Lunch #23: Kau Kau

Eastbound and down! The stars aligned today and the MSG150 crew headed out for our forth adventure this week. I think that's a record. When we started our quest back in November we set out to eat in at least two spots in our path per week and, except for the holidays, we have more than succeeded. A number of folks have called us crazy (some of them because of MSG150). Some have said it could never be done. Some said we'd get tired and quit. But... we're gonna do what they say can't be done. We've a long way to go and a short time to get there. Somethin', somethin', watch that Bandit run.

Kau Kau, Seattle
Address: 656 S King St, Seattle, WA 98104
Cuisine: Chinese: Cantonese, Hawaiin
Average rating: 3.6 chopsticks
Lunch date: 1/25/2008 @ 13:00:00
Time taken to be seated: 10 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 10 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 45 minutes
Chopstix quality: Nice wood
Do they use MSG?: Yes, but none added... its just what is in the premade sauces.
Where is the owner/chef from?: From Seattle, but a 5th generation Chinese-Hawaiin
Number of tables: 15
Number of occupied tables: 13 (86%)
Number of business lunch tables: 10 (76%)
Number of "local" tables: 3 (23%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Lunch Special with Sweet & Sour Spareribs - $4.99
Fortune: You will soon follow your heart's desire
Rating:

Emmett's Review

Kau Kau started off well. They had a fish that we could look at while we waited, that apparently is quite big. We also had to wait for 10 minutes, something that we're not accustomed to. Regardless, our patience yielded a good size table near the door and we quickly scoured the menus.

They have lunch specials that are pretty crazy - soup, fried rice, some bbq pork, and another meat of your choice for $4.99. Compared to Ga Ga Loc next door, who are you kidding? The soup arrived, it was chicken noodle, kind of bland, but I enjoyed it.

Next up, our meat arrived. I had the sweet and sour short ribs. The sweet and sour sauce was a little icky sweet, but the short ribs were nice. The bbq pork on the side was also quite good, dipped with a little mustard and sesame. The fried rice rounded out the meal nicely.

All told, Kau Kau great bargain for a great amount of food. I didn't feel so well afterwards, and not because I ate a particularly large amount, but rather, the meat hits you with some force. I'd come again.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Lunch Special with Roasted Duck - $4.99
Fortune: Your lover will be true to you.
Rating:

Geary's Review

Kau Kau is a large, nicely decorated restaurant. It is always crowded for lunch with a good mixed crowed. We had eight today and had to wait for a seat. They said it would be ten minutes and it was (kudos). The service was efficient and friendly. The man seating us was an owner. We learned from him that Kau Kau, Hawaiian for "eat eat", has been in his family since the 1950s. His family is from Canton originally, but are fifth generation Hawaiian.

They have a large dinner menu, but a fairly fixed lunch menu: your choice of eight meats plus soup, fried rice, and (just in case your meat wasn't enough) a side of BBQ pork. The soup was a simple chicken noodle and was nothing special. It was nice to have some soup on a chilly day though. The rest of the food was great. The fried rice is the best we have had yet. It had large flavorful bits of BBQ pork and nice crispy sprouts. My choice of meat, the BBQ duck, was delicious as was the BBQ pork. Both were moist and tender with lots of smoky flavor. Double yum!

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Lunch Special with BBQ Spareribs - $4.99
Fortune: Sing and rejoice, fortune is smiling on you
Rating:

Adam's Review

This is another Meat-in-Window (MIW) joint. I love the MIW. The lunch special with fried rice, steamed vegetables, BBQ pork, and a meat option. Because of previous experiences with MIW joints, most people were going to get the duck as their meat option. So, I decided to get the BBQ spareribs (yes, this pig has ribs to spare). And yes, this was an all-pork lunch because the fried rice had pork in it too

Lets start with the fried rice. I'm going to go ahead and toss this out there: this was the best fried rice I've ever had. There, I said it. It was full of flavor and chunks of meaty goodness. This wasn't cheap-lunch-plate-filling fried rice... this was honest-to-goodness fried rice. Delicious.

