Suzie Wongs:

It’s been about a month since we stopped by Suzie Wong’s with our fellow blogger Cincinnati Hound Dog. Since we used to live at Desales Plaza, (that would be the apartment with the fire trucks) heading back to that area was very nostalgic for us. We moved out shortly before Suzie Wong’s opened for business. It was probably for the best. Having tasty oriental style food right downstairs (and BYOB!) would have been dangerously convenient.

After veiwing their menu (which is available in full on their website) I have determined that I probably would have had to shop for bigger pants in a month or two after the grand opening, were we still in residence at Desales. But one meal wouldn’t hurt right? Surely not.

So we packed up the car and went back to the old apartment. This is where we used to live.

Sorry, that song has been stuck in my head while I've been drafting this entire post. It had to end up somewhere.

We each brought our beverages, Hound brought chimay and bourbon, we brought two growlers—Queen's Knickers and Rye 75, purchased from Party town in Florence. We had a reservation, and were seated promptly next to the window. The red hue of the restaurant combined with the tungsten glow of the streetlamps outside made for some challenging picture taking. But we managed with some creative blocking from Mrs. Hound.

We ordered a few of the appetizers, including the crispy veggie springroll ($3.50), Suzie’s potstickers ($3.95) and crab rangoon ($4.95) to start. I thought they were all priced very reasonably, and I appreciated that they were not huge portions. Sometimes David and I end up just ordering appetizers or starters at restaurants, entrée portions can be too large. The small size and price means that I can order several starters for dinner and enjoy the variety. We liked all our appetziers. I hoarded the crispy, crunchy rangoons and was reluctant to share them.

I chose to get the Seaweed salad ($3.95) along with my dinner. It was very tasty, sometimes seaweed can taste sort of funky, but this was fresh and light.

Cincy Hound went with the Orange chicken ($7.95), which came with lots of vegetables. Suzie Wong’s has lots of vegetarian options.

Mrs. Hound picked the Tofu pad thai ($8.95), which she said was very tasty and packed a nice amount of spice.

I decided to try the duck fried rice ($10.95 Regular fried rice $7.95; + $3 for duck). I’d never had duck fried rice, and I was curious. What I didn’t know is that I’d stumbled upon one the best things that Suzie Wong’s makes. The duck. The duck in my fried rice was a little smoky and deliciously tender, and I ended up guarding my plate from David most of the night. The only thing odd about the dish was how it was served. As you can see below, it was served in this bamboo type dish that was nearly impossible to get rice out of without making a mess. Creative, yes. Practical, no.

David wanted to try the coconut curry seafood supreme ($17.95; regular coconut curry $13.95; + $4 for seafood), which comes in a real coconut. His dish, unfortunately, was the biggest disappointment of the evening. Not only did it take an extremely long time—his dinner came out much later than the rest of ours; they mixed up the coconuts, so David didn’t get seafood at all.

We thought about saying something, remembered how long it to to get the coconut in the first place, and lumped it, though we did request that the $4 upcharge be taken off our bill. David said it was good, but not great. Also, he had no idea how he was supposed to eat it. Does the sauce go in the curry? Dip a fork in the sauce? Who knows.

Never let it be said that Cincinnati Hound doesn’t love Barbecue. It’s like he’s superman, but instead of being able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, he can grill some ribs you’d fight your mother over.

So, in recap, we liked Suzie Wong’s overall. It’s very affordable, especially with the BYOB deal they’ve got going on, and despite the curry incident, the evening’s dishes were two hits (pad thai and orange chicken) one miss (curry) and one slam dunk (the duck).