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Nicki Pendleton
The Eat Beat
Nashville Banner
1100 Broadway
Nashville, TN 37203
| "Chopstick Inn: Mandarin eatery reaches beyond generic Chinese"
By Nicki Pendleton,
Banner Food Writer(pub. July 4, 1997, Nashville Banner)
I receive a lot of telephone calls from newly opened Chinese restaurants, asking to be reviewed. The large majority of them I don't review, because of the identical kung pao/General Tso/five flavor/pepper beef menus, greasy fried stuff in dreary bottled sauces, and the dreaded steam table.
In fact, that's the first question I ask: Do you have a steam table? If the answer is yes, I don't review them.
As I've written before, all the restaurants buy from the same restaurant supply places, which I've dubbed ``Acme Chinese Restaurant Supply.'' That's why the decorations, the sauces, everything is the same, from the egg rolls to the fortune cookies to the statues of Buddha.
Chopstick Inn, newly opened in Rivergate Mall's food court, tries to be exceptional in its offerings: It calls itself Mandarin cuisine, and offers appetizers like salt-and-pepper chicken, paper-wrapped chicken, and entrees such as shrimp in a Dijon-honey glaze and a sizzling plate of lemon fried scallops.
Located in the old Mick's, Chopstick Inn (they probably buy these goofy names at Acme, too) didn't change the decor much, just hung a picture of the Great Wall and a few kimonos here and there (which are, so far as I know, Japanese). The space is vast, and I personally wouldn't have picked the spot to open an interesting restaurant (look what happened to Mick's), and can't picture the tables packed full of patrons.
But they're trying.
There's a charming selection of cocktails, which includes Pink Squirrels (``for the ladies'') and other multi-colored, fruit-flavored concoctions. We watched one being served in an indescribable sort of container for two. Maybe these drinks account for the bizarre collection of liquors at the bar: Nothing ordinary, just plenty of ouzo, peach schnapps, and rum.
And the service is warm, and helpful in explaining unusual dishes. It's also efficient: our complex orders all arrived intact, and correct.
Chopstick Inn offers heavy plastic chopsticks instead of wooden ones. And menu prices for the most-expensive house specialty dishes have dropped 20 percent since the eatery opened, a smart move considering that $13 entrees are pretty steep for the Rivergate area.
Among the appetizers, you'll find egg rolls, dumplings and the usual suspects. We also tried the pepper-and-salt chicken, little tidbits of battered and fried chicken ($6.50) that that children loved. Next time, we'll try the paper-wrapped chicken.
For entrees, we especially liked the crispy whole fish in special sauce ($16.95), fresh fish in a thick, garlicky brown sauce that reminded us of a similar Thai dish.
Lemon gives a lift to the rich sauce over the lemon-fried scallops ($13.45) with vegetables. Honey walnut shrimp ($12.95) was coated with a mayonnaise-Dijon-honey mixture before cooking, then topped with walnut halves for a very rich, surprisingly French dish. Noodle dishes get a whole section to themselves, including chow fun, lo mein and fried noodles topped with the meat of your choice. Chow fun, the thickest and slipperiest Asian noodles, come with a choice of white or brown sauce, with loads of vegetables, and little slivers of meat (vegetarians beware). Barbecued pork lo mein ($7.75) featured chunks of red roasted pork, a few vegetables and lots of oil.
If you prefer tried-and-true American Chinese restaurant food, there's beef with scallops ($12.95), fried with broccoli and other vegetables in a brown sauce. There's a kon pao san yan ($12.45), a kung pao mixture of shrimp, chicken and beef with scallions and peanuts in a brown sauce. We found four whole red peppers in ours, but not a trace of heat, and we suspected the peppers were tossed in at the end, to make the dish look threatening.
Even down to the fortune cookies, Chopstick Inn has made an effort to differentiate itself. These are dipped in white chocolate and wrapped in colored foil.
So far, the efforts are making a difference. Nashville still doesn't have a regional Chinese restaurant, or even an authentic one. But Chopstick Inn is a timid first step in that direction.
An appetizer, five dinners and two glasses of wine was $78 before tip. Three appetizers and three entrees and three soft drinks was $64 before tip.
location:
Chopstick Inn
1000 Two Mile Parkway, in Rivergate Mall's food court. 851-2888.
Nicki Pendleton's "Eat Beat" is a regular feature of the Nashville Banner's Friday Backbeat section. All reviews are based on two or more visits. The Banner pays for all meals. We welcome your comments.
Copyright 1997, Nashville Banner |
