(TAG Magazine is proud to bring Bob from Bob’s Whine and Dine to the TAGSGF.com team. He comes with great regard and a tremendous online following. I’ll let him explain his position: “I will not tell you whether you should or should not go to any particular restaurant – I’m only going to share my personal experience. I am not a professional writer and I’m not a food expert. I’m just a regular forty-something year old guy who wants to do a little whining.” We’re so geeked about having him on board that you’re going to get a review every day this week. Look for Bob’s Whine and dine every Wednesday.)
Sweet and Sour Chicken from Happy China
Bob’s Whine and Dine
My wife and I felt like Chinese today for lunch. She had seen an ad for Happy China and thought we should try it. Happy China is co-located with the BP gas station on the corner of Battlefield & Kimbrough. In this case co-located means it occupies the West end of the building but has its own entrance and is completely separated from the convenience store.
Happy China’s lunch menu has 27 items on it – each of them only $4.25 and comes with fried rice and your choice of soup, egg roll or crab Rangoon. My wife ordered her standard Sweet & Sour Chicken and I ordered the General Tso’s Chicken both with egg rolls.
I thought the egg roll was one of the better ones that I’ve had in town – the insides were nice and fresh tasting and I’m pretty sure did not come from a box in the freezer. They also fried them up after we ordered them – so the outside was nice and crispy.
My General Tso’s Chicken was pretty good. I would have liked it with a bit more kick (the menu says you can ask for things hotter). The flavor of the sauce was nice and you receive what I thought was a large portion of chicken for the price. The fried rice was a nice surprise (also fried up after we ordered it) it had onions, carrots & lots of little pieces of pork – very nice.
My wife did not care for her SS Chicken however. The reason for this was that the chicken did not have that crunchy fried coating that Springfield SS or Cashew Chicken is known for – rather it had a light batter coating, sort of the consistency of a funnel cake (but not sweet). The chicken inside was in very small pieces and was very tender so it got lost in all of the batter. She wondered at first whether there was any chicken in there at all. She resorted to taking the coating off and eating her chicken that way. Traditionalists will not like the way the chicken is prepared. What was kind of strange is that the chicken in my dish was the ‘normal’ style for Springfield. She did say that the SS sauce was pretty good – light with an almost a fruity taste about it. It was served on the side and so she used it as a dipping sauce. If she had had my chicken with her meal – she would have been very happy.
The dining room is small but functional so I think they are targeting the take-out crowd. We saw quite a few people doing just that. Parking is limited and shared with the convenience store. Drinks are serve yourself – which works for me. You can see what’s going on in the kitchen – and they prepare your meals to order. Entrées are also served in aluminum bowls & pans (even if you eat in) which can be fitted with plastic lids. I like that style of take out container – especially for Chinese food which tends to leak out of the square foam takeout boxes.
The dinner special’s menu consist of the same 27 items with fried rice & egg roll or crab rangoon – all for $6.35. There is also a Chef’s Specialties menu with more deluxe items ranging up to $11. There are also another 125 entrées available by the pint or quart served with white rice – think take out.
Bottom line – I had a decent inexpensive lunch. If you are a Springfield Sweet & Sour or Cashew Chicken purist – try to see if you can get your chicken prepared with the crispy coating, or better yet, branch out and try something different for a change.
820 East Battlefield – (417) 890-9788
TAGSGF.com’s Facebook Discussion of the best Cashew Chicken in SGF
