In Thailand, it costs roughly the same for a used English paperback or enough street food to feed a family of 10. It’s a fantastic lesson in relative worth, especially for those able to appreciate a skewer of grilled frogs more than Dan Brown.
Such comparisons come to mind when evaluating Chan’s Thai Kitchen, which by any measure has been a local success story since opening in 1997. It’s nearly always packed and bad words about it are rare, other than long wait times to get a table and their stubborn refusal to do evening takeout. More than anything it’s proof Juneauites crave quality ethnic food (even if Chan’s quickly learned to tone down the spices), to the point where an average restaurant in the Outside world is a minor institution here.
Good as Chan’s is, there’s dingy hole-in-the-wall joints in Seattle some of us make beelines for, where the speed and price of our many cartons puts McDonald’s to shame. Sit-down places around the state and U.S. offer better high-end memories. As for competing with market stalls of Chiang Mai, well, nobody’s close to their bags of soup and noodle stir-frys that begin, not end, with pad thai. When you see guys in business suits going into the Sheraton for sterilized meals at 20 times the price, the urge to mock them openly is overwhelming (OK, they’re very lavish meals, but unless you’re the type who can appreciate a $100 kobe burger 20 times as much as a great $5 greasy spoon cheeseburger, there’s a seriously out-of-whack value thing going.)
But back to reality, also known as pretty much the only decent Thai food one can get in town, at least five days of the week. Chan’s is closed Sundays and Mondays, open for lunch (and takeout) and dinner Tuesdays through Fridays, and dinner only on Saturdays. A lunchtime trip to Auke Bay is too much effort for government work, assuming one works downtown, especially given Chan’s infamously slow service, which at least they’ve developed a sense of self-mockey about.
“Chan’s Thai Kitchen is absolutely the slowest restaurant in Juneau, probably in Alaska and possibly the United States,” a faux award certificate on the wall declares. Other signs mingling with the Asian art on the cheap wood panel walls warn “if you are in a hurry, it might be best to come back another time.” To their credit, the reason this happens is all their dishes are cooked fresh when ordered, which many of our cheap friends to the south can’t claim.
A line of people spilling outside the door is common since they’ve only got a couple of seats in the tiny waiting area. “We’ve done Chan’s only once and we’re probably done the ‘penalty lap’ ten times (in recent months),” one of our regulars said, describing the u-turn one makes in a pothole-filled parking lot when the crowd is more than one wants to endure. We’ve also had plenty of 45-minute delays where we passed time looking at the boats in the harbor across from the street. Unfortunately for Chan’s, that’s led to occasions where we’ve bought live crabs on impulse from returning fishermen — easily the best grade-A meal in this town if one knows how to boil water, and one that’s cheap to boot.
Speaking of cheap, Chan’s isn’t. Prices are getting close to double what quickie hole-in-the-wall favorites Down South charge. It’s the combination of slowness and price, along with a few not-universally-shared remarks about inconsistency, that bogs Chan’s down among the ordinary.
Which is too bad, because the food is good — sometimes damn good. The menu isn’t as long as the 43 items on it suggests, since many are merely different meats or tofu added to a base dish. But we have, over the years, probably eaten everything on the menu at least once and certain dishes seem to end up on the table a lot more than others.
The only drawback of the Tom Yom and chicken coconut soups (both $11.50) is they may set expectations too high for what’s to come. While the price might seem outrageous for soup — and shrimp is $1 more, as it is in all dishes — each is enough to be a meal or an appetizer for the table. The Tom Yom is spicy as advertised, but without overpowering the flavor of the lemon grass and lime leaves. The chicken coconut is milder and richer, with a pleasant spice bite that doesn’t burn. Both are loaded with chunky vegetables that are crispy and fresh, marred only by eating a few ginger slices mistaken for mushrooms, and various forms of protein that — like too many dishes — don’t add much enhancement because they’re a bit dry and overcooked. There’s two other soups with rice noodles and one with rice, but their seasonings aren’t interesting enough to keep them on our list of regular items.
The spring rolls ($11 for five, $7 for three) are middle of the road, crispy instead of greasy, but with nothing remarkable in the collage of flavors from the rice, chicken and vegetables. Then again, people at the table were complaining they were too hot to appreciate the flavor, while eating all of them anyhow before they had a chance to cool.
In American restaurants, one supposedly can get a good idea of overall quality by ordering that most generic of items — the chicken breast — and seeing what the kitchen is capable of when it comes to preparing and seasoning it. A pretty stupid idea, actually, especially for infrequent diners celebrating a special occasion at a place with more exotic choices. But it’s both more common and sensible at ethnic places like Chan’s, where something like pad thai ($13) is both a safe kids pleaser and a mellow counterpoint to sharper flavors from other dishes (if you’re with a group and everyone’s eating their own entree, get schooled in Food 101 as a prerequisite for reading the rest of this review). The pad thai at Chan’s is on the sweet side and tends to congeal into a giant starchy lump as it cools, suggesting it’s a bit dry on lubricants. Nonetheless, it’s addictive and seems to be part of the collective order any time more than two people are involved.
