of vegetables or proteins including roast pork, chicken, vegetable, beef, shrimp, Singapore, the house special or beef ho fun.
What I learned about ho fun is that the noodles are gluten-free as they're prepared by mixing rice flour with water and salt with a little oil. The dough is cut into wide, think strips, like a wide tagliatelle. It'll be on the list for a future visit.
If you leave this restaurant hungry, it's not because they didn't try.
We had a taste for our family's favorites, though, and perused the poultry dishes more closely. In addition to chicken with broccoli, green pepper, chicken, kung pao chicken, Szechuan chicken, sweet and sour chicken, chicken with black bean sauce, orange chicken, walnut chicken, mango chicken, and honey chicken, they had our family favorites cashew chicken, sesame chicken, and general Tso's chicken.
The Sesame Chicken was not as spicy but just as delicious
We agreed on the sesame chicken, and the General Tso's, which is typically served with broccoli and peppers. We requested and they adjusted the General Tso's to include celery and carrots instead. I just prefer that flavor profile and it's already a very spicy dish. They served both with white rice as we requested. Steamed rice or fried rice is available.
Between our appetizers and entrees, the food lasted several meals. The scallion pancakes, or, as my daughter likes to refer to them, "green onion," never made it out of the car. Served with a dark brown soy-based sauce with sesame seeds, it's delicious with or without the sauce. It's fried, and the pancake did become dough-y as it cooled but remained tasty throughout. It's just "best" served hot. The Krab Rangoon came with that yummy, sweet sauce. The sesame chicken was as tangy as we like. The General Tso's needed the steamed rice and tea or water to combat the spice, but I'd order it again without additional thought.
This may be the first restaurant I've ever seen that offers both Coke and Pepsi products, likely because they're canned. They also offer tea and bottled beer.
Oh, they do have a dessert menu. Tiramisu and a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake if you can even think past the appetizer offerings.
Anytime I'm on the west side of John Young Parkway, I'll return to Lee Bistro Asian Cuisine to dine in or take away.
While we did request take away, we'd happily dine in. The proprietor is friendly, the booths and tables in the restaurant comfortable, and the décor cheerful with all the red accents to bring prosperity to those that visit.
