| rev:text
| - I love this place! The first time I had ever heard about it was on a Yahoo article about the best restaurants per state, and this place represented Arizona. I guess everyone else saw this article and decided that they would go that Saturday, and there was a line out the door with two hour waits. I was shocked and decided to re-visit another time; I never regret that decision.
One thing I will say is that it may be easy to go past this gem of a restaurant because it's tucked in a plaza of businesses including a dance studio, an insurance place, hydroponics, and a tattoo parlor, but don't be discouraged! This place is worth it!
First of all, Diane and her staff are amazing! Diane is the owner and the life of the restaurant besides one of the waitresses, Dui. She is super sweet, and she always remembers you, what you order or what you talked about last time you saw her - even if it has been a couple months. Her husband occasionally helps with the restaurant, and he is equally a cool guy. A lot of the charm in this place is their service.
My husband and I have tried a lot of dishes on the menu over the year-maybe two years we started coming here. This is our go-to place for good Asian cuisine but mainly Chinese food. It is clean and the pricing is fair for the portions you get. The best deal is the $5 lunch plates where you get a good sized plate for the amount.
For appetizers, I would highly recommend the crab puffs. Those puffs are dangerously delicious because you can actually taste the green onions and the crab. Most of the time in other Chinese restaurants, you can only taste cream cheese. This has a good balance of all the ingredients. I also suggest the Vietnamese Pork Spring Rolls (cha gio) because although you get two, they are made with a perfect balance to the accompanying lettuce, vegetables and fish sauce dip. Another good one to have are the dumplings.
For days when I crave soup (and not have to book it to the best pho place in town, which is all the way in Scottsdale), or I'm just feeling horrible, cold, or sick, I get the chicken pho. The restaurant provides a good broth, fresh ingredients to add to your soup, and a good amount of chicken and noodles to your soup. It definitely fills you up and makes you feel good about life again.
The crown jewel of the restaurant dishes is the orange chicken. The reason why this dish stands out among the crowd is that it doesn't take the doughy, puffy breading approach that most Chinese restaurants do. Instead they focus on being the chicken dish you needed to prove all those others wrong - more chicken substance matters. They lightly coat the chicken in either cornstarch or flour so that there is a crispy outer layer to your chicken, then they coat it in this orange sauce, which is not overly sweet, has a unique but slightly orange zest flavor, and doesn't taste almost exactly like sweet and sour (another sin of other Chinese food places).
This doesn't mean stop at orange chicken. No! You must try all the dishes! Like the black pepper chicken... The best part about this dish is that the green beans soak up a bit of the sauce's flavor but doesn't fully lose its crisp taste, so it almost comes in as a major player while the chicken is just a perfect partner in crime teamed with the occasional bite of the freshly cracked pepper.
The fried rice is light, fluffy, and flavorful; What more could you ask for?! The chow mein maintains a great flavor where you would think that it's just a side dish, but then no, it delights your palate with a beautiful symphony of flavors and textures ranging from the crisp onions to the soft noodles.
My brother came once, and he said the curry was amazing! We also loved the General Tso's chicken. Another thing about the staff is that they are quick to give suggestions on what to add (like Spicy sriracha) to best enjoy the dish the way you like it.
I love Simi's Cafe, and I would be sad if they ever left us. Great people, great product, and great atmosphere! I am a repeat customer because the one time I took a chance to come back, they wowed me. And each time I have come back, they never stopped trying!
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)