Restaurant Review: King Egg Roll

King Egg Roll - lunch on June 16, 2014

Before I left my last job, I went out to lunch with one of my coworkers. We originally meant to go back to Honey Thai, her favorite place for Thai food, but we went on a Monday and we forgot that many small business restaurants, particularly Asian restaurants, are closed on Mondays. It's like their Sabbath.

Not to be deterred, we decided to try out King Egg Roll, which was nearby and on the way back to the office. Another coworker had mentioned it before and neither one of us had ever been there so it seemed like a good chance to try it out.

I had no idea what to expect but when we walked in, it felt like a Panda Express that served Chinese food entrees as well as dim sum. Like Panda, you could get rice or noodles then your choice of entrees. You could also order dim sum as a side order. The person behind the counter took your order and dished it out then you paid at the cash register at the end of the counter. The price points are also similar to Panda, under $10 for rice or noodles with 2 entrees.

Unlike Panda Express though, each order comes with a cup of egg drop soup which I thought tasted pretty good.

And true to its name, each order also comes with an egg roll. I wouldn't have ordered it otherwise since I knew it would be full of veggies and, even if I ate cooked vegetables, it always seemed contrary to have vegetables deep fried in an egg roll wrapper. Lumpia, I can handle. Deep fried vegetables? Nah.

I got the Orange Chicken to play along with the Panda vibe and the barbecue pork. The Orange Chicken was just okay; Panda's is better. But the barbecue pork was delicious, a little fatty but good flavor.

Steamed Pork Buns

My coworker also got an order of steamed pork buns which we split. That was good too. This is definitely not gourmet Chinese food but for a quick lunch, it's a decent alternative, especially if you don't mind simple and not fancy.