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| - Giving a new restaurant one star, as I did in my original review, is never fun. But I felt I should be honest. I got a very nice note from the chef apologizing for the bad experience and offering to pay for my next meal there if I'd give it another chance. I declined this kind offer but it did leave me thinking I should give it another go. Shortly after my review people associated with the restaurant started posting 5 star reviews in order to inflate their rating. You won't see those as Yelp has an automated system to filter those out. Then another Yelp user posted and actually accused my boyfriend and I of being in cahoots with competing businesses and trying to bring AnSun down!
While my first instinct was to be annoyed with these sort of shenanigans, the fact of the matter is that opening a new restaurant is not easy. Keeping it open is even harder. I'm sure a lot of hard work and effort has gone into it and I'm sure it's frustrating to see such a negative review be the first one on a site like Yelp. The chef's response was the proper thing to do and appreciated. The rest of it... not so much. But the kind words in that first e-mail from the chef coupled with the sad sort of desperation of the other stuff led me to try AnSun out again.
I decided to go for lunch in order to get a price break. This didn't really work out all that well to be honest. They don't have a lunch menu persay. They do have some cheaper options on their main menu like wraps (around $8) but as I wasn't really in the mood for that I tried the Kung Pao Chicken. I will say, once again, the decor is very nice. There's still a faint scent of fresh paint that's slightly off-putting as you step inside but it is a new restaurant so there's not much they can do about that. My waiter was very friendly. He had a name tag that read only "#138" which, as a fan of TV show The Prisoner, I found a bid distressing. But maybe it's just a temporary tag until employees are well established and they decide it's time to make the an actual name tag. In any case, he was friendly and very on the ball with getting fresh drinks. The place was pretty dead for a lunch hour.
As far as the food, I was actually very, very happy. I want to be up front here - this place isn't cheap. It cost about $12 for my entree (served with your choice of rice, I got the coconut) but their portions are nicely sized. You won't be getting a second meal out of it but you will leave quite full. I honestly didn't mind paying more because their ingredients were very good. Their chicken had a great taste and you weren't left wondering what part of the chicken you were eating as can be the case in some restaurants. It might have been all breast meat, actually. There were no "filler" vegetables either. Have you ever gotten a Chinese dish that had a ton of celery in it? Celery does not marry well with any Chinese dish in my opinion but it's cheap to throw a lot in to disguise the fact you aren't getting much meat. There was none of that here. There were bamboo shoot sections but these were tasty and added a nice crunch. They also tasted very good and did not have the odd "tang" they can have when they come out of a can. The nicest part was that the Kung Pao Chicken had huge, hole chiles in it for the spice. What a great touch. I will say the dish wasn't quite as spicy as I might like but I'm sure you could request it spicier. There were a ton of chiles in it, but I think with those it's about how long they cook that determines the intensity of the heat and I'm guessing they were trying to make sure it wasn't too hot for many people's palettes. There were also a ton of peanuts which is always a plus. The dish leave a slightly oily feeling on my lips which was slightly unpleasant but it didn't feel "greasy" as I was eating it. I do wonder if the flavors were a bit more developed in the sauce if it wouldn't mask the raw oil taste better though. When you were eating the chicken itself you didn't notice this as much, however, because it was quite flavorful.
So while a lunch cost $17 with a fountain drink and tip I have to say I thought it was mostly worth it. I certainly wouldn't want them to sacrifice the quality of their ingredients to bring down their entree costs though.
So all in all. I would have given my lunch experience a "4" on its own. Coupled with my experience at dinner I am going with a"3" for now. Not sure I'm to the point where I can totally recommend it to friends, but I would go back and try it again. I think with a little more work the restaurant definitely has the potential to go from "Okay" to "Great."
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