Located on Washington Avenue, Sidewalk Kitchen is a local Chinese restaurant on campus. It can be found next to Bona Vietnamese cuisine and stadium village mall. Rated 4.2 stars on google, it seems like a good restaurant for students looking for Asian cuisine. The menu is filled with numerous options with different types of meat (chicken, pork and beef), vegetable options, seafood, pan fried noodles and rice. I found this restaurant from a friend who was working to find the best restaurants on campus and he deemed Sidewalk Kitchen to be in the top five Asian restaurants he has tried so far. He mentioned his appreciation in the amount of variety on the menu and enjoyed the small, local environment.
Inside the building there are two restaurants shared, Bona Vietnamese cuisine on the left and Sidewalk kitchen on the right. When you walk inside it is dimly lit and the walls and floor are a dark wood. The ambience of the restaurant is comfortable but also fancy. When walking from the outside I wasn’t expecting the interior to be as nice as it was. Around the restaurant there are beautiful pictures of different Chinese destinations. n my opinion it would make a great place for a date with the dim lighting and the evening-like ambience. Even during the daytime, once you step inside of the restaurant it is still a calm and peaceful environment. While sitting in the restaurant you can also see the kitchen and watch your food being cooked from a distance. With the noises of the kitchen, it’s truly a fully immersive experience.
I ordered number fifty-four on the menu, Teriyaki chicken over a rice bowl. When asking for suggestions the staff was extremely helpful and provided a variety of options. The service was extremely fast, as I got my food in under twenty minutes. The chicken was cooked perfect to my liking and the flavor was amazing. The sauce itself mixed really well into the rice so instead of just eating chicken and white rice, the sauce from the chicken made the rice just as equally flavored. There was plenty of chicken in the bowl and the portions were large. I ate a large portion and still had plenty to spare! Even eating it as leftovers, heated up in the microwave, it was just as good as eating it for the first time in the restaurant. The food came out hot and ready, and paired with the amazing environment, it was a great experience. Overall, I was able to enjoy an amazing meal and also enjoy a calming atmosphere.
When talking to an employee I asked them what their favorite food items were, to which they responded, “my favorite is the beef brisket pot.” They indicated that “the most popular food items on the menu are the princess fried rice and the golden fried garlic sole filet.” The golden fried garlic sole filet also allows for multiple options of rice (steamed or fried) or lo mein. Lastly, I asked when they are most busy, they said, “we don’t really know when to expect a crowd, it’s not the same everyday because around here are a lot of students.”
Overall, Sidewalk Kitchen while on the pricier side, is worth it because of the environment and the quality of food. I would heavily recommend it if you are looking for a good asian restaurant to go on a date, family visit or even just with friends! If you do want to avoid a possible crowd I would recommend making a reservation if you are going on the weekends or a friday night. Otherwise if you want something quick to eat, Sidewalk Kitchen also has an online ordering system!