Also delicious: the pork. The BBQ pork was savory but not overly-salty... which is a problem that often plagues BBQ pork. This BBQ pork was plague-free. An excellent addition to this lunch special.

The BBQ spareribs were pretty good. The sauce on the ribs were good. My one complaint is that I wanted more!

Cheap eats. Delicious food. Seattle landmark. Get your meat-lovin' ass down here.

Luncher: Doug

Lunch: Lunch Special with BBQ Spareribs - $4.99
Fortune: You will enjoy peace and harmony in your home.
Rating:

Doug's Review

Great value for the money.

Luncher: Jeff

Lunch: Lunch Special with Roasted Sidepork - $4.99
Fortune: The time is right to buy yourself something nice.
Rating:

Jeff's Review

Kau Kau is exactly the type of place most people hope to discover in the ID. It’s a tucked-away family run place, with long roots to the community. It offered an excellent value and food that was great. If stereo-types are a way to begin an evaluation, this place exceeds on meeting every expectations. Massive fish tank with rare cool fish, Hectic environment, Roast ducks hanging for patrons to view, Bi-lingual menus, etc Best of all, the place was busy – always a good sign.

I had the Pork Side which came with soup, fried rice, and steamed vegetables. I believe they actually messed up our order and forgot me. When the waitress realized she was about to be short 1 meal – she hurried to get my lunch ready ASAP. I didn’t wait too much longer than the others, a testament to their efficiency.

My Pork was great. The rice was fantastic. The vegetables were average. The soup wasn’t the hot and sour I was hoping for. Nevertheless, it was good. It was a complete meal for $4.99. An outstanding value!!! Even though I spent most of this reviewing the place, not the food – please don’t misunderstand. This place is great and worth a visit. I think every member of our team had a good lunch.

Luncher: Joey

Lunch: Lunch Special with Roasted Duck - $4.99
Fortune: You need not worry about the future
Rating:

Joey's Review

I give a 3 this time, but I’d usually rate Kau Kau bbq as a 4.

Luncher: Laurent

Lunch: Lunch Special with Roasted Duck - $4.99
Fortune: You are never bitter, deceptive or petty.
Rating:

Luncher: Michael

Lunch: Lunch Special with Roasted Duck - $4.99
Fortune: You are independent politically
Rating:

Michael's Review

A fantastic lunch combination. Flavorful BBQ pork and duck along side the best fried rice i've had in months. A splash of color provided by steamed carrots and broccoli. All for less than 5 dollars a plate. This is the kind of lunch place we've been looking for. Kau Kau is a win.

Kau Kau Photos

Kau Kau


Big Fish


To Go Counter


Chicken Noodle Soup


BBQ Spareribs Lunch Special


BBQ Duck Lunch Special


BBQ Spareribs Lunch Special


Sweet & Sour Spareribs Lunch Special


Roasted Sidepork Lunch Special

Lunch #22: Mike's Noodle House

After Monday's failed attempt at Mike's Noodle House, the MSG150 team set out early to make sure we could get in this time. It was still a close call. There were eight of us and we had to split into two tables. The first group was seated right away, but the rest of us had to wait for a table to open up. It is obviously popular and the staff was very efficient with their small space.

After lunch, as we headed back to work, we passed by Unicorn Crepes and were happy to see that they had a crowd of people enjoying their delicious crepes. MSG150 is rooting for the Unicorn.

Mike's Noodle House, Seattle
Address: 418 Maynard Ave, Seattle, WA 98104
Cuisine: Chinese: Hong Kong, Chinese: Congee
Average rating: 3.8 chopsticks
Lunch date: 1/23/2008 @ 11:40:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 7 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 16 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 50 minutes
Chopstix quality: Nice Plastic
Do they use MSG?: No, and there is a message on the cover of the menu that states this fact.
Where is the owner/chef from?: Hong Kong
Number of tables: 12
Number of occupied tables: 12 (100%)
Number of business lunch tables: 2 (16%)
Number of "local" tables: 10 (83%)
Healthcode Score: 5
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Sui-Kau & Brisket Noodle Soup - $5.35
Rating:

Geary's Review

Mike's is a small space but still seems to move people through quickly. Neither of the two servers were very friendly, but what they lack in warmth, they made up for in efficiency. The two of them handled twelve tables and dealt with the steady flow of people waiting. Also of note, one of them had palm trees (or flowers maybe) painted on her fingernails.

