Today I had lunch with a friend at the Regent Cafe in Bellevue. It’s next to the Arby’s on 152nd, near both the Malay Satay Hut and Jeem’s Chinese Restaurant. Though I’m not at all shy about my dislike of the Eastside as a place to live or even spend good amounts of time in, I have to admit that Bellevue and Factoria do have their fair share of quality restaurants, especially in that little nexus right off of 520.
When I got there, the lunch rush was in full force as there wasn’t much room to sit down. The store’s not that big to begin with anyways, it seats about 30 and that’s being generous. Primarily a bubble tea/chinese pastry store, most of the floor space is taken up by a large glass counter filled with various buns and cakes. On the wall is your typical bubble tea menu, large and imposing with only some buns to supplement your visit.
Despite the crowd we get seated fairly quickly, which is good because I’m in somewhat of a rush. I start to peruse through the thin lunch menu. It’s readily apparent that the cafe is serving a Hong Kong style lunch., not unlike other asian bistros such as Purple Dot in the ID. Noodles and cream sauce, pork over rice, tofu hot pots, that sort of thing. I tend to do my small talk as I’m searching for something to order, but nary 5 minutes of shooting the shit pass before the waiter comes by and asks if we’re ready. My friend, being a regular here, is definitely ready. I on the otherhand, somewhat anxious because this is going to be my FIRST FOOD BLOG POST EVER, order the first thing I see.
He gets the Beef with Udon Noodle. (fuzzy picture, sorry)
I get the Beef with Tomato Sauce over Chow Mein (soft noodles). Sorry about the photos, I need to remember to take the time/date off of these pictures.
About 3 seconds after ordering, I spot something else that I’d really like to try but it’s too late. A wave of regret washes over me.
The food comes by really quickly (I’m very pleased about that), and we dig in. The tomato sauce is as expected, slightly flavorful, reminiscent of the water that collects on top of ketchup when it’s been in the fridge for a while. There are real tomato slices in the meal just in case you forgot what the sauce is supposed to taste like. I should’ve gotten the crispy noodles.
My friend’s dish is actually pretty good. It’s like the Home-style shanghai chow mein you get at Chiang’s Gourmet, but instead of handshaven noodles you get Udon noodles (which aren’t all that different in if you think about it). It would be amazing if it had just a little green in it (some green onions would do just fine). I was far more interested in his food than my own.
The meal came out to be about 10 dollars a person after tip. Lunch took about 30 minutes total.
I want to go back and have some tofu hot pot, it looked and sounded a lot more appetizing than what I ordered.
A couple things I learned about my experiences at Regent:
1. Don’t think about the blog when you’re eating. It makes the food taste worse.
2. Find someone with a better camera to take pictures for me.
