the wok asian restaurant

do you like salt?. i decided to try this restaurant out one sunday due to the fact that my favorite vietnamese restaurant was closed. i ordered three vermicelli noodle dishes for my family, as well as an extra order of vietnamese rolls and cold/salad rolls.

the meals themselves were alright, nothing really special but nothing really wrong with them either. the vietnamese rolls were different than most other places i have tried, but once again they were just ok and nothing special. the cold/salad rolls were not good at all.

the rice paper that the cold/salad rolls were wrapped in were tough. it was like they had either not been hydrated enough before they were used or they were dehydrated after having been wrapped.

the peanutsaucethat was given to dip the cold/salad rolls in was really nothing more than soyasaucewith some crushed peanuts mixed in. this was by far the worst peanutsaucei have ever had. similarly the fishsaucethat waa given to use for the vermicelli and the vietnamese rolls was very high in salt content. in addition to that the flavor was unlike any fishsaucei have ever had before.

i am at this point recommending that if you like vietnamese dishes, like the ones i have described, you do not attempt them at this restaurant. i can not speak to other dishes they have, some of the cuisine may be very good. if on the other hand you are in favor of overloading on your salt content in one meal, look no further.

absolutely one of the most disappointing places to order from in saskatoon for asian food. ---------- if you want quality and flavour this is one place to avoid..... if flavorless and bland are words you like to describe your food, you may just like this place. the spring rolls are flavorless, the traditionalsaucethat comes with the spring rolls is just watered down fish sauce... no tang, no spice, no flavour. the hot and sour soup lacked everything in its name... no sour.. no hot.... the soup just had texture with no flavour. the sweet and sour lean pork is just deep fried pieces of dry pork with almost nosauceon them. it was as if they just spooned a few dribbles ofsauceover the meat. one would expect the meat to actually be tossed in sauce.... not rationed out with a small spoon hardly hitting all the pieces. the steamed pork roll (summer roll) was dry and had a sliver of a pork slice with about 95% of the roll being rice noodles (flavourless seems to be a theme here). one thing that did not lack flavour but was sadly overpowered by one flavour was the war wonton soup.... pretty much a chinese 5 spice overkill. the lemon chicken was good at least. overall very disappointing... very flavourless and lacking in quality. those who claim "best asian food saskatoon". must eat plain rice and water for every meal.

this place will never see me again. the absolute worst soup i have ever experienced. when i told the server, this broth is to salty, she offered to water it down. it was straight soysauceas broth. mushy disgusting spaghetti noodles. 2 small shavings of beef, 3 slivers of pork. no veggies with mushy noodles and so salty unable to eat. do not wast your money or time showing up here! better off making ichiban at home loaded with soysaucethen to eat here. i posted a picture to show you what you actually receive!!! after the server brought back my soup from the water down process. it was still soysaucewith mushy noodles. i told her and the owner that i could not eat the soup, they shrugged and gave me a bill. i paid the bill. but thought i have to tell you enter at your own risk! bathrooms were dirty water glasses well i should have taken a picture of how dirty they were. the server said, well we use cold water to wash the glasses and that is why they are dirty. seriously man...ohhh my i cant believe people actually eat here more than once!!!

good fast asian food. love going here for vietnamese food if i'm in a hurry. the service and food is fast and great. sometimes the fishsauceis a little salty but they do have my favorite spring rolls.

better than last time. came again and this time the speed was much quicker and the food quality was still quite high. getting a seat is difficult especially considering how understaffed they are. service also takes a negative hit because of this.

but the food is still very well done.


-----24 jul, 2012-----

overall experience was very poor. it's been a while since my last review, but tonight's experience has woken a sleeping bear.

the wok is severely understaffed, with the same two servers working all the tables as well as the till. the line up to be seated was not a result of a full dining room, but because of a combination of many tables with dirty dishes yet to be cleared and a till busy with people trying to pay.

i timed the whole experience.

it took 6 minutes to get seated at one of the many empty tables. i ordered the vermicelli bowl that came with beef, two springs rolls, and "jumbo shrimp" (back on this later).

it took 29 complete minutes before i got my food. being alone, there was only so much conversation i could hold with the bottle of sriracha hotsaucebefore i started going 'non compos mentis'. when an older lady (owner?) asked if i'd ordered and i replied with "i ordered a half hour ago", hell did break loose in the kitchen. not once during this entire 29-minute-ordeal did someone come to fill my glass of water nor see how my conversation with the hotsaucewas going.

the actual bowl of noodles tasted good, although i was disappointed that when the menu said "jumbo shrimp", they literally meant "a single shrimp laying alone on top of your noodles". the extra $2 for this seafood extravaganza was not worth it and i suggest ordering any one of the other, cheaper bowls that come without that extra solitary shrimp.

this experience may have been an anomaly, but it was bad enough that i had to write about it. full groups of 6 even came after me, ordered and received their full orders before i had a sniff of mine. compared to my past experiences at the wok, i've never had service so terrible and ignorant.

ps - did you know that a teaspoon of srirachasaucehas 5 calories and is all naturally coloured? believe me, i'd know.


