A Meal Fit for a King at Royal Wok?

 Royal Wok

1868 North Tustin St. 

Orange, CA 92865

Birthday meal number two, and this time it's my parents' turn taking us out to celebrate. As usual, it's up to me to choose a restaurant to try. I have three criteria that I use when my parents are taking us out to dinner. One is that it should be centrally located between both of us, which means in Tustin or Orange. Two, it has to be something that they will like, and not too out of their comfort zone. Lastly, and most importantly, it must be moderately priced. Royal Wok in Orange was the perfect fit fresh from my restaurant wishlist. 

Royal Wok took over the space that was home to Yang Ming Garden, which garnered a lot of love from almost everyone in Orange. When they closed a few years back, and eventually moved on to a new address just across the city limits in Villa Park, many wished this spot would house an equally impressive Chinese restaurant. After reading a review in the OC Register about Royal Wok, I think those people might have gotten their wish. 

The Liang family has been in the restaurant business since 1993. They operated a Chinese restaurant in Longmont, Colorado, which is about 40 miles north of Denver. Replacing a favorite among people in the city of Orange was not an easy task, but they seem to be living up to this challenge. Besides the glowing OC Register review, they have garnered a very respectable four and a half stars on Yelp, with over 100 reviews. I was definitely intrigued to see how our early evening would turn out Royal Wok. 

We arrived just before 4pm on a recent Sunday in June. I had never been to this location when it was Yang Ming Garden, but what I found when walking into this space was a sleek and modern restaurant, with minimal Chinese decor, except for what was sitting on top of the bar area to the right of the entrance. The grey walls matched the tabletops, and there was a large row of half booths lining the far left wall, with a "good vibes only" sign painted above the booths, which was the only decor visible on any of the walls. 

I was definitely hoping for some good vibes from the food at Royal Wok. Their menu is just what you'd expect from a Chinese restaurant in the US. It was divided into appetizers, soup, different proteins, chow mein, chop suey, egg foo young, and fried rice. Entree prices hover around the $12 price point, with only a few seafood items exceeding this. There's also plenty of lunch specials to choose from, which will set you back $8 to $9. My family usually picks four dishes and we share them amongst each other. Let's see if Royal Wok is a worthy replacement for the beloved restaurant that graced this address for many years. 

We started off with an order of Egg Rolls ($5.95). They were filled with plenty of cabbage and shredded carrots and came with a sweet and sour sauce which boosted the flavor profile. I'm not a big fan of egg rolls, as I think they are usually quite bland, but at Royal Wok these were fried very nice and crisp but were not as greasy as others tend to be. Not a bad start to our meal. 

We did not order this, but they provided this Egg Flower Soup ($6.95) to the four of us. This was a pretty basic soup, with some carrot and peas thrown in. It was an okay soup, but more of a palette cleanser, as it was not too big on flavor. To be honest, this is not a soup I'd ever see myself ordering, as I'm way more partial to hot and sour soup when dining in Chinese restaurants. 

When Brad Johnson reviewed Royal Wok for the OC Register he raved about this Mongolian Beef. ($11.95), and I'm excited to report that he was correct in his praise of this plate. It was one of the best I've had. It had a large part to do with the very tender sliced beef that was the star of this plate, but the flavorful sauce, along with the sliced mushrooms and green and white onion combined wonderfully to make this dish a winner. I found myself trying to downplay how much I enjoyed this so I could maybe sway my parents and Katie from liking this too much, which in turn would mean more for me. No such luck, as they would not be fooled. 

I have a love-hate relationship with Orange Chicken ($11.95). I'm no fan of the one from Panda Express that most people enjoy way too much. I do find myself liking other versions of this cult favorite that is fried nicely, so each bite has a nice crunch when bitten into. This one from Royal Wok falls into that category. The sweetness was muted a bit too much, but each chicken piece was coated nicely and had a satisfying crunch to each bite. The veggies were prevalent, and the pineapple chunks helped bring up the sweetness quotient of this entree.  

Honey Walnut Shrimp ($14.95) can either go very wrong or be one of the best things you consume on a particular evening. This one unfortunately fell flat for me. The shrimp was overly breaded and the sauce lacked any real sweet tinge that you'd expect from this dish. All I really got was a heavy mayo flavor which was broken up a bit by the candied walnuts. I was also a little taken aback by the ring of broccoli surrounding this, which seemed like it was just there to bring a little color to the plate. We'd skip this on future visits. 

As we all pick at least one entree when the four of us go out for Chinse food, Katie always suggests something a little out of the norm for my parents. On this evening it was the Moo Shu Chicken ($10.95). This Chinese classic stirfry came with grated carrots, shredded cabbage, onion, and sliced chicken with the plum sauce on the side. We all enjoyed this very much. It was very comforting and not as salty or oily as others we have had at other places. I did not use the provided pancakes, but Katie liked them well enough. 

Even with a few minor missteps, Royal Wok was a pretty impressive Chinese restaurant. I really enjoyed most of the entrees that we had, with the lone exception being the honey walnut shrimp. Everything was fresh and came out of the kitchen piping hot. Even though they were not crazy busy at this early dinner hour, the service was very cordial, and we could feel that they really were happy that we were here. I felt the prices were very competitive and the portion sizes were large enough for the four of us to all be full walking out of there. Royal Wok hit all the right boxes for us and was a great place for my parents to take me out for my birthday dinner. 

Out of five minutemen, (because the largest wok of all-time was a 2,500-pound one that was used to make over 4,000 pounds of stirfry at UMass, and their sports teams are called the minutemen), five being best to zero being worst, Royal Wok gets 3.5 minutemen.  

For more information about Royal wok, head t their website here: http://www.royalwokca.com/