Wing Lauk; Waterford, Michigan

Today my wife and I took our daughter, our niece and our daughter's best friend Abby to a local Chinese restaurant called Wing Lauk.  There really should be nothing to surprising about the family going out to eat, but we had not eaten at this long established restaurant before as a family, nor as a couple.  In the past, Kolleen had quite a negative view of Wing Lauk in regards to their food.  But today Kolleen had pulled up a coupon on restaurant.com (we're big fans!) so we thought we would give it a whirl.


Walking in to the establishment I was hit with three things:  the first was with the overwhelming, but pleasant smell of plum sauce; the second was a sign showing that Wing Lauk was voted the "Best Chinese Restaurant" from 2005-2010 by the Oakland Press Reader's Choice Awards (impressive!); and finally, it seemed a bit dark for a restaurant, even with all the candles burning.  As the hostess approached she explained that the power was out, but they were still open for business since the gas was still on. They were expecting the power back at any moment.  Another important note, as we were passing the cashier I noted a sign reading that Wing Lauk offered a variety of gluten free dishes.


Now seated at our table Kolleen and I began to settle the girls in.  We knew we had our hands full as one of the three girls had never eaten Chinese food and was "picky" beyond belief.  So with the aid of a very helpful waitress with whom I was very impressed with we ordered our drinks.  Finally figuring our plan of action we decided to order three children's meals of sweet and sour chicken and almond chicken while I decided upon and order of scallops kow.  My wife and the children each had egg rolls while I had a cup of egg drop soup prior to the main entrée.

As for the soup I unfortunately for it to be a bit bland and tasteless.  A simple addition of scallions would have easily been a way to increase the taste.  The rice noodles/wantons that accompany the soup where also without flavor.


According to Kolleen the egg rolls where wonderful.  As she is severely allergic to shellfish she was great relieved to find out that these egg rolls were made with chicken and not shrimp.  She also said the plum sauce was great.


The arrival of the main entrées did not disappoint any of us.  The scallops kow were absolutely delicious.  As I had hoped for they were mild enough yet not so bland to remove the taste of the scallops or the Chinese vegetables.  The portion size was large and made up for the $10.75 cost.  The scallops were served with white rice.


The children's almond chicken was served to my daughter.  She did enjoy it to some degree, but she is a picky eater.  Her food was served fried rice.  I had the opportunity to taste her food and I must say that her almond chicken is truly one of the best almond chicken dishes I have had...ever!


The other two girls had the children's portion of sweet and sour chicken.  Just like my daughter the were both very picky eaters.  My niece refused to eat hers and a wonderfully aiding waitress brought her a replacement plate of almond chicken which she enjoyed very much.


Overall I must give high marks to Wing Lauk.  Though I was not thrilled with the appetizer courses of the meal I was in turn blown away by the almond chicken and the level of service we were provided.


Rating:
Out of 5 *
Service:                     *****
Food:                         ***
Cleanliness:               ***
Affordability:             n/a (used restaurant.com)
Decor:                       *****


Overall:                     ****