rev:text
| - Like I've started so many of my other reviews... as a transplant, I've been pretty consistently underwhlemed with "Asian" food in Arizona. Don't get me wrong, there are some exceptions out there... my experience with Zang was that it is not one of them.
Full disclosure, the sum total of my experience with this establishment has been two lunch specials. I came across Zang because a co-worker had a "$5.50 Lunch Specials" menu. I figured for $5.50 I would give it a try. The menu also indicated that the meal comes with a salad with "chef's signature dressing". For an extra $1.50 I opted to also include an egg roll and soda.
Where do I begin?
The soda was on par with a "small" from your typical chain restaurant and mostly filled with ice. The salad was warm. Alright, we're in AZ and it was carryout, I can excuse that because the dressing was pretty good (never mind that I was told I couldn't get it on the side when I asked).
The egg roll tasted like it came out of a plastic bag and someone had vainly doused it in pepper to mask that flavor. Both times I made a vain attempt to eat the entire egg roll, but never managed to make it more than half-way.
The first time I tried Zang I went with the Teriyaki Chicken Bowl. The nicest thing I can say about it was that after a long morning, it smelled really good. Otherwise, it was drowning in their take on Teriyaki sauce and slightly overcooked. My second choice, a few weeks later, was the Chicken Lo Mien bowl. Again, it smelled good and was essentially filling... but I've had equally good meals from Trader Joe's microwave box noodles or Panda Express.
Despite all of the above, I may still give Zang Asian Bistro the benefit of the doubt, i.e. a third chance, and actually go there for a sit down meal. As I've said before, I've only been there for carryout and those times they have been extremely busy. The place is decorated well (I like their use of wood) and from their presentation, etc. it "seems" like the food "should" be better. On the other hand, parking in downtown Glendale may be too great an exercise for this to actually occur. If it does, I'll be sure to update.
|