Every month, I pick up a local publication called the Salem Monthly. This particular publication is free, and has all the latest and greatest local news. It’s full of local activities, restaurant guides, wineries, and so much more! In all, it’s just a great little fact finder for local Salem residents. The Salem Monthly publication for August 2007 had a ‘Best of Salem’ section in it, and being new to the area, we thought we’d give a few of these ‘bests’ a try. We started out with Kwan’s Original Cuisine. It’s been voted the ‘Best Chinese Restaurant’ by local Salem residents and the Salem Monthly. So, here is yet one more opinion from an average Joe… Me.
Kwan’s is located just south of downtown and is pretty easy to get to. The parking lot was a little tricky to find being new to the area, we had to circle around the block and realized that while the restaurant itself is exposed on the main road of Commercial, the parking lot is actually around the back side of the building. So if you’re new to the area like me, and you see the restaurant from the street, just turn right at the corner, never fear… there is a parking lot for this place. Once we got inside the restaurant, we were greeted by a very friendly gal at the front desk and also saw quite an attractive display of Chinese arts and crafts. The lobby of this restaurant is a showcase style gift shop of beautiful vases, carved buddhas and other various items that you may purchase for your home.
We were quickly greeted and seated in the restaurant, and without even asking, we were served hot tea and water while we browsed the menu. The menu itself was sorted out rather practically. Combination style meals in the front, and then main dishes sorted by ingredient, following with sides and other specialties the restaurant offers. Combination dinners were priced around $8-12 per person, and 2 person combination meals started at $29 for two people. Separate entree prices varied, starting at about $8 a plate. One other great thing to know about Kwan’s’ restaurant, is that they offer 6 different types of rice choices. If you like white rice, brown, rice, whole grain rice, or even black rice, you have many choices to choose from; Just ask!
We decided to really test this place out, being that it was voted best in Salem, so we ordered Cream Cheese Krab Puffs as an appetizer, Egg flower soup, General Tso’s chicken, and Cashew Chicken with your basic long grain white rice. Everything we ordered was incredible! We opted not to order any additional beverages because we were plenty happy with the tea and water they had already offered… and once we got our bill, we were pleasantly surprised that even after really stretching it and ordering a 3 course meal, our tab was only $30.
The service was even more to speak of than the food. The food was excellent, but the service, ahhh the service. For starters, when they serve your meal, they bring it out on a rolling cart. Your food of course is on the cart, but on the shelf below, is anything and everything you could possibly need to start enjoying your meal. Need some extra napkins, chopsticks, another fork, you name it and they have instantly at your request. While we ate, we were not bothered, our waitress stopped by politely once to see if we needed anything, but other than that, we peacefully enjoyed our delicious meal.
When we were done eating, another waiter stopped by to see if we needed any to-go boxes. Yes, we did, we had more than enough food to fill us up, and plenty left over! Again he brings his cart over, politely took one entree plate at a time from our table, packed up our left overs in those cute little oriental style to-go boxes, and also gave us some extra rice to take home as well. Once he had boxed everything up, he took it even one step further! He put each of our little to-go boxes in a brown paper bag for us, so it was really easy to get our left overs out to the car, and into the fridge at home.
Shortly after our leftovers were boxed up by the polite young man who had stopped by, our waitress came back and asked if we’d like to have any desert. No we replied, and she politely handed us our bill. But that was not the only thing she gave us. You’re probably thinking, well of course, at a Chinese restaurant you get fortune cookies too! Yes, we did, but there’s still more! We also got two freshly steamed and rolled moist towels to clean up with. And I’m not talking about the disposable kind either. These were nice soft, warm hand towels for us to use to clean up anything we may have missed with a regular table napkin. Now, that in itself was enough for me to be impressed!
So, I think I can safely say that we will be returning to Kwan’s for another meal here soon. The food was wonderful, the service was spectacular, the prices were very affordable, and I just couldn’t help but come home, sit down and tell you all about it. If you live in Salem, or ever plan on visiting, be sure to put Kwan’s Original Cuisine on your list of places to eat. It’s nothing fancy, nothing flashy, but really just a genuinely great place to eat, and the service will bring you back again and again.