The chicken satay ($11) is another safe, regularly ordered dish registering on the sweet side. Chan’s peanut sauce is thick and savory, with only a hint of spiciness, and it’s a good match for the chicken and mound of cabbage it’s served with. It’s unfortunate the chicken is too dry and chewy almost every time we order it, but the flavor pairing is better than similarly cooked pork satay. A more complex and satisfying pairing of chicken and peanut sauce is the taa-po curry ($12.50), which adds tamarind juice, spinach and lime leaves. This combination, as with other curries, is also available with pork, beef or extra-cost shrimp, but the poultry option is most compatible.
The yellow curry ($12.50) is pleasantly mild and rich, with potatoes and onions replacing greener vegetables in other mixes, but we’ve seen these subtleties executed better elsewhere. The green curry ($12.50) has a good bit of zing to balance its inherent sweetness. A nice in-house special for those who enjoy spicy is the halibut option for the red curry ($13), where the smooth texture of the plain-flavored fish is an ideal match. Similarly the thin strips of beef — generally the most tender and well-cooked of the proteins — are a good match with the peanuts (but no vegetables) in the spicy panang beef ($13).
The basil chicken ($12) and its pork, beef and tofu incarnations are a solid option, stir fried with a hefty pile of peppers, bamboo shoots and zucchini. Same for the broccoli pork with basil ($12), which adds…do we really need to explain this? A (protein of choice) with young ginger ($11.50) is equally well done, but of more limited appeal, with mushrooms and those similar-looking ginger slices replacing the basil and peppers.
A few of the dishes that seem to have fallen off the radar, at least until we revisited them for this review: the vegetarian hed pat woonsen ($12.50), thin rice noodles sir fried with vegetables and egg, is a bit like Chinese lo mein - a lot of starch without many strong flavors. The garlic shrimp with cabbage ($12) sounds better than it’s executed, with the garlic flavor surprisingly light for the number of cloves involved, not enough shrimp and too much sodden overcooked cabbage. And while the pad see iew ($13), rice noodles stir fried in black bean sauce, gets ordered from time to time when we’re looking for a break from pad thai, it never seems to generate much excitement.
Something else none of has ordered in a while are the Thai coffee and iced tea ($2.25), a common indulgence at other places, but here the calories from all that coconut milk and sugar don’t seem to come together well enough to justify them. We didn’t order one during our recent visits, so all we’re left with here are memories of something that for some reason or another was missing the intangibles.
Our writer-of-the-week sent out the usual e-mail after our visit, asking for ratings and impressions, and maybe the most interesting one was one that gave Chan’s a high rating, but nearly every comment was critical: “The soups are always good, the food is consistent, and good and hearty, but won’t knock me off my feet. The attitude is poor, and that no takeout at dinner is a major bummer. Someday another Thai restaurant is going to show up and they’ll start having to treat their customers like customers.” Like a sturdy home on a solid foundation, Chan’s worth as a long-term haven can’t be questioned, but there’s so many little chinks in the decor one wonders why they can’t do a little touch-up. The answer, of course, is as long as lines are spilling out the door, there’s no reason they need to.
Showing posts with label two stars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label two stars. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Review: Doc Water’s Pub (♦♦)
Trying to mail a cancelled stamp is punishable by up to a year in the brig, according to the 1923 U.S. maritime code. Cussing is good for three months. Propositioning a Negro? Don’t ask.
The tome doesn’t spell out a specific penalty for skipping out on a meal without paying, but the other stuff is sobering enough to quash thoughts of doing so at Doc Waters Pub. The antique book, one of many on the shelves at the wood-lined nautical entryway, is a suitable diversion during a quiet weekend brunch at a window table overlooking the waterfront. Only a few hours ago the soon-to-be-hungover, seeking nourishment to slow the pain, staggered out. A few minutes from now cruise ship passengers will ask if Docs has grits and biscuits as an unlisted menu item and if they can sit outside despite the rain since they don’t like the smell inside.
If there’s a lingering odor from the party it isn’t noticeable to our literary freak, who by now has abandoned yardarm justice for a thick text expounding on the wonders of the pocket calculator. More people come in wondering if they can have some item or other removed from the breakfast burritos (no, they’re made ahead of time). The coffee isn’t up to what can be found in to-go cups at several places a couple blocks away. But all in all, it’s an agreeable setting.
Docs is something of a Rorschach test, offering nearly any nosher what they might hope for in an experience. Pricey cuisine with light jazz, burgers and beer while watching the big screen (even if the Mideast conflict on CNN is a less than appetizing choice), Bloody Marys for breakfast, wasabi oysters at 3 a.m. There’s even a variety of catering from trays of deviled eggs with crab to sit-down plated meals. As a Jack-In-The-Box of all trades it usually meets and sometimes exceeds expectations, but isn’t really top-of-the-line in any particular area.
“Made for a good, but average, night out with friend,” one of us remarked after our initial night there. “Not an impressive date destination.”
