China Lake

Name: China Lake
Location: 3215 E Main St., Endicott, NY 13760
Phone: (607) 748-2133
Cuisine: Chinese (American and Authentic)
Price: Around $10 per person

Review:
Endwell's China Lake represents one of at least two Chinese restaurants in the Binghamton area that offer not only the standard Americanized Chinese take-out that most folks in this country are acquainted with, but also a special menu of more "authentic" Chinese cuisine. The other, Moon Star (also in Endwell, about a quarter mile up the road from China Lake), has long been a favorite of mine. It's been my "go-to" Chinese place since I first went there a few years back. Lately, I've had somewhat of a renewed interest in the area's Chinese restaurants. I heard China Lake was one of the best from friends, from various blurbs around the internet, and from loyal readers of this blog, and today we went to try it out.

China Lake is located in a small strip mall in Endwell on 17C, just before the North St. split. There's a tiny, awkward parking lot in front of the restaurant. Upon entering China Lake you'll notice there is hardly any ambiance to be had. The place has about 8 tables. There are a few 4-seaters along the left side, but most of the tables are for larger parties of 8 or more. The restaurant is slightly on the dingy side and has little by way of decoration to spruce it up. One gets the sense that China Lake works best as a take-out place. They also deliver (not sure to how wide a radius).

We took a seat and were given menus, noodles, and a homemade duck sauce. Since it was lunch time when we were there, we ordered from the lunch menu, which had two components. First was a list of Lunch Specials featuring an entree with soup of your choice (wonton, egg drop, hot & sour), from which Megan ordered the Chicken with Broccoli with wonton soup. On the flip side was the authentic Chinese menu, with several interesting looking choices (some easily more adventurous than I was willing to go on this day). From the special menu, I ordered the Barbecued Beef and also opted for some wonton soup.


The soup came first and I thought it was pretty good, maybe the best of the wonton soups I've had in this area. The wontons themselves were smaller, tighter pouches than what you get at many other places, but had very nice flavor. This is a soup I would definitely order again.


Next came the entrees. Megan liked the Chicken with Broccoli quite a lot, preferring it to the same dish at Moon Star (and any other Chinese we've had in the area for that matter). I had a couple bites and it wasn't bad. But not nearly as good as my entree.


I really enjoyed my Barbecued Beef entree a lot. This featured beef stir-fried in a somewhat spicy garlic sauce with green onions served over a bed of Chinese cabbage. Completely delicious, and something I would order again in a heartbeat. If I had to be a little bit critical of the dish, I'd say it was very oily. From the above picture, you can literally see it swimming in oil. This didn't bother me, nor detract from my enjoyment of the dish, but I get the sense that some people might be a little turned off by that aspect. Fortune cookies and fresh orange slices followed to complete the meal.

Service at China Lake was provided by friendly, if a bit gruff, older Chinese lady. I'd have to say the service was a bit spotty, as it took about 15 minutes for us to get drinks (just water and tea), and there was an extended wait for our check because the restaurant staff decided it was their time to eat. All this means is that China Lake has not supplanted Moon Star as my "dining-out" Chinese restaurant. I thought China Lake's food was probably the best Chinese I've had in the area, but I plan to enjoy exclusively it as take-out in the future. For what it's worth, Megan shares the exact same opinion. She enjoyed the food quite a bit, but to quote her: "There's no way I'll ever eat there again." If you choose to dine in, consider yourself warned.

China Lake is a very good, if somewhat flawed, Chinese restaurant. No doubt the menu is more expansive and unique than most others around, and most importantly, we found the food to be extremely tasty. Ambiance and service definitely knock the place down a peg in our eyes, an area in which the restaurant pales in comparison to the nearby Moon Star. But if all that matters is the food, I would have to conclude China Lake is the best restaurant of its ilk that you'll find in the Triple Cities.

Grade: B+

Fu Star Chinese

Name: Fu Star Chinese
Location: 1185 Vestal Ave., Ste. 3, Binghamton, NY 13903
Phone: (607) 722-5767
Cuisine: Chinese
Price: Less than $10 per person

Review:
Sometimes I get these cravings for Chinese take-out for lunch, and the Triple Cities have many options in that regard that are always very quick and inexpensive, but variable in quality. Moon Star in Endwell and Foliage on Riverside Dr. in Johnson City are a couple good ones that I've found, but I'd heard some good things about Fu Star on Binghamton's South Side, and so off I went to try it out.

