Over the holidays, I passed by Auspicious Chinese Restaurant, right next to Milkboy on Ardmore’s Cricket Ave. It seemed swanky, and strangely out of place. The name was weird, and I asked myself “is it auspiciously good?” K had told me that she got takeout from there and had liked it, so I decided to give it a shot. I decided to overlook the corniness of their website address (go ahead, click on it and find out for yourself). They also have very punny dish names. Weird.
Indeed, it is very swanky on the inside. Clean lines, dark woods, definitely not typical of a chinese restaurant. The serving staff was also caucasian. PF Chang’s anyone? Some green tea was ordered. It said it was “gourmet tea”. It seemed pretty ordinary to me.
We got the sesame chicken. It was very breaded and the portion was small. We were still hungry afterwards. We’ve both had far better sesame chicken at my local takeout place. They’re also very very stingy with their rice. You get a very small cup. Way too small for my liking. You have to ration it.
We also got the ni hao ma po tofu, or to normal people, just ma po tofu. I’ve had this before, but never this runny. It was good though, and extremely spicy. It sure would have been nice to have lots of rice to eat it with. I know it was a “lunch” portion, but come one. We’re hungry. When you eat chinese food, you expect decent portions. And espcially with the prices, they shouldn’t be so paltry.
Although I live in the burbs, I am lucky enough to live nearish the main line. I also live quite close to several downtowns (albeit small), including Ardmore and Havertown. Of course, these downtowns are about 1-2 blocks long! In downtown Havertown, as far as food goes, we have a Wawa, Oakmont Pub (which I love), and a brand new thai restaurant, Sukho Thai. It used to be Pappa Lindy’s, which was a very short-lived breakfast place, and only recently popped up as a thai restaurant. Look how cool Havertown is now, we have a thai place!
On lazy Saturdays, I like to head over to the Ardmore Farmers Market in Suburban Square to grab a bite. There are many options – pizza, chinese, sushi, fried chicken, seafood, etc. I’ve had the chinese, it’s good and different, but a bit pricey. Z always gets the amish fried chicken at Stoltzfus Poultry. I’m not big into fried chicken, that’s why I don’t get it. But it is pretty good. You can tell it’s made by hand and made with love. The batter is nicely spiced and crispy and it’s cooked very well. You’ll see no pink bits here.
Genji Sushi Express is a little to-go sushi place. It’s very small, but I’ve always found their food to be pretty good, for to-go stuff. And they will always make something fresh for you. On this day, I asked them to make me a california roll with brown rice. I’m not a health nut, but sometimes, I make small efforts. It actually tastes better with brown rice, as it adds a different flavor angle. They also recently started serving some udon dishes, and they’re not bad. It’s a nice quick choice.
" list. So of course, I decided to try them all. Join me for this 15-post series, as I test out each of these cocktails to see just how worthy they are.
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