I have been to Mike's before, a couple of years ago, and ordered the Black Chicken Congee. I was with Frank, a Chinese speaker, and he had me convinced that Black Chicken is crow. As it turns out, black chicken is a small chicken with black skin, black bones, black meat, and apparently five toes. The down-side of the black chicken, especially in congee, is that since it is small and prepared in the typical Asian fashion of being hacked into small chunks, bones and all, and is therefore fairly labor intensive to eat. It was, however, tasty. I have always wanted to come back and try Mike's again.

The neon signs in the window call out "Congee" and "Noodles". I had the congee last time, so I ordered the Sui-Kau & Brisket Noodle Soup. We also ordered Baby Bok Choy and Chinese Dough Nuts as starters. The Bok Choy was fairly standard, steamed and drzzled with oyster sauce. The Chinese Dough Nuts were new to us. They are long deep fried tubes of very slightly sweetened dough chopped into bite sized pieces. They are not very interesting by themselves, but it appeared that most people were dipping them in or adding them to their congee like you might do with crackers in clam chowder. My noodle soup was good. The sui-kau, dumplings with shrimp, pork, mushroom, and other veggies, were the gem. The beef was good too, but the broth and noodles were not nearly as good as the Gourmet Noodle Bowl or Szechuan Noodle Bowl.

I'll come back again for sure, but will stick with the congee. There are much better spots for Beef Noodle Soup.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Black Chicken Congee - $4.95
Rating:

Adam's Review

• Adam: What is Congree?
• Geary: Its like rice pourage with meat
• Adam: Definitely never had that. We'll see

we tried to sneak out of the office so we'd only have a small group going to Mike's small dining room. When we arrived at Mike's we had managed to only accumulate 8 people. Flipping through the menu, I determined I definitely wanted to try congee... and I wanted something "classically congee." I figured "Black Chicken" would be some cajun-esque blackened chicken. Holy crap... the chicken in my congee was black as Steven Hawking's blackhole. Ok, so if you don't know what black chicken is, it is actually a type of chicken called a Silkie. The Silkie's skin and bones are actually black.

The meal was totally new to me. It was good, but nothing special. I'll go back to try this place again.

Good food. Pretty good prices. Very popular.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Wonton & Sui-Kau Noodle Soup - $4.95
Rating:

Emmett's Review

This tiny restaurant was crowded, usually a very good sign. The staff was quick, friendly, and polite, and the interior was very clean and well decorated. I ordered the Sui-Kau and Wonton Noodle Soup.

They certainly didn't skimp on the wontons and sui-kau. THe soup was literally loaded with them. I counted 5-6 in a pretty small bowl of soup. And they were huge! They tasted home made and were delicious. The wontons were stuffed with shrimp and shiitake? mushrooms, while the sui-kau had pork and shrimp in them. The broth was flavorful and tasty. The noodles themselves were average - typical skinny ramen noodles. I prefer the thicker noodles of Szechuan Noodle Bowl and Gourmet Noodle Bowl.

All in all this place was tasty and pleasant. I'll definitely be back.

Luncher: Michael

Lunch: Rock Cod Noodle with Vegetable - $6.15
Rating:

Michael's Review

Everything was tasty and fresh. Cooked just right. This place is worthy of many return trips. Seems to be a popular lunch spot. Expect a crowded house and little elbow room.

