Lemongrass (Jacksonville, FL)

Restaurant Name: Lemongrass


City: Jacksonville, Florida
Visit Date: 06/05/12
Food Type: Thai
Meal: Lunch

Address: 9846 Old Baymeadows Rd, Jacksonville FL 32256 


Food Rating: 8/10
Environment Rating: 6/10
Price: 4/10
Service Rating: 1/10
Overall Rating: 19/40 (Would Not Recommend)


tl;dr: I'm tempted to try this place again at a later time for a meal other than lunch to see if I simply had a bad experience, but the service quality was so off putting that I never want to step foot into this restaurant again.


To open. June 5th, the visit date was my 23rd birthday. And while I had been hoping for a much more enjoyable experience, I was sadly mistaken in the fact and thusly was quite irked by the experience I had. Expectations were high and a meal with my family should have been a better affair. 


Lemongrass Thai is located on Southside in Jacksonville, Fl. It's not exactly a place that would pop out at you if you weren't specifically looking for it. Inside, the restaurant has a upper-class bar feel. Abstract art and contrasting colors line the walls and if it wasn't for the Buddha statue on the reception table and the wooden dragon designs near the kitchen area; I wouldn't have guessed this was and Asian joint in the slightest.  


At the time of my visit, I arrived during their lunch rush; Well not so much a rush I suppose since there were still several open tables present. The clientele of this restaurant appeared to be middle aged tech types. The location is in a part of town that caters to various business offices in say a 20 mile radius.  


The first thing that I noticed upon walking into the restaurant was the noise. Tables are crowded together quite tightly and as much as I didn't want to, I ended up hearing about the office drama of the table of techies behind me. 


Our server was a male gentleman, I'd reckon around mid to 30s. Tan complexion and and accent that made me believe he was from South-East Asia. 

Coconut Shrimp - So not worth $8

For an appetizer, my guest and I decided on sharing their Coconut Shrimp. Let me first say that it was foolish for either of us to have thought that a restaurant such as this would actually have reasonable serving sizes. 


And while I was expecting a normal sized eggroll or I suppose "shrimp roll" as this case would be; the picture on the right was what I got. Please note that when the menu uses the phrase "jumbo shrimp: At most 1/4 of the shrimp is inside of each roll. The coconut that the menu item refers to, is a generic shredded variant that the pounded shrimp meat is rolled in before before being wrapped in the rice paper wrapper and deep fried. The spicy ketchup-like sauce that accompanies it is far too strong to be of practical use with this dish as it covers and drowns out the flavor of the coconut. 


As for the shrimp itself, while properly seasoned so as to remain sweet, the deep-frying and presence of coconut makes the dish lose it's seafood appeal and in turn becomes simply another fried appetizer; nothing special. The garnish of carrot threads was excessive in my opinion and because of the similarities in color, added little to the overall appeal of the plate and could be considered more of a space filler than an actual reason to enjoy them.


At this point I should go into detail as to how the staff made my lunch experience horrible. The waiter present was not only MIA for a good 3/4 of our lunch, my previous dining experiences in various restaurants have obviously caused me to become too vulnerable to poor service. I seriously waited 30 minutes to get a refill of water. Now had this been the case with say wine or something of the like; I could suspect a reasonable issue with the server having to find us a suitable refill and or bottle. However as this was for a cup of water; you can guess why I was so irked. 


Not only that. After 45 minutes of waiting for our food; my guest finally was able to flag down our server and inquire as to where our food was. She being on her lunch break wasn't expecting the meal to take so long. I likewise had a similar expectation for the expedience of our food. Our server seriously had the nerve to tell us: "If you want your food to come out fast, you have to ask for it." Because I seriously enjoy waiting an hour for my food... (If you can't read the sarcasm in my writing, shame on you). I've never been in a restaurant where this was the policy but I suppose there's a first time for everything.

Panang Curry from Lemongrass

For this lunch affair, I ordered Panang Curry with Beef. Panang curry in most forms exists as a mix of various South-East Asian spices cooked with coconut milk and the addition of peanut sauces. The resulting sauce should have a creamy consistency with a light spice after-note. 


In this effect, Lemongrass succeeded in my expectations. the slices of beef were tender and had soaked up enough of the curry flavor to leave an enjoyable flavor. The vegetables present were crisp but fully cooked and were salt-balanced. Likewise the fragrant jasmine rice that paired with the dish was enjoyable.


The only thing that I had an issue with was portion. Because seriously a quarter of a bowl of rice isn't enough to adequately enjoy this (or any other) dish.


Not to mention the excessive garnishes this place uses. I'll be upfront and say that I don't enjoy carrots. They're orange and often cooked to a distasteful mush. As a garnish, they should add a nice pizzazz of color. On top of my rice; not so much. Instead I have what appears to be orange hair randomly strewn on top of an already small portion. The fact that the garnish isn't neat and orderly only makes the underlying rice appear all the smaller. 


I do apologize for ranting; how unprofessional of me. Nonetheless. Don't eat here. There are far better options if you simply have to have your curry fix. Not to mention your wallet will thank you. 

And as I said before; I probably will not come back here. I believe in second chances but my stomach believes in a decent meal with reasonable sized portions. 

