Webster Wok, Webster Groves - Visited October 2017

Today was another Saturday lunch pick, and my eldest offspring who recently moved to Webster Groves, decided to visit a long time Webster eatery which has recently switched to new owners, the Webster Wok near the corner of Big Bend and Lockwood. We were able to park right near the restaurant in front of Tei Too (hey, another restaurant to try) and entered to realize the dining area was even smaller than I was expecting. They have one large, round table in the corner where we were seated as seen in this photo I had seen online:

Not including these two, there were about 3 or 4 more smaller tables and that was it. One fellow seated at the other table in this picture handed us two menus as we entered. There was a fairly standard lunch and dinner menu, and a separate Chinese menu. The lunch and dinner menu had the more basic menu items you would expect to see in most Americanized Chinese restaurants and the Chinese menu had a larger selection of more authentic dishes. My wife and mother-in-law both ordered chicken lo mein, my eldest ordered the sweet and sour chicken lunch special, and my son ordered the Yushiang chicken lunch special. I had to try something from the special Chinese menu so I ordered the twice cooked pork. We also ordered one order of crab rangoons as appetizers.

As we sat and waited a few more customers came in, as well as several flies. Actually the flies were there all the time, since the front door was left hanging open and the dining area was rather small. We also noticed they did provide a napkin dispenser on the table, bit the napkins were very small and thin. I believe I ended up using three napkins over the course of my meal, so I am not sure they are saving money much providing such tiny little napkins. (For some reason I thought they were the kind of napkins Jessica Huang would order for Cattleman's Ranch.) We also noticed the tables had durable plastic tablecloths that were attached to the table with metal screws. If these folks were going for the "cheap Chinese dive" feel they had it down perfectly!

The crab rangoons arrived and they were very fresh, warm and crisp. They were a very good start to the meal. The individual dishes came out with each one of them including a carrot flower. My double cooked pork was a nice sized serving with a bowl of rice, and the lunch specials were fairly generously portioned as well.

Double Cooked Pork with Sichuan Sauce

Chicken Lo Mein (small portion)

My pork was well seasoned, and the hot peppers and vegetable were plentiful, but the pork was quite fatty with large visible strips of fat in many of the pieces. The oil seemed a bit heavy as well, but the flavors were quite strong and distinctive. I tried my son's Yushiang chicken dish and it had a good flavor to it with a slight kick, but it also seemed a bit heavy on the oil. The lo mein was pretty good, and not as oily but also not quite as flavorful. Overall the food flavors came out quite well, but the chef seemed to like to use cheap cuts of meat and lots of oil. The service was all done by one fellow (we believe two people were running the whole place) and he tried to follow up with us, but his visits became less frequent after a few more customers arrived. They seemed to have a few take out orders, and I could see them being popular with their proximity to Webster University.

Overall the food seemed to be flavorful and reasonably priced (especially their lunch specials) but their service and atmosphere were not so impressive. Still they are not a bad place for Chinese food in the area, especially if you know what to expect. They are probably best for take out (or possibly delivery) and I would have to try more of their "specialty" dishes to see how they special their "special menu" actually is.

Menu Variety/Specialty Flavors

Service/Atmosphere/Meat Quality

Overall