Scene’s take on Chinese take-out

Non-microwaved food is challenging for students. After a while, late-night library goers begin to abhor DUC dinners, Subway cookies and even those heavenly Cheeze-its from the Whispers vending machine. Speed dialing Domino’s at eleven at night will get old, and your stomachs will crave something substantial. Thankfully, we have a solution to save your appetites Chinese take-out. After sampling a few of the Chinese restaurants nearby, here are our suggestions:

Hon’s Wok

With more than 200 options on its menu, Hon’s Wok is almost guaranteed to have any Chinese dish you can think up. Serving everything from crispy, greasy pot stickers ($3.10) and fried egg rolls with a deliciously sweet homemade sauce to more unusual offerings like beef tendon noodles ($5.60) and fruit chicken (fried chicken with mango and peaches, $4.78), Hon’s Wok is cheap and tasty.

The moo shu ($6.80) comes with four pancakes and the usual filling of vegetables and chicken, beef, shrimp or pork. While it is just a traditional-tasting moo shu, it is inexpensive and filling. The combination platters (all just $4.78) come with rice and egg rolls, wontons or crab Rangoon. Orange chicken, almond chicken, General Tso’s chicken and curry chicken are just four of the 54 combination plate options. When we ordered, the eggplant with Yu Xiang sauce (fried tofu and eggplant in a gingery and garlicky sauce) was a perfect mix of spicy and sweet. While the eggplant was a bit overcooked, the fried tofu was scrumptious and its texture pristine.

The curry chicken ($5.70 for a half order or $7.35 for a full), one of the handful of Hon’s Wok’s non-Chinese offerings, has a good kick but is relatively plain and simple. The hot and sour soup ($1.60) and wonton soup ($1.70) are both meal-sized bowls of broth that are still piping hot when delivered. Hon’s Wok also has a small menu of healthier items that are low in sodium and steamed instead of fried.

Inexpensive and quick with an extensive, almost overwhelming menu, Hon’s Wok is exactly what cheap Chinese delivery should be.

-Brian Benton

Shu Feng

Shu Feng’s selling point is that it offers Taiwanese and Korean dishes in addition to common Chinese favorites. Along with the usual dishes, like beef with broccoli ($10.95), fried rice ($7.95 to $10.95) and lemon chicken ($10.95), Shu Feng has less common dishes like Taiwanese beef noodle soup ($8.25) and eight different kinds of Taiwanese-style noodles ($6.95 to $8.25).

The Taiwanese beef soup, which consists of a flavorful broth with chewy egg noodles, beef and vegetables, was delivered in parts—the broth, meat and vegetables in a huge plastic bowl and the noodles and a few awkward steamed bok choy forlornly lying in a Styrofoam box. As a result, the noodles clumped together, and the soup was a challenge to eat. Yet the dish is definitely worth trying as an alternative to basic Chinese food.

The fried rice, chow mein and lo mein come with your choice of pork, chicken, beef, shrimp or vegetables and are more than enough for one meal. While all three could greatly benefit from heftier portions of vegetables, the low prices and big portions make them a decent choice.

Warning: Shu Feng has very few vegetarian options and does not have any complete vegetarian dishes with tofu or tempeh on the menu. The broccoli in garlic sauce ($8.95), while flavorful, was overpowered by sauce and was almost just garlic soup with broccoli. Hot & sour soup ($1.95), also vegetarian, was peppery and piquant and enough for two to share as an appetizer.

Shu Feng took a little more than 50 minutes to deliver the food, a bit long by our standards. While the dishes were nothing spectacular, if you and your friends can’t decide which part of the continent you want to explore gastronomically, Shu Feng offers a wide range of Asian food options.

- Brian Benton

House of Wong

Voted the “Best Chinese Food in St. Louis” by Sauce Magazine, House of Wong on both Olive Boulevard and in downtown Clayton offers a dining experience that will satisfy all Chinese food cravings. Offering dine-in, carry-out, delivery and catering services as well as a recently launched online ordering system, House of Wong truly accommodates all customers. House of Wong delivers every day from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch and 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. for dinner with a $10.00 minimum food charge.

For starters, The Wong’s lettuce wraps ($5.50)—available for vegetarians—and coconut shrimp ($6.00) are absolute must-haves. Proven to be a huge crowd favorite, the Hunan chicken ($8.95 for a full order) combines broccoli and bamboo shoots in a spicy black bean sauce for a flavorful experience. The cha kroeung ($10.00), made with turmeric, galangal, kaffir lime, fish sauce, sugar and black peppers, left many adventurous souls unsatisfied and unsure of the contents they had just consumed. However, the large sharing portion of Shanghai street noodles ($9.50) made up for any damage that may have been caused by the enigmatic cha kroeung.

House of Wong began catering to the more health-conscious in 2009, launching the now famous “Fried Healthy Brown Rice.” In an effort to attract a new clientele, this twist on generally unhealthy sodium-loaded Asian cuisine is a great option for the cholesterol-conscious.

Bringing together all the elements of a traditional Chinese dining experience while still adding new and modern twists, House of Wong remains a great contender for a lunch, dinner and late-night dining option.

-Caroline Ludeman