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: Rock Cod Congee - $4.75
Rating:

Rob's Review

I'd been to Mike's Noodle House once before a year or two ago and had chosen poorly -- I got some sparse non-soup noodle dish instead of the congee. The MSG150 mob arrived earlier this time, in two groups of four. The first group sat down about the same time as my group showed up, and we had to wait no more than ten minutes for one of the four seat tables to "open up" -- if there are larger groups waiting (and there usually are) groups or two or one sitting at a four-seater get asked (politely but efficiently) to move to two seat tables when those open up. Gotta keep that soup flowing. Anyway, I flipped through the extensive menu until I reach the congee page. Decisions, decisions: rock cod, taro and water cress, or sweet corn and white fungus? I flipped a mental coin and it came up rock cod. This was my first time having congee, actually, and I must say it was glorious. It was thick and piping hot, with enough subtle flavor to forgo adding anything other than pieces of Chinese donut (highly recommended - the tubular bits of thin, fried dough with the congee were awesome), and the generous amount of cod was tender and flaky. On a freezing cold winter day, this was absolutely perfect. Can't wait to go back.

Luncher: Torrey

Lunch: Beef Brisket Noodle Soup - $4.95
Rating:

Torrey's Review

I ordered the beef brisket so that I could have a direct comparison to the Gourmet Noodle Bowl. The beef was seasoned nicely, but was not better than Gourmet. Secondly, the noodles were not homemade and not as tasty Gourmet. The lunch atmosphere was definitely happening in this small dining room and I would definitely go back.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: Minced Beef Congee - $4.35
Rating:

Al's Review

I love beefy cream of wheat rice!

Luncher: Wayne

Lunch: Special Fish Ball Noodle Soup - $4.35
Rating:

Mike's Noodle House Photos

Mike's Noodle House


Noodle Masters


Fancy Menu Cover (notice no MSG logo)


Black Chicken Congee


Minced Beef Congee


Rock Cod Congee


Dough nuts & Bok Choy


Rock Cod Noodle with Vegetable


Sui-Kau & Brisket Noodle Soup


Special Fish Ball Noodle Soup


Wonton & Sui-Kau Noodle Soup


Brisket Noodle Soup


Wonton Pozin'


Noodle Slurpin'

Landmark: Union Gospel Mission

Last week MSG150 passed by the Union Gospel Mission's Women and Children's Shelter between Fu-Lin (lunch #19) and Unicorn Crepes (lunch #20). The International District has given us so much that we figured it was time to give a little back. At Micheal's suggestion, we signed up to serve lunch yesterday at the shelter. All it took was a phone call. They were very flexible with scheduling and allowed up to five people to volunteer for the meal. They were glad for the help, but I suspect they need more help at dinner (from about 4pm to 6pm). They served lunch to about 45 women and young children but have more than 60 for dinner with kids out of school. Everyone fed at this location is in a residency program at the shelter. They do open meals at the men's shelter over on 2nd Ave. Ext.

After we checked in with the office upstairs, the cook, Kathy, got us scrubbed, netted (hair), and gloved and showed us our stations. Michael and I would be dishing out the food. Adam, Jeff, and Rob would be delivering. Lunch started promptly at noon. As people arrived, Kathy told them to take a seat as they were being waited upon today. It appeared that this was not a common occurrence, and the women really enjoyed our efforts.

The UGM is an overtly Christian organization, and even though we are not all Christian, the experience was both fulfilling for us and appreciated by them. It was a win-win. When all of the women were done, Kathy offered us the remaining stew and biscuits for lunch. As we were finishing up, one of the residents came by to thank us and give us a tip:

Do you want to help the Union Gospel Mission?

• Donate Money on the UGM Website
• Volunteering at the Union Gospel Mission is incredibly easy and flexible. To sign up for a time to volunteer, it only take 45 to 60 seconds (literally). More information can be found on the UGM's Volunteering Page

Chopstick Rating:

Lunch #21: Ga Ga Loc

The MSG150 crew headed out into the cold, sunny winter's day for Mike's Noodle House. A few of us had been before a couple of years ago, and we knew it was small, but we thought that maybe we'd have luck finding room for our large group on this holiday Monday. We showed up with ten hungry lunchers at about 12:15 and there were already two other parties waiting, so it was on to plan two, Ga Ga Loc. We will circle back to Mike's the next trip out.