He thought a table in the “Velvet Room” might change that last bit, which was full when we wandered in on a weeknight without reservations. So we got a booth in the Pub where the windows offer a first-class view of the parking lot across the street and the big-screen TV was showing non-stop carnage from the Middle East conflict on CNN. It wasn’t as intellectually stimulating as those yellowing pages on how to conduct a court marshal, but it helped fuel conversational topics such as establishing, no, Hezbollah guerillas aren’t the type to wear the intimidating uniforms we saw marching in formation.
Docs has its fans: one person called it her favorite restaurant and another rated it higher than Zen, the Asian eatery across the street that got three stars in our cumulative ratings (she was less impressed). It got positive scuttlebutt from some co-workers, including one happy to have a decent dining option during graveyard hours and another rightfully praising new chef Brady Deal as a noteworthy local talent. It’s a pub, so the booze selection is definitely good.
The setting is less appealing if you’re not bar hopping, with a general agreement it doesn’t match what Docs is trying to achieve on the higher end in the kitchen. One person said they have avoided it since last year due to poor service that seemed to assume it could survive on once-only visits from tourists, but there appears to be improvement in that area. You can say the setting is a letdown given the menu or praise the food as better than expected for the setting; they’re the pessimistic/optimistic sides of the same argument.
Perhaps the best thing about Doc’s cuisine is its consistency. During our first night there it was the only place in our short time of doing these reviews where every dish got remarks leaning toward the positive. The weakest entry was the 16-ounce gorgonzola ribeye ($27), topped with a savory combination of gorgonzola butter, shallots and ginger, but an ordinary piece of meat cooked to the ordered medium rare. The accompanying fettuccini with parmesan was undercooked and the grilled onions/peppers/mushroom side unremarkable (we might have thought it was meant as a topping if it didn’t come on other plates). Not a bad steak, but nowhere near as satisfying as the one we had at Zen last week.
A better meat choice was the daily special of bacon-wrapped caribou (we don’t remember the price, but it was in the steak’s range), two round pieces of flavorful meat that arrived rare (our server didn’t ask how we wanted it prepared). The bacon didn’t add much unless it played a role keeping the meat’s natural juices in during cooking.
Seafood dishes also went over well. The grilled halibut in adobo ($22) was an excellent example of making good use of a flexible fish. The halibut was fresh and grilled to the right degree of doneness. The menu lists it as prepared coconut adobo sauce, avacados, bell peppers, onions and tomatoes. But the key: “The sauce it came with was just the right thing,” said the diner behind that particular plate. “It was a mix of seasonings I could not identify.” Considering this person’s taste buds can identify flavors the way a musician with perfect pitch can identify notes, this is quite an achievement. The Sanso Ahi ($22), pan-seared with a crust of black sesame seeds and sansho, was pleasing and delicate in flavor and texture. The fettuccini underneath was OK but — like the saffron rice with the halibut and other sides — was mostly filler that didn’t enhance or detract.
Classic bar food, which takes up half the menu, is about half as expensive and satisfies in the way one would expect. The most positive feedback was for the beer-battered halibut and chips ($13), which uses Alaska Breaking Co. suds to lend further local credentials to a local fish. Burgers and sandwiches ($9-$13) offer various assemblys of beef, chicken, halibut and salmon, while salads with a Costco-quality base (that’s not a bad thing, really) include a caesar ($12, with chicken, salmon or halibut for $4 more, or ahi for $5), a pico chicken green salsa ($13) and a gorgonzola steak ($15).
Breakfast is much the same - pretty good with no real disappointments - as long as you’re in the mood for heavy grub. Two egg/lettuce/tomato breakfast burgers ($9 with bacon and cheese; $13 for halibut or salmon) were more than we were in the mood to stomach. But the saffron breakfast prawns ($13) are a worthy standout among the pedestrian selection, with the poached shrimp, eggs and saffron caper cream sauce over a baguette making for sort of an Alaskan eggs benedict. The country fries are fine wedges of real potatoes but not memorable, which is too bad since they come with every dish on the breakfast menu.
Still, for early grub there’s a few other places we’d hit first, depending on the mood. Same goes for post-midnight munchies, when stepping across the hall to get a takeout container of greasy Russian dumplings from Pel’ Meni is often more fitting for the mood. And that’s sort of the feeling about Docs overall: We can go there and count on having a good meal and a good time, but if we’re in the mood for something in particular there’s almost certainly going to be someplace else we’d prefer to get it. Given the prices of their entries, that’s not a great thing.
But there’d be no hesitation about making dinner plans there when a band is playing there we like or bringing relative there early in the evening if we wanted to show off the waterfront. Docs gets credit for being able to please many without resorting to Cheesecake Factory-like stunts of offering dozen or hundreds of mediocre dishes in an attempt to cover every possible mood and taste. And the potential meter is pointing up, a definite plus at a time when a number of nearby former favorites are in a noticeable decline.
The tome doesn’t spell out a specific penalty for skipping out on a meal without paying, but the other stuff is sobering enough to quash thoughts of doing so at Doc Waters Pub. The antique book, one of many on the shelves at the wood-lined nautical entryway, is a suitable diversion during a quiet weekend brunch at a window table overlooking the waterfront. Only a few hours ago the soon-to-be-hungover, seeking nourishment to slow the pain, staggered out. A few minutes from now cruise ship passengers will ask if Docs has grits and biscuits as an unlisted menu item and if they can sit outside despite the rain since they don’t like the smell inside.
