A few weeks back, Calvin and I were chatting. I don't see him much these days as he does that WFH stuff. Calvin mentioned that Crazy Duck had closed and had been replaced by another Chinese restaurant. It had been a while since we last had lunch, so we decided to check the place out.
So, I made the drive up to Poway, parked and saw the sign for Little Kitchen.
Though there was still Crazy Duck stuff around.
As I walked up to the place Calvin was already waiting. He laughed and told me "look at the menu, eating here might be a mistake." The menu had all the usual Chinese dishes…..everything from Orange Chicken, to Mu-shu Chicken, to Cream Cheese Won Tons! Welcome to "AB-Cee-DEee" (American Born Chinese Dining Establishment) town! But, there was also "Cold Spicy Beef – Tendon – Tripe", which sounded Fu Qi Fei Pian; Lamb with Pickled Cabbage, which seemed to be Suan Cai Yang Rou, and Lamb with Cumin (Zi Ran Yang Rou?).
Plus, I'd already driven all the way over here. So, we decided to see what was going on; which would prove to be somewhat amusing in retrospect.
The place is set-up just as Crazy Duck was; not many changes. Then we were provided menus. The "salad menu" kind of threw us off.
So, I asked the gentleman who was serving us, who was Asian, where the owner and chef were from and he said "China"; whew……
Then I asked where in China what area and his reply was: "Mandarin" Calvin almost spit out the water he was drinking….
Me: "Mandarin?"
Him: "Yes, Mandarin….."
Me: "Ummm, Mandarin is not a province or city, it's the official language of China!"
Him: "Oh, let me ask…."
He returned a minute later and we were told "Shanghai." Okay.
We looked over the huge menu and on the back were some lunch specials. We decided to try a couple of items and two lunch specials.
And in a minute some standard issue hot and sour soup and a generous portion of rice arrived at the table.
Along with some Veggie Eggrolls. All part and parcel of the lunch specials we ordered.
And then some plates arrived…….and we were provided with forks, but no chopsticks. Now, this was interesting. We had to ask for chopsticks.
The hot and sour soup tasted very much like the version from Crazy Duck, gloppy, salty, heavy handed in white pepper, but not terrible. The egg roll was crisp and bland. I'm not a fan of the bottled sweet and sour sauce delivered.
The first two dishes to arrive were the lunch specials.
First the Dried Sautéed String Beans ($13.50 – lunch special)
This version was done with some black bean; but really not enough to drive the flavor. The amount of soy sauce was good and the dish wasn't overly salty, but the beans had been under-cooked and were still hard, not crisp, but hard and chewy. Not terrible, but not even close to what I make at home.
Next up was the Lamb with Pickled Cabbage (lunch special – $14.50).
My goodness, this was so bland; the pickled cabbage barely had any sourness to it; even though dried chilies were present you couldn't taste it, the lamb hadn't been seasoned enough, and was on the tough side. This is the one dish that Missus refused to taste when I brought leftovers home. She took a look and a whiff and put it down on the table.
Calvin and I had thought about jiaozi or XLB (after all the chef is from Shanghai), but only chicken versions were available. We did look for something red-cooked, but quickly noticed that pork was missing from the menu.
So, we went with a half Deep-Fried Crispy Duck ($20.95).
The skin was fairly crisp, it did could have used a good dose of "salt and pepper", five spice, and was on the dry side, but we've had worse. This wasn't too bad, leading Calvin to say "I think this is better than anything I got from Crazy Duck." Which made me crack up.
The last item to arrive was actually an appetizer, a liang cai (cold dish). We had ordered the Cold Spicy Beef – Tendon – Tripe, but what arrived was the Cold Spicy Beef ($13.95).
The beef was perfectly tender, not falling apart, but not tough. What it wasn't was spicy, not in the least bit, it was also much too sweet, perhaps this was the "Shanghai influence"? It lacked nice anise tones, but was beefy. The cucumber needed some salt, spice, and I think garlic or something with some assertive flavors would help..
Overall, an "interesting" meal. Kind of all over the place. The other customers who came in all ordered typical Orange Chicken and Beef with Broccoli, taking in mind the "salads" on the menu, perhaps that's the direction of the restaurant? A 21st Century homage to those "Chop Suey – Szechuan – Mandarin ABCDE" restaurants of yesteryear? Nothing wrong with that, I grew up eating that "style" of Chinese food. And when done well, it's quite good. But things need to be consistently flavored and cooked which wasn't the case for our visit.
I think I'll wait a bit and do more research before I try to return.
For those that have tried Little Kitchen, tell me, what do you think?
Little Kitchen
13487 Poway Rd.
Poway, CA 92064
Currrent Hours:
Mon – Thurs 11am – 330pm, 430pm – 830pm
Friday 11am – 330pm, 430pm – 9pm
Saturday 11am – 9pm
Sunday 11am – 830pm
Well, my favorite sandwich here is the Chinese Sausage Sandwich ($9.99), I get it with a fried egg ($1.50), easy on the mayo, extra toasted. While it's on the "bready" side, getting the roll extra toasted enhances the crustiness and diminishes the potential for sogginess as Tadian, even when I ask for easy on the mayo will have too much of it. I enjoy the meaty lup cheong, which has a nice salty-porky-sweetness. The egg adds more savory tones and the avocado tempers things down. To me, the onions add a good pungency and is necessary, as is the mild sweet acidity of the tomato. Everything has a part to play here.