Ga Ga Loc, Seattle
Address: 424 Maynard Ave, Seattle, WA 98104
Cuisine: Chinese: Cantonese
Average rating: 2.2 chopsticks
Lunch date: 1/21/2008 @ 12:30:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 15 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 49 minutes
Chopstix quality: Cheap plastic
Do they use MSG?: Yes
Where is the owner/chef from?: Canton
Number of tables: 12
Number of occupied tables: 3 (25%)
Number of business lunch tables: 1 (33%)
Number of "local" tables: 0 (0%)
Healthcode Score: 15
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Szechuan Beef - $4.25
Fortune: You will hear from an old friend.
Rating:

Emmett's Review

My first trip to Ga Ga Loc was over six months ago. After a long night at Seattle's Best Karaoke, we found ourselves craving some late night deep fried chinese. It was about 3:30 AM and we headed to our usual crappy Chinese spot - Purple Dot. Though the sign clearly indicated that they were 'open', we were refused service. An argument ensued. How could they refuse us service when we were so chipper and rational at that hour? Anyhow, they kindly directed us to Honey Court. Honey Court was clearly closing, but they redirected us to Ga Ga Loc. It was surprisingly crowded. I can't remember the food. The service was poor. Hell it may not have even been Ga Ga Loc. Or Seattle for that matter.

I walked in biased. This was the place all right. But where were the people? Maybe they do 90%+ of their business between 2 and 4 am. We were seated quickly; the table was clean and the menus had nice new covers. They have great bargains for lunch where everything seems to be less than $5.

I ordered the Szechuan Beef. The soup was average, the tea was good, and the beef wasn't bad. It was hot and fresh, had a nice flavor, and filled me up. It wasn't the best Szechuan Beef I've ever had, but it certainly wasn't bad. For $5, I get soup, a lunch, and some tea. This must be one of the better bargains in the international district.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Chicken with Assorted Vegetables - $4.25
Fortune: You have an active mind and a keen imagination
Rating:

Geary's Review

Ga Ga Loc (no relation to Tone) is a fairly typical looking small ID Chinese Restaurant. They have a large menu with a fancy faux suede cover that includes the standard crappy American-Chinese lunch dishes. Being bound by rule #2, I scanned the lunch menu and went with what I figured was least likely to suck, the Chicken with Assorted Vegetables. Our waitress was very friendly and took our order in a timely manner and didn't seem too put off by our occasional indecisiveness or custom requests.

The $4.25 lunch special comes with only one soup option (no luck for the egg flower people) and our waitress brought out a large serving bowl and ladled out theH&SS right on our lazy susan. Nice show, but the soup sucked. I mean it sucked more than any H&SS has ever sucked before. No tang. No spice. Funky after taste. It could only be up hill from here. We'll maybe, but at an almost imperceptible grade. The lunch special came with white rice (no fried rice), which was probably lucky, since it didn't suck, and I'm pretty sure the fried rice would have. The gooey chicken-like lunch special with soggy veggies was not quite horrible. In fact, I'd call it just mediocre. Unfortunately, the sucky soup brings down the whole experience to a solid two chopstics.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: General Tsao's Chicken - $4.25
Fortune: You luck has been completely chanted today.
Rating:

Adam's Review

Geary, Al and I had been to Ga Ga Loc before, and... lets just say that I wasn't excited to come back here.

I ordered a standard chinese dish: General Tsao's. It was disappointing. The chicken was over breaded. The sauce was bland. The rice was difficult to eat with chopsticks. My Hot & Sour Soup was neither hot nor sour. The soup was watery and the contents were mostly flavorless.

Don't feel bad about walking by this place on your way to something deliciouser

Luncher: Al

Lunch: General Tsao's Chicken - $4.25
Fortune: You will be invited to a social gathering.
Rating:

Al's Review

Food was only o.k., but price was excellent.