If there’s a lingering odor from the party it isn’t noticeable to our literary freak, who by now has abandoned yardarm justice for a thick text expounding on the wonders of the pocket calculator. More people come in wondering if they can have some item or other removed from the breakfast burritos (no, they’re made ahead of time). The coffee isn’t up to what can be found in to-go cups at several places a couple blocks away. But all in all, it’s an agreeable setting.
Docs is something of a Rorschach test, offering nearly any nosher what they might hope for in an experience. Pricey cuisine with light jazz, burgers and beer while watching the big screen (even if the Mideast conflict on CNN is a less than appetizing choice), Bloody Marys for breakfast, wasabi oysters at 3 a.m. There’s even a variety of catering from trays of deviled eggs with crab to sit-down plated meals. As a Jack-In-The-Box of all trades it usually meets and sometimes exceeds expectations, but isn’t really top-of-the-line in any particular area.
“Made for a good, but average, night out with friend,” one of us remarked after our initial night there. “Not an impressive date destination.”
He thought a table in the “Velvet Room” might change that last bit, which was full when we wandered in on a weeknight without reservations. So we got a booth in the Pub where the windows offer a first-class view of the parking lot across the street and the big-screen TV was showing non-stop carnage from the Middle East conflict on CNN. It wasn’t as intellectually stimulating as those yellowing pages on how to conduct a court marshal, but it helped fuel conversational topics such as establishing, no, Hezbollah guerillas aren’t the type to wear the intimidating uniforms we saw marching in formation.
Docs has its fans: one person called it her favorite restaurant and another rated it higher than Zen, the Asian eatery across the street that got three stars in our cumulative ratings (she was less impressed). It got positive scuttlebutt from some co-workers, including one happy to have a decent dining option during graveyard hours and another rightfully praising new chef Brady Deal as a noteworthy local talent. It’s a pub, so the booze selection is definitely good.
The setting is less appealing if you’re not bar hopping, with a general agreement it doesn’t match what Docs is trying to achieve on the higher end in the kitchen. One person said they have avoided it since last year due to poor service that seemed to assume it could survive on once-only visits from tourists, but there appears to be improvement in that area. You can say the setting is a letdown given the menu or praise the food as better than expected for the setting; they’re the pessimistic/optimistic sides of the same argument.
Perhaps the best thing about Doc’s cuisine is its consistency. During our first night there it was the only place in our short time of doing these reviews where every dish got remarks leaning toward the positive. The weakest entry was the 16-ounce gorgonzola ribeye ($27), topped with a savory combination of gorgonzola butter, shallots and ginger, but an ordinary piece of meat cooked to the ordered medium rare. The accompanying fettuccini with parmesan was undercooked and the grilled onions/peppers/mushroom side unremarkable (we might have thought it was meant as a topping if it didn’t come on other plates). Not a bad steak, but nowhere near as satisfying as the one we had at Zen last week.
A better meat choice was the daily special of bacon-wrapped caribou (we don’t remember the price, but it was in the steak’s range), two round pieces of flavorful meat that arrived rare (our server didn’t ask how we wanted it prepared). The bacon didn’t add much unless it played a role keeping the meat’s natural juices in during cooking.
Seafood dishes also went over well. The grilled halibut in adobo ($22) was an excellent example of making good use of a flexible fish. The halibut was fresh and grilled to the right degree of doneness. The menu lists it as prepared coconut adobo sauce, avacados, bell peppers, onions and tomatoes. But the key: “The sauce it came with was just the right thing,” said the diner behind that particular plate. “It was a mix of seasonings I could not identify.” Considering this person’s taste buds can identify flavors the way a musician with perfect pitch can identify notes, this is quite an achievement. The Sanso Ahi ($22), pan-seared with a crust of black sesame seeds and sansho, was pleasing and delicate in flavor and texture. The fettuccini underneath was OK but — like the saffron rice with the halibut and other sides — was mostly filler that didn’t enhance or detract.
Classic bar food, which takes up half the menu, is about half as expensive and satisfies in the way one would expect. The most positive feedback was for the beer-battered halibut and chips ($13), which uses Alaska Breaking Co. suds to lend further local credentials to a local fish. Burgers and sandwiches ($9-$13) offer various assemblys of beef, chicken, halibut and salmon, while salads with a Costco-quality base (that’s not a bad thing, really) include a caesar ($12, with chicken, salmon or halibut for $4 more, or ahi for $5), a pico chicken green salsa ($13) and a gorgonzola steak ($15).
Breakfast is much the same - pretty good with no real disappointments - as long as you’re in the mood for heavy grub. Two egg/lettuce/tomato breakfast burgers ($9 with bacon and cheese; $13 for halibut or salmon) were more than we were in the mood to stomach. But the saffron breakfast prawns ($13) are a worthy standout among the pedestrian selection, with the poached shrimp, eggs and saffron caper cream sauce over a baguette making for sort of an Alaskan eggs benedict. The country fries are fine wedges of real potatoes but not memorable, which is too bad since they come with every dish on the breakfast menu.
