The Real Chow Baby

Okay, so technically The Real Chow Baby doesn't fit our requirements for a Culinary Adventure Squad outing. One of us had been there before, and it's arguably a chain. However, there's only two locations, so I don't know that that's really a chain. Either way, Vidur and Hal and I went last night and nom'd.

Basically, the Real Chow Baby is a stir-fry place. You go through the line, pick out what type of noodles/rice you want, then add any vegetables or nuts or various other yummy things. Next, they've got a dozen or so sauces you put on. These all go in a big black bowl. You then pick up a smaller red bowl and put your protein in it: scallops, beef, chicken, pork, and a few more choices. Then you can add seasonings, hand them off to the staff with a tiny wooden paddle with your name and table number written on it, and sit back at your table.

Maybe 15 minutes later: voila! Stir-fry!

The website definitely explains the process better, as well as giving you a list of the different ingredients (though I did not ice there was some variation between what they had on the website and what they had on the line).

I had:

Lo mein noodles
Bamboo shoots, a ridiculous amount of bean sprouts, broccoli, carrots, and snow peas
Green onions and garlic
An egg
2 scoops or red thai curry and 1 scoop of coconut curry sauce
Beef with a ridiculous amount of garlic powder on it (there is no such thing as too much garlic)

It was great.

It wasn't ridiculously spicy, but it wasn't the sort of "I'm just saying that this is a spicy food so that I can sound hardcore but really it's not spicy at all" spicy either. It was make-you-mouth-and-tongue-tingle-pleasantly spicy. Of course, in the interest of full disclosure, I didn't grow up eating a lot of spicy food, so my definition of spicy isn't as high as some peoples.

The beef and noodles were both cooked well, I loved the sauces, and my vegetables were delicious. I only had two complaints. First, the egg was a bit undercooked for my tastes and was in very large pieces (I think only four before I cut it up). I would have preferred if it had been fried a bit longer and distributed more evenly throughout the stir-fry. Second, I ended up with bits of other people's stir-fry in mine: a piece of either chicken or pork, a jalapeno, and a mushroom. It wasn't the biggest deal in the world, but depending on your preferences, pickiness, and/or allergies, it could be a problem.

I'd definitely go back. It was a bit expensive for an everyday sort of meal for me (12.95$ with tax), but not so expensive that I can't ever afford it. Our waitress wasn't particularly helpful either, and asked if I actually needed change from my 20 (sorry, sweetheart, I'm not giving you a 7$ tip for a 13$ meal) as well as not bringing back my nickel in change (I would have left it for her anyways, but it's the principle of the thing). Those are really minor quibbles, though.

I'd recommend it for just about anyone, as, since you can make your own thing, you can eat whatever you want so everyone's happy. They've even got nifty suggestions and recipe cards (like one for what to put in your bowl for fried rice).

Oh, AND it's all-you-can-eat. And if you only go through the line once, you can take home any leftovers you have for free. Which I did, and just ate for dinner. Even microwaved, The Real Chow Baby stir-fry is still delicious.