We had
just finished having our car serviced at a dealership near Knoxville’s McGhee
Tyson Airport and it was time for lunch.
It was a choice between an Applebee’s or another attempt to find some
quality Chinese food in East Tennessee.
Laurie felt adventurous so we headed for the latter luncheon destination…
This is
Ming Tree Restaurant on US 129 in Alcoa Tennessee. It was only about 11:15 AM so we were among the
first customers of the day…
The
interior of Ming Tree was clean and aesthetically just about what you might
expect for a local Asian dining establishment.
Business did pick up quite a bit while we were having lunch.
Our
waiter started us out with the usual fried crisps and plum sauce. They were OK but the plum sauce was much
sweeter than usual.
Laurie’s
favorite Chinese restaurant appetizer is Crab Rangoon so we ordered some to
accompany our lunch. ($5.95) The price was right for 6 pieces…perhaps because neither
of us could detect any crab in these appetizers! If you forget the alleged crab content, for straight-forward
fried cream cheese wraps, they were OK.
I like
to eat my Crab Rangoon with spicy Chinese mustard. I asked the waiter if he could bring me some…but
he forgot. By the time he came by again
so I could ask again Laurie had eaten her share. Eventually…apparently in no rush…he did bring
what I’d requested.
We
almost always order hot and sour soup with Chinese restaurant luncheon
specials. This version wasn’t very
distinctive or very spicy either.
I
ordered General Chow’s Chicken for my luncheon entrée. ($7.25 for dark meat or
$7.75 for white meat) The waiter didn’t ask me if I wanted dark or light
meat. I’d requested extra spicy but
apparently either the waiter didn’t pass my request to the chef or the chef
didn’t believe that I knew what I really wanted. In any case, I now had to flag someone down
to bring me some hot pepper sauce…as our waiter didn’t come by to see how we
were doing.
Now back
to the meal itself… Luncheons come with the diner’s choice of either an egg
roll or one of 3 different soups plus fried rice. There was plenty of rice for us to share and
you could see bits of egg in it… As for my “chicken chunks coated in a light
batter”, I must say that Ming Tree must define “light” much differently than I
do. The batter was thick and a little
gummy…and this was not a great entrée.
For her
lunch, Laurie selected the Chicken in Szechuan Sauce. ($6.95) There was plenty
of food but, even more than with my lunch, the extra ‘heat’ that we’d requested
was lacking. Her entrée was almost completely
bland…
Our
waiter was indifferent at best although he was running from pillar to post… We
doubt that he’d ever had any training as a server. Obtaining our bill so we could pay and leave
was as difficult as it was getting my hot mustard and the hot pepper
sauce! I had to ask a nearby waitress for
her help and even then our server ran around a bit more before delivering the
bill…
Leaving
out our inefficient and inept waiter, the food at Ming Tree Restaurant is best
classified as ‘fuel stop only’…and in hindsight, Applebee’s looks like gourmet
cuisine. Ming Tree Restaurant is located
at 2754 A Alcoa Highway (US 129) in Alcoa Tennessee. Phone: 865-984-3888. Website: www.themingtree.com.
Just
click on any of the photos to enlarge them…
Thanks
for stopping by for a visit!
Take
Care, Big Daddy Dave
The food all looks great, Dave! I'm with Laurie on the Crab Rangoon, esp if there's a lot of meat in it. All the Applebee's around here have closed, so many restaurants competing. I think it's finally starting to warm up a little here. Have a good week!
ReplyDelete