Still, for early grub there’s a few other places we’d hit first, depending on the mood. Same goes for post-midnight munchies, when stepping across the hall to get a takeout container of greasy Russian dumplings from Pel’ Meni is often more fitting for the mood. And that’s sort of the feeling about Docs overall: We can go there and count on having a good meal and a good time, but if we’re in the mood for something in particular there’s almost certainly going to be someplace else we’d prefer to get it. Given the prices of their entries, that’s not a great thing.
But there’d be no hesitation about making dinner plans there when a band is playing there we like or bringing relative there early in the evening if we wanted to show off the waterfront. Docs gets credit for being able to please many without resorting to Cheesecake Factory-like stunts of offering dozen or hundreds of mediocre dishes in an attempt to cover every possible mood and taste. And the potential meter is pointing up, a definite plus at a time when a number of nearby former favorites are in a noticeable decline.
Review: Kenny’s Wok & Teriyaki Sushi Bar (♦♦)
Does any food run the range of sublime to sickening more than sushi?
On the swanky end are $1,000 lunches for two and toro served on naked women, each inspiring outrage from different factions. The dreadful side includes cheap buffets where even the imitation crab in the California rolls sits out so long the risk factor is slightly above a salmon plucked from a spawning stream.
So there’s a lot of middle ground. Kenny’s Wok & Teriyaki Sushi Bar in downtown Juneau is somewhere in the middle-low range, but increases its cred by covering a lot of other familiar Asian food territory pretty well. One can get better individual sushi or Chinese dishes elsewhere in town, but as a reasonably priced crowd pleaser this is a solid bet.
Kenny’s is popular in offices where some of us work, no doubt because they offer delivery. They also do takeout - a good thing, given a dining area that can get crowded - and service is usually surprisingly swift. Order a bento box ($10-$11) to go while a nutrient-challenged friend gets their daily Super Value Meal at the McDonald’s next door and it might be even money who comes out first.
Even average tempura shrimp - the kind you can buy from the freezer section and make at home - stomps mud puddles in the chest of an order of McFries. The two in the bento box are plenty to satisfy a fried food fix (and there’s some fried pot stickers in there if not), while still leaving room for the small bits of healthier stuff like teriyaki chicken and (gasp!) salad.
All of the box items and maybe 200 other options are available as separate items, although it’s a familiar case of mixing and matching a few ingredients in many ways. None are truly exotic, although a few sushi items like the Bulldog roll ($9.50), consisting of eel, yellow tail, yamagobo, onion and smelt egg, offer a potential novelty for many.
Most of our stops were quick lunch hits and takeouts, but some of us did get together there for a proper dinner. Things got off to a dodgy start when both the miso and egg drop soups served with separate entries were decent in taste, but barely warm. It was one of the few misfires, aside from the expected pitfall of having a delivered order of fried food arrive soggy. Another is the Dynamite appetizer ($7), a sort of mini mashed casserole whose sum is less than the shrimp, scallops, crab meat and baked mushroom within.
The cream cheese wontons ($4 for eight) are a solid crunchy fried starter, neither soggy nor tough, and lose little beyond a price increase by leaving out the imitation crab meat often mixed in. Those tempura shrimp ($7 for six) are also available in a combination with vegetables ($10), where the large chunks of onions, broccoli and other things retain enough crispness to indulge in the ridiculous fantasy something of nourishing redemption is being ingested with all that batter and grease.
The teriyaki and Chinese entries all got praise, if not raves. Teriyaki chicken ($7.50) is cooked properly, and the sauce doesn’t stagger too heavily into sweet or salty. Shrimp yakisoba ($9.50) is a good - not great - mix of crustaceans, vegetables and fried noodles that was a bit salty (the side of rice was more starch than our diner desired). General To’s chicken ($9) - labeled “spicy,” as all such dishes are - is a favorite of one person who’s a regular (”It won’t rock you, but it’s got some kick.”).
When it comes to sushi, Kenny’s level of proficiency is perhaps best illustrated in its quality assembly of the Wonder Bread of the genre - the California roll ($6). The word “yummy” may be as hip as “swell” these days, but it’s the right one here. The rolls can be eaten in quantity with far more pleasure than kind found in plastic trays in supermarkets, without feeling any need to think one is indulging in the finer aspects of Japanese cuisine. Don’t bother with optional toppings such as the assorted fish in a rainbow roll ($11); it tweaks the pallet chemistry like blue cheese on a Big Mac.
Instead, relish the higher-quality fixings in subtler combinations like that Bulldog roll, and asparagus and avocado topped with salmon in the Philadelphia roll ($8.50). One exception worth making is the sacrilegious Las Vegas ($9) roll, basically a California roll with other various fish inside that’s deep fried in tempura batter. It was a big hit with one our so-called discerning sushi eaters, a serious guilty pleasure for moments of reckless abandon.
