So when we were craving Chinese food the other night, we were presented with a problem. Our favorite Chinese spot doesn’t deliver, and nobody wanted to go out to pick up for take out! What to do? Google for take-out Chinese places who deliver to our address. One result thanks to the internet was Wang’s Kitchen, located on Lynn Road  and Creedmoor Road. They have their complete menu posted online (oh so nice – a note to those of you restaurants who do NOT have menus online!) along with prices, and they seemed to be right on the money with their competitor’s prices.

I called in and placed my order quickly and easily with a friendly employee. He said it would take about 45 minutes for my order to arrive which seemed a little bit on the long side for a Chinese restaurant, but hey – if they’re hoppin’ busy that must mean good food right? After all, it was already 6:00 and I was sure my fellow Raleigh-ites were also jonesin’ for some Chinese grub.

Our order showed up a few minutes early and we tore open the brown bag for our dinner. At first I thought we had been shorted on some of our food because the bag was so light and there didn’t seem to be anywhere near enough packages to contain all of the food I’d ordered. (If you guessed we ordered a dinner portion of Sesame Chicken with white rice, some Crab Rangoon and Egg Drop soup, you’d be right. We really need to explore a little bit more of the menu don’t you think!?)

I spread the food out on the table and was surprised at what my $17ish dollars had purchased. I had one rectangular plastic container that was half meat and half rice. Not the usual full-plastic container of just meat with the traditional take-out fold-up box with rice. This looked more like a lunch portion than a dinner portion.

The Crab Rangoon was overcooked without much filling. The sauce that it came with was alright, but nothing to note. Egg Drop soup, well that got an “ok” rating from the kids.

In all, this was a disappointing meal. I probably won’t be spending my money on Wang’s Kitchen any time in the near future.

Then we tried out Red Bowl Asian Bistro in the North Raleigh area. It’s located in the shopping center off of Old Wake Forest Road near BJs club, just next door to Mimi’s Cafe. The ambiance and interior design are great – it’s not your typical run in and run out Chinese restaurant (although you can order – online even – and pick up your food for carryout).  Tables can accommodate a couple or a larger group of people eating out together. We’ve never experienced a wait time.

Red Bowl offers all of your typical Chinese restaurant fare including a pretty extensive fresh sushi menu. Prices are fairly comparable to other local Chinese restaurants in Raleigh which is surprising since we thought it might be more expensive because of the nicer indoor atmosphere and the “Bistro” name. Red Bowl currently offers a promotional key tag that allows you a percentage off a carry-out order OR a buy one get one deal for dine-in orders (ask the restaurant for more info).

About the food: we’ve eaten here about 5 or 6 times in the past few months and every time Red Bowl has delivered exactly what we hoped for. I love Sesame Chicken and this is the best I’ve had in my 6 years of living in the Triangle. Other items ordered include their Orange Chicken which is too spicy for me, so if you like a little heat with your chicken this is a perfect dish. They offer delicious and hot soups and other hors devours. My favorite is their Crab Rangoon – you get about 6 of them, perfectly cooked and absolutely delicious. In my personal opinion, they are the best in the North Raleigh area period!

Red Bowl includes a kids menu which is good if you have an older kid who needs their own plate and won’t share off of your own monstrous and generous serving portion. Everyone’s meals are served on nifty and trendy plates or bowls and of course chopsticks are available, with a neat little rubber-band twisty available for those of us who haven’t yet (and probably never will) master the art of chopstick eating.

Red Bowl also has a full-service bar for drinks at the table or if you want to watch the television and sit right at the bar with your meal.

If you are looking for some tasty Chinese food, do give Red Bowl a try. For now, it’s my favorite Chinese restaurant of all time.

We arrived around 6:00 hoping there wasn’t much of a big dinner rush, and the restaurant wasn’t crowded at all. We were seated quickly and could smell the food coming from the buffet area. We headed over to the buffet line and walked through to see what fare was offered. There were a lot of heated bins with different options to pick from, but the bins weren’t anywhere near full or steaming hot. One entire buffet side was nothing but spring rolls, egg rolls and sushi, which we skipped over. Which ended up being a good thing because there was a man standing there coughing all over the place without covering up his mouth. Bleh.

After picking through the plates to find one that did not have old rice or food stuck to it, I selected the vegetable rice, teriyaki chicken on a stick, and chicken bits that I thought were also teriyaki chicken but wasn’t sure. I grabbed a few crab rangoon (won-ton) and sweet sauce too since these are my favorite!

Other plates were filled with fried chicken, rice, noodles and fruit. Two of us got won-ton soup and the third got egg-drop soup.

We all dug into our food and within a few bites were very disappointed. The rice tasted like it was old and greasy. The teriyaki chicken on the stick was dried out. The other chicken pieces didn’t have much flavor and were tough to chew on. The crab rangoon were soggy and the cream cheese overwhelmed any hint of crab, of which I saw no pieces mixed in at all. We set our plates to the end of the table, still half full. The soup wasn’t any better; the won-ton soup was watery and the egg drop soup was really thick and gelatinous. Very unappetizing.

The fried chicken was good, as was most of the fresh fruit. But the greasy warm noodles weren’t much better than the stale-tasting rice was.

On our second trip up to the buffet we selected pepper steak. This was pretty good but again, not very hot from the serving tray. And, again, we had our plates cleared while still half-full.

We decided to not bother with the food any more and moved on to the dessert buffet line. There were plenty of options to choose from here, but we all picked the self-serve ice-cream machine. That ended up being the best and tastiest part of the whole ordeal.

I was ready to check out and was annoyed that my less-than-desirable meal for three cost a little over $30. Which in the grand scheme of things isn’t that much for a dinner out, but when your food is tasteless, cold and just not good at all, well it makes you wince. I pretty much felt like I paid $30 for three ice-cream cones.

It’s possible that we hit this restaurant on an off night, but I can tell you I will not be making a trip back here any time soon. I get better value and better tasting food from any number of take-out or sit-down Chinese restaurants in the area.