While pizza continues to grow as America's first choice for eating out (or home-delivered), there are other cuisines challenging our cheese and pepperoni fixation. Take-out cartons filled with considerably lighter fare from the Orient are competing right along with the big cardboard pizza boxes, adding either to our landfill woes or recycling dilemmas.
We left the East Sea Restaurant with more than our share of cartons, having been tempted and consequently over-ordering from the two menus of this recent addition to the Chinese and Vietnamese restaurant scene. What we sampled and took home was certainly pleasing fare. (Ironically, it is in a location that once housed an Italian place from which we ordered pizza.)Upon entering the pleasantly appointed interior, modestly decorated with Oriental artwork and a mural depicting an underwater scene, we were handed a menu that featured Chinese cuisine. Since a reliable source had recommended the Vietnamese food, we asked about its availability. Quickly another menu appeared. Now the four of us were confronted with the restaurant reviewer's conundrum - sampling distinctively different cuisines from two different bills of fare.
We sampled two of the traditional Vietnamese appetizers, the cold rice pancakes wrapped shrimp and pork roll (2 for $2.50). While not quite as delicately assembled as in other Vietnamese restaurants around town, the main ingredients - shrimp, pieces of char sil, cilantro and whole scallion - combined for a nice dish. The small deep-fried egg rolls were the clear favorites. The thin layers of pastry-textured dough surrounded a finely minced filling of vegetables. A spicy orange chili-seasoned sauce added to the effect.
Because one of our party had not tried Vietnamese food before, we ordered several of the noodle dishes, served in steaming bowls with either thin rice or wide egg noodles. Topped with gold garnishes, such as mung bean sprouts, lemon wedges and sliced hot peppers, these traditional dishes, priced around $4, are meals in themselves. Variations include beef and meatball, crab and shrimp, wonton, and egg roll, in broths that range in intensity from mild to spicy. Hue's hot and spicy noodle soup ($4.25) with thin vermicelli noodles was the crowd-pleaser.
The Chinese dishes, ranging from mild Cantonese to spicier Szechuan, include many standard offerings. Some of the more interesting choices are Ta-Chen shrimp ($6.75), in a spicy pepper sauce; shredded rainbow duck ($7.75), shredded duck with vegetables in duck sauce and garlic wine; spicy garlic Szechuan egg plant ($5.25); chicken with fresh pineapple ($6.75) in a sweet and sour sauce; and either steamed or deep-fried red snapper.
While we enjoyed the Hong Kong style black bean chicken ($5.95), it was mild to nondescript. The serving of tender scallops, shrimp and chicken in a "love nest" (a deep-fried taro basket - $7.95) was ample and the ingredients were tender. Yet when compared to a Vietnamese entree of steamed rice topped with crispy pork rinds and chunks of egg roll, they appeared routine.
The East Sea Restaurant's menus offer enough choices to please palates accustomed to either Chinese or Vietnamese cuisine. It also provides the neighborhood with its first distinguished Oriental restaurant, for either dining in or taking out.
Rating: * * * 1/2
East Sea Restaurant, 120 N. 900 West, 596-8963. Open Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. until 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday until 11 p.m. Sunday from 12 noon until 9 p.m. Accepts major credit cards and check with guarantee card.