The sashimi combinations ($16 regular, $32 deluxe) are fine, but potentially disappointing for those most familiar with the dish. The various fish are OK in texture and flavor, but don’t possess the special qualities of first-rate sushi fish and their preparation, as one nosher put it, lacks a certain artistry experienced at some personal favorites elsewhere.
Ultimately, Kenny’s is a place everyone seems to express varying degrees of like about. Nobody had negative comments and a couple of people raved, but mostly the thought seems to be anyone ought to be able to go there and be pretty happy with the results. No high-end provocations, no steam table hazards - sometimes middle-of-the-road is a good place to be.
On the swanky end are $1,000 lunches for two and toro served on naked women, each inspiring outrage from different factions. The dreadful side includes cheap buffets where even the imitation crab in the California rolls sits out so long the risk factor is slightly above a salmon plucked from a spawning stream.
So there’s a lot of middle ground. Kenny’s Wok & Teriyaki Sushi Bar in downtown Juneau is somewhere in the middle-low range, but increases its cred by covering a lot of other familiar Asian food territory pretty well. One can get better individual sushi or Chinese dishes elsewhere in town, but as a reasonably priced crowd pleaser this is a solid bet.
Kenny’s is popular in offices where some of us work, no doubt because they offer delivery. They also do takeout - a good thing, given a dining area that can get crowded - and service is usually surprisingly swift. Order a bento box ($10-$11) to go while a nutrient-challenged friend gets their daily Super Value Meal at the McDonald’s next door and it might be even money who comes out first.
Even average tempura shrimp - the kind you can buy from the freezer section and make at home - stomps mud puddles in the chest of an order of McFries. The two in the bento box are plenty to satisfy a fried food fix (and there’s some fried pot stickers in there if not), while still leaving room for the small bits of healthier stuff like teriyaki chicken and (gasp!) salad.
All of the box items and maybe 200 other options are available as separate items, although it’s a familiar case of mixing and matching a few ingredients in many ways. None are truly exotic, although a few sushi items like the Bulldog roll ($9.50), consisting of eel, yellow tail, yamagobo, onion and smelt egg, offer a potential novelty for many.
Most of our stops were quick lunch hits and takeouts, but some of us did get together there for a proper dinner. Things got off to a dodgy start when both the miso and egg drop soups served with separate entries were decent in taste, but barely warm. It was one of the few misfires, aside from the expected pitfall of having a delivered order of fried food arrive soggy. Another is the Dynamite appetizer ($7), a sort of mini mashed casserole whose sum is less than the shrimp, scallops, crab meat and baked mushroom within.
The cream cheese wontons ($4 for eight) are a solid crunchy fried starter, neither soggy nor tough, and lose little beyond a price increase by leaving out the imitation crab meat often mixed in. Those tempura shrimp ($7 for six) are also available in a combination with vegetables ($10), where the large chunks of onions, broccoli and other things retain enough crispness to indulge in the ridiculous fantasy something of nourishing redemption is being ingested with all that batter and grease.
The teriyaki and Chinese entries all got praise, if not raves. Teriyaki chicken ($7.50) is cooked properly, and the sauce doesn’t stagger too heavily into sweet or salty. Shrimp yakisoba ($9.50) is a good - not great - mix of crustaceans, vegetables and fried noodles that was a bit salty (the side of rice was more starch than our diner desired). General To’s chicken ($9) - labeled “spicy,” as all such dishes are - is a favorite of one person who’s a regular (”It won’t rock you, but it’s got some kick.”).
When it comes to sushi, Kenny’s level of proficiency is perhaps best illustrated in its quality assembly of the Wonder Bread of the genre - the California roll ($6). The word “yummy” may be as hip as “swell” these days, but it’s the right one here. The rolls can be eaten in quantity with far more pleasure than kind found in plastic trays in supermarkets, without feeling any need to think one is indulging in the finer aspects of Japanese cuisine. Don’t bother with optional toppings such as the assorted fish in a rainbow roll ($11); it tweaks the pallet chemistry like blue cheese on a Big Mac.
Instead, relish the higher-quality fixings in subtler combinations like that Bulldog roll, and asparagus and avocado topped with salmon in the Philadelphia roll ($8.50). One exception worth making is the sacrilegious Las Vegas ($9) roll, basically a California roll with other various fish inside that’s deep fried in tempura batter. It was a big hit with one our so-called discerning sushi eaters, a serious guilty pleasure for moments of reckless abandon.
The sashimi combinations ($16 regular, $32 deluxe) are fine, but potentially disappointing for those most familiar with the dish. The various fish are OK in texture and flavor, but don’t possess the special qualities of first-rate sushi fish and their preparation, as one nosher put it, lacks a certain artistry experienced at some personal favorites elsewhere.
Ultimately, Kenny’s is a place everyone seems to express varying degrees of like about. Nobody had negative comments and a couple of people raved, but mostly the thought seems to be anyone ought to be able to go there and be pretty happy with the results. No high-end provocations, no steam table hazards - sometimes middle-of-the-road is a good place to be.
Review: Wild Spice (♦♦)
The last time one of us set foot in here, he stripped nearly naked and was felt up by one of the employees maybe 10 feet from our table. So naturally our clothing-challenged nosher was the one suggesting a return trip.