Luncher: Jeff

Lunch: Szechuan Beef - $4.25
Fortune: You will be invited to a social gathering.
Rating:

Jeff's Review

Ga Ga Loc is a big loss of real estate for the ID community. As an Asian food provider I rank it only slightly above China Express that I can get at Safeway. I am glad that it appears to be a family run business rather than some chain. And, the restaurant itself was clean, comfortable, well maintained and capable of accommodating quite a crowd. Now, if only I could find as much good to say about the food… Not bad – just not memorable.

To be fair – the food is fresh and edible. It’s also a good value for a $5 lunch. At that price I had tea, soup and a meat / rice dish which I didn’t finish. The flavor simply lacks any inspiration or individuality. My dish was exactly as you’d expect for mainstream Chinese food in the US. The ingredients were fresh enough. The meat quality was fine. The rice was good. It just didn’t do anything other than meet the bar. In middle America, this place may be “great” ethnic cuisine. In the ID… it just doesn’t stand against the rest of the neighborhood.

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: Kung Pao Tofu - $4.25
Fortune: Look in the right places, you can find some good offerings.
Rating:

Rob's Review

Ah yes, the unfortunately named Ga Ga Loc. I hadn't been here before, but the decor was so standard that I kind of felt like I had. I decided to try the tofu-cation thing again and ordered the Kung Pao Tofu, to which the waitress happily obliged. It's been years since I've had a Kung Pao dish, and I was actually looking forward to it. The hot and sour soup arrived, and it was really bad. You tilt the cup of soup and you can watch it unevenly ooze to the new level. Ugh. I was only able to choke it down by adding some hot sauce, and because everyone else seemed to be finishing theirs -- peer pressure made me eat it. The initial pot of tea was tepid. At this point I was thinking this was the worst Chinese restaurant I've been to in a long time, but then the Kung Pao arrived, and it wasn't terrible. It was a bit bland, and it was missing all those little red peppers I'm used to seeing in Kung Pao, but it wasn't terrible. I was able to eat most of it by adding some hot sauce, but the overly large baby corns tasted a little off, and the full pieces of bok choy were a little hard to manage. The main dish made me think about giving Ga Ga Loc a three, but then I remembered that I gave KC Kitchen a two. The main dishes were fairly similar in quality, and KC Kitchen's hot and sour soup was much better. So there you go. It was too bad that our original destination, Mike's Noodle House, was way too full when the MSG150 mob came a-calling.

Luncher: Joey

Lunch: Broccoli Beef - $4.25
Fortune: You will visit a faraway land that has been in your thoughts.
Rating:

Luncher: Michael

Lunch: General Tsao's Chicken - $4.25
Fortune: Your life will be happy and peaceful.
Rating:

Luncher: Wayne

Lunch: Mongolian Beef - $4.25
Fortune: You will be successful in love.
Rating:

VIP Luncher: Erin from Harborview Medical Center

Lunch: Mongolian Beef - $4.25
Fortune: A career change may be in your future.
Rating:

Erin's Review

When we walked in and found the restaurant half empty, I knew this was not a good sign. They had an array of standard Chinese-American lunch specials, a dish with rice and soup for $4.25. I had the Mongonlian Beef, and since is was a day off of school for my kids, I ordered Sweet & Sour Pork and Chicken to take home for Max and Jake. The beef dish was standard stirfried beef with onions and green onions, in a brown sauce. The soup was a hot and sour soup, which had too much corn starch in it, so it was sort of stiff. The beef was fine, but nothing special, and I have had it prepared more interestingly elsewhere. the Sweet and Sour Chicken and Pork (two dishes) was pronounce "lame" by the boys. I think that better prepared and better tasting lunch specials can be had elsewhere, even at that price.

Since I start a new job this week, I thought my fortune was pretty funny.

Ga Ga Loc Photos

Ga Ga Loc


Ga Ga Loc


Lunch Menu in Window


H&SS


Mongolian Beef


General Tsao's Chicken


Kung Pao Tofu


Szechuan Beef


Broccoli Beef


Chicken-like meat with Assorted Vegetables