Tasty choices plentiful at Kung Fu kitchen
By SCOTT CHERRY
Published: 9/10/2009 2:20 AM
Last Modified: 9/10/2009 4:51 AM
Judy Lin said her husband, Xiadi, went to a cooking school in China and has worked in Asian restaurants in the United States much of the past 10 years with an eye toward owning his own place.
He realized that dream after the couple moved to Tulsa from the New York City area and recently opened Kung Fu Kitchen near 21st Street and Memorial Drive.
"It was too cold in the winter and there were too many people up there," said Judy Lin, who said she came to the U.S. from China about eight years ago when her father took a job in the States. "We also have a young son and thought this is a good place to raise a family."
Kung Fu Kitchen offers a cafeteria-style lunch option 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Friday. Diners may choose three items among 12 choices to go with soup and fried rice for $5.45.
The selections are bourbon chicken, chicken with broccoli, sesame chicken, vegetable lo mein, beef with pepper steak, sweet-and-sour chicken, cheese wonton, egg roll, chicken with mushrooms, kung pao chicken, vegetable fried rice and butter shrimp.
"We get a lot of working people for the lunch special since they usually don't have a lot of time to eat," Lin said. "The rest of the time most of our customers come from the neighborhood."
Diners also may choose from a 35-item lunch menu with prices ranging from $4.75 to $4.95.
We ordered two entrees off the vast dinner menu — the Happy Family ($10.95) and shrimp lo mein ($7.45) — and both were giant portions, enough for
a generous lunch the next day.
The Happy Family included a decidedly happy combination of shrimp, scallops, pork, chicken, beef, crab, mushrooms, green beans, water chestnuts, broccoli, green peppers and baby corn in a soy-based brown sauce.
The shrimp in the lo mein were much smaller than the jumbo-sized ones in the Happy Family, and they blended nicely with the long egg noodles and slightly garlicky sauce in this dish.
Both dishes came with a tasty fried rice that included bits of carrots, peas and onion. Steamed white rice also is available.
We also shared two standard veggie-filled egg rolls (99 cents each) and an order of cheese-and-crab wontons (six for $3.25). The wontons were huge and crispy with a good cheesy flavor.
A condiment table included soy sauce, spicy mustard, hot chili sauce and duck sauce for those who want to jazz up their dishes and fortune cookies for good luck.
The regular menu offers a wide range of appetizers, soups, fried rice, lo mein, mei fun, egg foo young, sweet-and-sour, chicken, beef, seafood, vegetable, combos, specials and family dinners — more than 100 items in all. Lin said the single most popular dish probably has been bourbon chicken.
The menu also offers two kids' meals, chicken nuggets and sweet-and-sour chicken or pork, both with fried rice for $3.25 each.
The faux-finished gold walls hold a couple of pictures of desert scenes with cactus, holdovers from the former tenant, Taco Tico. One wall has an oversized hand fan decorated with a painting of a panda bear. Lin said most of the remodeling is found in the open kitchen.
The dining room has wood-slat booths and laminate tables that seat about 50. Lin said Kung Fu Kitchen, which opened in late July, receives a lot of carryout and call-in orders.
The restaurant accepts all major credit cards except American Express. Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
KUNG FU KITCHEN
8720 E. 21st St.
828-7777