Of course the tale loses shock value when the the details are told, since the downtown Juneau space housing Wild Spice used to be a men’s clothing store, an electronics shop and probably some other failed ventures. The restaurant is part of an ongoing makeover of Front Street, where a few eateries are opening near longtime establishment such as Valentine’s Coffee House and locations that seem to go out of business regularly (Bacar’s, whose down-home menu included a gastronomical nightmare known as tempura-battered Spam sticks, is the latest victim of one particular space). The hope is to draw a new crowd to replace the cruise shippers now buying their cheap souvenirs down by the dock.
Like the new Front Street, things are promising. But there’s still some work to do.
Wild Spice is the creation of Grady Saunders, owner of Heritage Coffee Co., and he’s branching into a considerably more upscale and eclectic realm than lattes and sandwiches. The hype seems to be about the pick-your-own-ingredients Mongolian barbecue, but much of their entree menu is at least equally worthy. The selection is contemporary comforts such as halibut topped with tiger prawn mousse ($19) and salmon with plantain risotto ($20). All come with varying side dishes such as ginger melon relish and poblano butternut squash.
The open dining room setting is tastefully understated and clean, with quiet conversation possible among the half-capacity crowd present during one of our visits. One of us was less than thrilled about lingering on the hard plain-wood chairs in the middle of the room, but not enough to try to get everyone moved to one of the padded booths along the walls. The view out the large windows is of a competing restaurant under construction across the street - even when complete, this isn’t going to match places like The Hanger for vowing visitors with scenery.
Winners among the appetizers included Manapua Pork Rolls ($10), combining meat, aloha salsa and jicama slaw wrapped in tortillas and served with “spicy” sweet and sour sauce. One taster said they were as a good as any crunchy roll-like starter he’s had. They didn’t have the Wild Cheese Fondue ($15) - apples, grilled vegetables and focaccia with a pot of unspecified melted cheese - apparently because they’re still getting the equipment necessary to serve it. Missing items seem to be a minor problem elsewhere on the menu as well, with one person unable to order a specific dessert on each of her visits. While we’re on missing, this is the second restaurant in a row where soda’s been on the flat side - is there a shortage of CO2 in town?
Salads featured a fresh assortment of vegetables and a quality roasted shallot vinaigrette among the dressings. A thoughtful touch was serving them in a small side dish, but there was barely enough to coat half the greens adequately. A carrot ginger soup was smooth and comforting with just enough spicy zing to keep it from being dull.
The create-a-bowl options take up two of the menu’s five pages, with a lunchtime special of a medium bowl and unlimited soft drink refills ($9 from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) being a tastier and more nutritious option than a couple of generic fast food places in the immediate vicinity. The range and quality of the protein, vegetable, noodle and seasoning choices are outstanding compared to many establishments in other cities, where one might save a few bucks or get an all-you-can-eat option in exchange for limp ingredients. In addition to the usual beef, chicken and pork, there’s tofu, catfish, squid and other proteins in attractive bite-size and shaved bits. Nine sauces and three spice mixtures, from the expected curries and peanut sauces to Berbere Fire Water and Bahia Tamarind Mohlo, provide the finishing touch. Levels of spiciness and suggested “scoop” portions are listed so customers aren’t victimized by their choices. One of our diners felt the suggestions were conservative, putting twice the number of scoops on her bowls. The raw bowls are cooked on a huge grill in plain view at the far end of the dining room. There’s occasionally a line, but it never got so bad as to be annoying.
Entries from the menu were more successful than not, but missteps were pronounced. Barbados Molasses Mustard Ribs ($19) were tender as advertised and the sauce was an ideal balance of spice and sweet. The spicy Espresso Baked Beans, sweet potato mash and coconut cornbread were all hits, except for too many people wanting to sample the silver-dollar-size cornbread.
The Flat Iron Steak ($23) is a good cut of meat and seasoned well (if cooked a shade past the ordered medium rare). But the entire plate arrived too cool, with hot entries no better than warm and the “warm” wild mushroom raguet arriving cold. The educated guess was this plate was kept waiting while other orders were still cooking.
Disappointing was the Jamaican Jerk Chicken ($16), consisting of dry chicken breast slices that, when combined with the charred seasoning, simply tasted burnt. The filling in the accompanying cinnamon pumpkin ravioli was tasty, but the pasta was undercooked. The caribbean slaw was the best thing on the plate, fresh and with a balanced spicy zing.
Somebody in the kitchen has taken a class in food design, with large square plates being decorated with the entries instead of merely piled on. Servers mostly did a good job of rotating the dish and courses, with the exception of that one wait, and checking to see how things were. But it doesn’t seem like they’ve quite mastered the causal upscale approach Wild Spice is aiming for - it’s more like watching someone you know act the role and get the lines right, but never fully believing they’re the character.
The rating reflects current reality, but Wild Spice has three-star potential with more experience. All of us agreed we’d be willing to return for the group thing again and some of us make regular, if not frequent, stops for lunch bowls. If this is the emerging neighborhood standard of competition for those not craving Subway, it’s certainly a good thing.
