So today I was all set to go to Manny’s Place, a seafood restaurant in the Gateway Plaza , Wayne, PA, but Rahim called me when he got out of class and wanted to chill. He was slightly hungry, and had $6 credit at some Chinese place called Auspicious, which was within walking distance of his apartment. When he told me that his credit derived from a dish they forgot to put in his last take-out order, I should have been wary.
We were seated quickly because it was still early, about 5:30PM. Our waiter, a tall Chinese guy with short spiky hair, seemed to feel like he was too cool to be serving me and my dinner mate, potentially because we were both brown.
The Vegetable Miso Soup was warm enough, but relatively bland and tasteless. Tofu, zucchini, carrot, water chestnut, and baby corn came together in a broth reminiscent of warm water boiled in an almost, but not quite clean, sock.
Around 10 minutes later than it should have, the Wu Tangerine Beef was served. The sauce was light but flavorful, like orange juice mixed with sweet and sour sauce, and chilies. The “Beef”, however left something to be desired. I put beef in quotations originally because I was not sure if it was in fact beef. It had a light color and tough, chewy consistency that reminded me of veal or pork. I guess if it was veal, its still beef, but I think that’s pretty close to false advertising. The broccoli that came with it was cold and crunchy. Maybe that’s their style, but I’m not buying it, at least, not again.
My friend had a Tofu dish with a pretty good kung pao-ish sauce, but the tofu was soft and did not soak up the sauce flavor.
Finally, just to top off a pretty meh meal, they couldn’t find a record of my friend having a 6$ credit. It’s mediocre food with slightly worse service.
Not the most auspicious start to my blog, nor an apt name for this restaurant.