Myers & Chang

Maybe because summer is winding down, or maybe because I ate on a patio. Whatever the reason, I’m tempted to say that I had my tastiest restaurant meal of the summer at Myers & Chang.  Okay, I said it.

Myers & Chang has been popping up all over the Twitter and food blogger world, and I’ve wanted to try it since the first time I read about it on several food blogs.  My favorite blogger highlights are from Michelle at Fun and Fearless in Beantown, Daisy at Indulge, Inspire, Imbibe, and Jen at Tiny Urban Kitchen. And now for my review!

As soon as I arrived, the hostess showed me sincere hospitality.  She led my parents and me to a table outside on the patio.  We were soon greeted by our server and I immediately ordered scallion pancakes.  I hadn’t had my favorite Chinese appetizer in a while and I had high hopes that Myers & Chang’s would fulfill my craving.  Dad ordered the Ward’s Farm grilled corn on the cob with sriracha butter.  I didn’t take a photo of the corn, but it was delicious.  The first bite tasted like sweet grilled corn and then the spicy sriracha sauce took over the flavor.  It had the perfect amount of spice – made me want to keep eating!

For my meal I ordered vegetarian wok-charred udon noodles with bok choy from the vegetarian menu.  It makes me so happy when restaurants have a whole vegetarian section on their menu.  I don’t think it’s that hard to prepare a good vegetarian meal, but some restaurants must think it is.  Luckily, Myers & Chang caters to all diets with their vegetarian and gluten free menus.

This dish was really delightful.  I asked for a mild spice.  The noodles, tofu, and bok choy were prepared so well.  The sauce was really flavorful, not too spicy, and not oily.  The tofu was a good firmness.  I don’t like it too firm or too silken.  This is definitely my favorite noodle dish I’ve ever had in an Asian restaurant.  I don’t always want to take home my Chinese leftovers, but I was sure I wanted to take this dish home.  If the food is swimming in sauce and oil I know it won’t taste good the next day.  I am looking forward to eating these leftovers!

Dad ordered rainbow beef and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Mom ordered the pan roasted soy glazed salmon and loved it so much that after the meal, she said she wanted to start a blog just so she could write about how good it was!  I promised I’d get her point across.  The salmon was amazing, amazing, she says.

There is a note across the bottom of the menu stating that dishes will come out as soon as they’re ready, rather than the order in which they’re ordered.  Well, the scallion pancakes and salmon dish took so long to come out that our server brought us a complimentary order of fresh rolls.  I distinctly remember taking a photo of the rolls, but it somehow has disappeared from my camera.  How sad, because it was a good photo and excellent rolls.  Herbs, lettuce, and tofu wrapped up with spicy peanut sauce to dip.  Perfect appetizer on a summer evening.

Finally, my scallion pancakes arrived.

Simply put, these are the best, more unique scallion pancakes I’ve ever had.  And I’ve had a lot of scallion pancakes.  Most scallion pancakes have very few scallions and are mostly grease, dipped in ginger sauce.  There were more like real pancakes and had plenty of scallions.  The doughy consistency was a wonderful surprise, and the salt sprinkled on top was a fun extra garnish.  The dipping sauce was also different than others.  It was sweet and again, not oily.  I could have shoved more into my stomach, but I was comfortably full and I have a feeling these will be great leftovers with my noodles.

Plus, I wanted to save room for dessert.  My family orders dessert 9 out of 10 times.  This night, my dad was excited to try a dessert from Flour Bakery (Myers & Chang serves desserts prepared by Flour).  My dad asked the server for his opinion on the two chocolate desserts listed on the menu.  He told us that the chocolate terrine was a rich chocolate cake, and you’d never know there was tofu in the “ancient chinese secret” chocolate mousse. What? Tofu in dessert?  My dad wouldn’t even eat tofu on a plate (unless I really wanted him to) but we were all intrigued by the chocolate-secret’s-out-tofu-mousse.

The server placed this mug on the table and I was confused – I thought I missed someone ordering hot chocolate.  Nope.  This is the dessert.

And you know what? It really tasted like hot chocolate! Except it was cold, as mousse should be.  The chocolate was a rich cocoa and definitely did not taste like tofu.  Although, I will say it was very silky and not light and airy like regular mousse.  The white homemade marshmallows flowing out of the mug melted in my mouth.  I really enjoyed this dessert.  And because it has tofu in it, that makes it healthy. Right? Right.

From the service to the food to the adorable silver fortune cookie shaped paper weight that came out with the check, Myers & Chang offers a high class dining experience at a reasonable price.  I can’t wait to go back!