Of course the tale loses shock value when the the details are told, since the downtown Juneau space housing Wild Spice used to be a men’s clothing store, an electronics shop and probably some other failed ventures. The restaurant is part of an ongoing makeover of Front Street, where a few eateries are opening near longtime establishment such as Valentine’s Coffee House and locations that seem to go out of business regularly (Bacar’s, whose down-home menu included a gastronomical nightmare known as tempura-battered Spam sticks, is the latest victim of one particular space). The hope is to draw a new crowd to replace the cruise shippers now buying their cheap souvenirs down by the dock.
Like the new Front Street, things are promising. But there’s still some work to do.
Wild Spice is the creation of Grady Saunders, owner of Heritage Coffee Co., and he’s branching into a considerably more upscale and eclectic realm than lattes and sandwiches. The hype seems to be about the pick-your-own-ingredients Mongolian barbecue, but much of their entree menu is at least equally worthy. The selection is contemporary comforts such as halibut topped with tiger prawn mousse ($19) and salmon with plantain risotto ($20). All come with varying side dishes such as ginger melon relish and poblano butternut squash.
The open dining room setting is tastefully understated and clean, with quiet conversation possible among the half-capacity crowd present during one of our visits. One of us was less than thrilled about lingering on the hard plain-wood chairs in the middle of the room, but not enough to try to get everyone moved to one of the padded booths along the walls. The view out the large windows is of a competing restaurant under construction across the street - even when complete, this isn’t going to match places like The Hanger for vowing visitors with scenery.
Winners among the appetizers included Manapua Pork Rolls ($10), combining meat, aloha salsa and jicama slaw wrapped in tortillas and served with “spicy” sweet and sour sauce. One taster said they were as a good as any crunchy roll-like starter he’s had. They didn’t have the Wild Cheese Fondue ($15) - apples, grilled vegetables and focaccia with a pot of unspecified melted cheese - apparently because they’re still getting the equipment necessary to serve it. Missing items seem to be a minor problem elsewhere on the menu as well, with one person unable to order a specific dessert on each of her visits. While we’re on missing, this is the second restaurant in a row where soda’s been on the flat side - is there a shortage of CO2 in town?
Salads featured a fresh assortment of vegetables and a quality roasted shallot vinaigrette among the dressings. A thoughtful touch was serving them in a small side dish, but there was barely enough to coat half the greens adequately. A carrot ginger soup was smooth and comforting with just enough spicy zing to keep it from being dull.
The create-a-bowl options take up two of the menu’s five pages, with a lunchtime special of a medium bowl and unlimited soft drink refills ($9 from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) being a tastier and more nutritious option than a couple of generic fast food places in the immediate vicinity. The range and quality of the protein, vegetable, noodle and seasoning choices are outstanding compared to many establishments in other cities, where one might save a few bucks or get an all-you-can-eat option in exchange for limp ingredients. In addition to the usual beef, chicken and pork, there’s tofu, catfish, squid and other proteins in attractive bite-size and shaved bits. Nine sauces and three spice mixtures, from the expected curries and peanut sauces to Berbere Fire Water and Bahia Tamarind Mohlo, provide the finishing touch. Levels of spiciness and suggested “scoop” portions are listed so customers aren’t victimized by their choices. One of our diners felt the suggestions were conservative, putting twice the number of scoops on her bowls. The raw bowls are cooked on a huge grill in plain view at the far end of the dining room. There’s occasionally a line, but it never got so bad as to be annoying.
Entries from the menu were more successful than not, but missteps were pronounced. Barbados Molasses Mustard Ribs ($19) were tender as advertised and the sauce was an ideal balance of spice and sweet. The spicy Espresso Baked Beans, sweet potato mash and coconut cornbread were all hits, except for too many people wanting to sample the silver-dollar-size cornbread.
The Flat Iron Steak ($23) is a good cut of meat and seasoned well (if cooked a shade past the ordered medium rare). But the entire plate arrived too cool, with hot entries no better than warm and the “warm” wild mushroom raguet arriving cold. The educated guess was this plate was kept waiting while other orders were still cooking.
Disappointing was the Jamaican Jerk Chicken ($16), consisting of dry chicken breast slices that, when combined with the charred seasoning, simply tasted burnt. The filling in the accompanying cinnamon pumpkin ravioli was tasty, but the pasta was undercooked. The caribbean slaw was the best thing on the plate, fresh and with a balanced spicy zing.
Somebody in the kitchen has taken a class in food design, with large square plates being decorated with the entries instead of merely piled on. Servers mostly did a good job of rotating the dish and courses, with the exception of that one wait, and checking to see how things were. But it doesn’t seem like they’ve quite mastered the causal upscale approach Wild Spice is aiming for - it’s more like watching someone you know act the role and get the lines right, but never fully believing they’re the character.
The rating reflects current reality, but Wild Spice has three-star potential with more experience. All of us agreed we’d be willing to return for the group thing again and some of us make regular, if not frequent, stops for lunch bowls. If this is the emerging neighborhood standard of competition for those not craving Subway, it’s certainly a good thing.
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