12/31 - Mr. Chan's Asian Cuisine (Jacksonville, FL)

Resturant Name: Mr. Chan's Asian Cuisine

City: Jacksonville, Florida
Visit Date: 12/30/11
Food Type: Asian (Chinese)
Meal: Lunch

Address: 13947 Beach Blvd #110, Jacksonville, FL 32224

Food Rating: 8/10
Environment Rating: 9/10
Service Rating: 10/10
Overall: 27/30 (Excellent)

tl;dr: Nice Restaurant. (Asian people actually eat here) Come early as it's packed at certain times of day. Watch out for over-greasy foods.

In my travels to various places, I often get the chance to back track per say and visit some of the locations I've been to in the past. And now that I have a working camera phone and a desire to write about it, My meals at some of the restaurants I often frequent can finally be cataloged for personal interests.

To open, Mr. Chan's is small off the beaten path place. It's on Beach Boulevard and though it's relatively easy to locate since their sign is reasonably sized, the locale gives it a nice out of the way feel. My mom actually frequents this place as she works down the road from it and would likewise give a pretty good rating for it.

But onto the actual restaurant! Mr. Chan's has a truly Asian feel. Unlike sell-out Asian restaurants that feature stereotypical fat buddahs or well ya know what I mean, the plastic crap that you'd see at a flea market, Mr. Chan's keeps with the slightly upper-class feel of wooden ornaments and paintings on the wall. The chairs are quality wood and though the addition of some seat cushions would make my personal comfort better (suffering from lumbago still), I am quite satisfied with the table settings and the general view of the positioning in the restaurant. There aren't many tables/chairs in the restaurant so crowding is an issue at times. As is noise when large groups are present but it's all tolerable.

Our server, Helen was polite and courteous and genuinely seemed as if she wanted to be of service. Our meal started with several twisted cruellers (油条). And though they're generally eaten as a breakfast item in China, they're a bitch to make (deep frying forms oil smoke) and without practice, the strips of dough used to fry them often come out poorly. I personally didn't partake upon them but the family devoured them with much gusto.

As for the dishes ordered, our lunch was comprised of 4 general dishes. A garlic sauteed eggplant, some varient of beef noodle soup, squid with chive flowers and half of a roast duck.

Garlic Sauteed Eggplant

The eggplant isn't bad. It's generalized 鱼香茄子. And as such it's quite an interesting dish by itself. A favorite of my family, it's supposed to be pretty fast to make and healthyish.

Mr. Chan's however was a bit lacking in my opinion. Generally the flavor mix for this dish should be spicy, savory with a robust but non-overpowering touch of garlic. The preparation varies greatly from location to location and that I won't fault them on. In particular, the dish we ordered was on the sweet side. This doesn't pair well with the fact that Mr. Chan's preparation style involves deep frying their eggplant first. As such though the coloration of the finished product was quite tempting to the eyes, the flavor was lacking :(. I will say that it was at the very least ok and my younger brother seemed to enjoy the sweet-ness. I however would have preferred a spicier or more savory dish. Any flavor of garlic that was present in the presentation was dimmed by the mix of sugar and not-so great hot sauce. It could easily have been improved on by draining some of the excess oil before plating.

On to the next dish!

Squid with Chive Flowers

My personal favorite of the set. Chive flowers are the of course the flowering tops of the allium schoenoprasum plant. They're usually picked before the buds have opened and have a lovely garlic/onion and uniquely chive flavor. In my opinion this worked perfectly with the texture and mild flavor of the squid. There was a mild grit of some kind that was only present in 2 or 3 bites of the dish, and I'd likely suspect that the mushrooms or chive ends weren't perfectly cleaned when the dish was prepared. As for the seasoning, I can't say I've ever seen this particular flavor combination on any other menus so I don't really know if there's supposed to be a set norm. Personally though, the dish was perfect salt-balance wise and the sauce (or jus/whatever you want to call it) worked quite well with the rice that accompanied the dish.

And finally:

Roast Duck

Duck is interesting on many levels. It's overly fat for whatever reason, but this fat is full of umami qualities. I can't really explain what specifically about duck fat is so delicious but I do enjoy it.

The duck presentation at Mr. Chan's goes for the minimalist approach. The duck is most likely roasted/baked/broiled for x amount of time, taken out of the oven and cleaved into chunks before a flash fry to make sure the skin is extra crispy. I didn't ask the chefs about this, so I could be 100% wrong, but given my background in Chinese cookery, I'd suspect that my suppositions have some validation.

Greasy. In a word the duck was greasy. As I enjoyed that hacked up duck leg with a smear of salty-sweet hoison sauce, the only word that would come to mind is that this duck is greasy. Where I had expected duck to have a fat quality; this one was literally dripping and as I gnashed into it's leg, a dribbly mixture of whatever it was fried in + duck fat slowly ran from the corners of my mouth. I paused midway as the gristle had decidingly lodged in my teeth and as I sat there irate over the piece of duck that refused to get out my teeth, I reached for a napkin to remove the mess.

That about sums up the duck. It's really nothing special. The ducks they use are a bit tough, but I expected about as much. Flavor-wise the duck was reasonably seasoned, though an extra sprinkle of salt wouldn't have hurt. Paired with the hoison sauce it would be quite delicious if one can get over the copious amounts of fat s/he was consuming.

All in all I like this restaurant. The food I regularly order is always available on the menu. The staff are polite and seem reasonably knowledgeable on the dishes they serve. And so with my blessing I rate this establishment with an Excellent. It's not perfect, but I don't expect I'll ever find any place truly perfect. There's always room for improvement.