Fu Star is located in a small plaza on the South Side, behind Thirsty's and across the street from Whole in the Wall and South Side Yanni's. The restaurant is small but has a few tables available if you choose to eat there. My guess is that 90% of their business is take-out. The small store is clean, but does not offer anything by way of ambiance. Which is fine. I do not expect much from these sorts of places.

With it being around 1:00 PM, I opted to order a Lunch Special, which features one of about 25 different entree options (the usual ones) served with your choice of white or fried rice. To me, this is kind of "meh" for a special. Many of the other places offer soup or an eggroll, or at least a beverage as part of their special; Fu Star did not. Cripes. But I was hopeful that the General Tso's Chicken with pork fried rice I ordered would be up to snuff.

Within 5 minutes my order was ready. Be sure to bring cash if you're going to Fu Star, as they do not accept credit cards. It's 2011 and they don't take credit. Come on! Anyway, $5.35 later, I was out the door. A pretty good deal.


Unfortunately, I did not care for this meal at all. As soon as I opened the packaging, I knew this was going to be subpar Chinese due to the glossy, syrupy appearance of the chicken. I am usually a pretty big fan of General Tso's. I like it best when the spicy quotient is amped up and the sweet component is secondary. This was the exact opposite of my preference. Sugar-sweet chicken that wasn't spicy at all. The rice was pretty much par for the course, a little dried out. And no fortune cookie in the bag? What's that all about?

Here's how the missing fortune should've read: You will never return to Fu Star Chinese Restaurant.

Grade: D

Cosmo's

Name: Cosmo's
Location: 652 Riverside Dr., Johnson City, NY 13790
Phone: (607) 770-0107
Cuisine: Italian/Pizza/Sandwiches/Subs
Price: Less than $10 per person

Review:
Cosmo's is in a strange little location, at the corner of Riverside Dr. and Grand Ave. in Johnson City, almost literally underneath the Route 201 overpass and not far from the legendary Traffic Circle. It's kind of a strange restaurant in the sense that it is really more like three restaurants in one. There is a small sit-down portion, an even smaller carry-out entrance, and a "tiki bar" in back. We used to go to the Tiki Bar quite often back in the day a few years ago. It was a pretty nice space to just chill out, have a few beers, and throw peanut shells on the floor and maybe order some wings or some "sizzle fries." Then the Flood of 2006 came around. Cosmo's, and that little neighborhood of Westover in general, was hit pretty hard, and they were forced to close for awhile, and in the meantime we found some other places to go and never made it back. So I don't think I had tried anything from their "regular" menu until today, when I stopped into the carry-out to get some lunch.

The menu at Cosmo's is part-Italian, part pub fare. They have Italian dishes like Chicken Parmigiana and Lasagna, in addition to pizza available in 16" round and rectangular sheet varieties, or you can get individual slices. They also have the burgers, sandwiches, fried snacks, and wings like you'd expect to see in a bar environment.

I stopped in and ordered a slice of pepperoni pizza and an Italian sub, with the plan to eat the pizza while the sub was being made. I'd always been a little interested in trying the pizza, and as it turns out, I really liked it. This was one of the better New York-style slices I've had in the area. In terms of crust, sauce, and cheese, I found it to be most similar to Grande's of all the pizza that I have had, which I consider the benchmark for good pizza of that style. The menu advertises a 16" round pizza with 12 slices for a mere $8.50, which is definitely an offer I will be exploiting at some point in the near future, as football season rolls around and I begin to entertain guests again.

The sub was quite a bit less successful, in my mind. The bread was nice and fresh and the toppings (lettuce/tomato/onion/provolone/sub sauce) appeared in good ratios but the meat was mediocre. I think it was just regular salami instead of the usual blend of meats, and it did not taste all fresh. I ate a little more than half the sub before disposing of the rest. Not a good sub, and certainly not one I would order again.

So Cosmo's, in the end, was pretty average for me today. I can recommend the pizza wholeheartedly. $1.25 per slice plus $0.25 per topping is a really good deal, and $8.50 for a huge 16" pizza is among the best pizza deals you'll find in the area. Plus, it's really good pizza. Surprisingly good, really. The sub, on the other hand, was below average, but you win some, you lose some. Service was quick and polite, and even though I haven't been there in a long while, I can say that the Tiki Bar is a nice little hangout that few people seem to know about. I'll give a conservative grade for now, but a few good pizzas from now, this mark could stand to go up a fair bit.

Grade: B-