-----28 nov, 2010-----

will come more often. a group of us (8) came here today (sunday) for lunch with the hopes of having some good vietnamese food. upon walking into the wok asian restaurant, my first impression was how small the dining area was. at most, the restaurant could probably hold around 50 people, so our one group took up a good portion of the dining space. the decor was clean, tasteful, and well put together.

our drink orders arrived first. most of us ordered the three bean drink, which is a cold, light-green concoction, with a mixture of some beans and a jelly-like substance at the bottom. at first, i thought this was some sort of witty joke by the chefs, as today is, after all, grey cup sunday. but alas, upon further investigation, my friend informed me that even though the green hue is normal, it's normally not that noticeable. it's a drink that is quite sweet, making me wish i ordered it as a dessert item. one peeve that i had was the excess ice, which made it difficult to spoon out the beans without getting chunks of ice in your mouth (i ended up transferring all of the ice into my water cup). secondly, the straw was too thin, making it difficult to sip the drink without having red beans clogging the straw. besides these things, the drink was pretty good.

actual food began arriving roughly 15 minutes after ordering. first thing down my ever-expanding gullet was the spicy beef and pork noodle soup (#21). being a spin-off of the traditional pho, i enjoyed this quite a bit. being a spicy fan, the noodles and perfect amount of meat complimented each other. the bbq pork chow mein (#61) was also quite good, albeit slightly oily. besides the fact that the noodles glistened in the sunshine and the bbq pork a tad dry, it tasted good enough for me to ignore these minor inconveniences.

round two: stomach is still wanting more. so next i tried the curried bean curd and vegetables (#39), which is simply stir-fried vegetables with cubes of bean curds. personally, i found all of the vegetables ever-so-slightly undercooked, but everybody else seemed to like it. the curry complimented the beef fried rice (#68) very nicely. eating the curry alone with a spoon would prove too powerful of a taste, but when mixed with the run-of-the-mill fried rice, it all balanced out.

almost everyone's favorite dish was the beef rice noodle soup (#16), which is pretty much what every other restaurant would call "pho" (pronounced "phuh", as i learned today). the noodles were cooked perfectly and not chopped up, the cooks didn't skimp out on the beef, and the portion was huge. we were happy with this choice. is it the best 'pho' in town? not quite, but it's pretty close!

my least favorite dish was the seafood hot pot (#49). it wasn't the 'taste' of the seafood that i didn't like, but simply the difficulty in 'finding the seafood' amidst all of the vegetables. if i'm paying for something with the name "seafood hot pot", i expect a hot pot with mostly seafood inside. if i hadn't double-checked, then i would have thought they gave us "vegetable hot pot with-a-dash-of-seafood." until this is fixed, avoid it.

i'm split on the service. the young woman who initially was serving us (late teens, early 20s) seemed disconnected from the customers and was maybe mentally "somewhere else." now, i'm not the kind of guy who demands all 32 teeth to be gleaming when i'm being served, but even a little smile wouldn't hurt. also, i don't recall her every coming back to refill our water glasses. ever. on the other hand, the older lady (possibly owner) who gave us our food was extremely nice and hospitable.

during our whole dining experience, every other table was always filled, and people were always at the front door waiting for seats. obviously people know that there is good food here, and i don't blame them. for around $8 for a very full stomach, why would someone pass an opportunity like this? overall: the wok serves pretty good (not great) asian food for a fantastic price. i will come back.

the salad roll filling was very good, but the wrap was very chewy. the peanutsaucecomplimented it nicely though. the spring rolls were almost the opposite. i really liked the crunch, but the pork filling wasn't on point that day. the vermicelli here was good, but the portion was small in comparison to the previous restaurants i had gone to. in their defence, their meals are more affordable! sorry for the photo of the vermicelli too, it doesn't do it justice. it was uneaten but it was mixed up already.

special fried rice. try the special fried rice and currysaucethe wok does great food and fast service

not too bad. we ordered delivery from the wok for the first time and it was not too bad. the food was hot when it came, which we haven't always had that experience with delivery. the sweet and soursaucewas one of the better ones that we have tried. overall, we would order from here again. decent food for not a bad price.