Live, from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night starring this week’s host, Chai Cuisine with special guest stars, Michelle, Souk, Chai, Pam and Jay! And now please welcome this week’s host, Chai Cuisine!
Okay, I’m meeting Michelle here at Chai Cuisine on Main Street for tonight’s Saturday ngiht meal. We’ve corresponded via facecrack and we were going to meet here for lunch, but our schedules are kind of opposite, so we decided that a Saturday night would work out best to meet here and check it out...
Here’s Michelle pulling up in her car, captured by the MBIP Action Camera! Great to finally meet her in person after chatting online for a while! Okay, the sign says open and normally we’d enter, but...
I’m a little distracted by this golden cat in the corner of the window. I'm trying to decide if he’s waving or getting ready to smell his own armpit to see if he’s properly deodorized for this Saturday evening. And look at the mountain of coins he’s sitting on, I have to admit, I could look at him all evening, but we must keep things rolling here, so goodbye Distracto-Cat!
And it’s in we go, as yet another Saturday night starts to unfold here on MBIP!
Chai Cuisine is nice and cozy inside and it’s decorated nicely and has an inviting feel to it the minute you walk in. check out the East meets West scene with an Asian fellow getting ready to bow to a blue pumpkin. And there’s Souk, looking pretty as always greeting us as we enter. Souk is the co-owner here along with...
Her Dad, Chai! Chai does a lot of the cooking in here and we’ll be sampling some of that soon!
Michelle and I decided to sit back here in this corner table and there’s Michelle seated opposite from myself and the ever-present MBIP Camera! She’s looking very pretty tonight and she’s just moved back to Peoria about a half a year ago, so we had a nice conversation about moving back to P-town after living away for many years. I’m glad to report that both of us are happy to be back here!
Okay, time to order our Saturday night dinner, as you can see, there’s a lot of selections here on the menu and there’s even more on the other side! There’s both Chinese and Thai selections available on the extensive menu.
Souk took our order so I wandered around to take some pictures of Chai Cuisine. I love the embossed brass art on the walls and there’s some specials available every day. I really like the oval doorway in the back that leads to the kitchen area.
There was a big birthday party going on in the middle of the restaurant so I had to get a photo of the festive table. I didn’t get any names, but the birthday boy is seated down at the end of the table. Happy birthday to you!
Meanwhile, back at our table, here’s Souk’s sister Pam bring us a plate of appetizers. We got egg rolls and crab rangoon and they look so good! The egg rolls were really tasty and the crab rangoon were equally delicious! So far dinner is off to wonderous beginning!
The portions here are so generous, it took both Pam and Souk to deliver them! Very beautiful and the food looks really good too!
I ordered the Mongolian Beef and Michelle got the Orange Chicken and we shared both dishes and the food here is amazing. You can read more about the meal in the review below, but it was a very tasty and satisfying meal and I have to say, I love the way the fried rice is shaped into a perfect ball in a bowl! I almost hated to dig into it, but after staring at it for a while I couldn’t resist, plus I didn’t want Michelle to think I was too much of a weirdo for obsessing over a ball of rice...but it is very impressive looking!
Dinner was so good and afterwards, Souk brought her son over to say hi! He’s a really cute kid and you can see he takes after his mom!
Thank you, Chai Cuisine and we love you too! Thanks to Souk, Chai and Pam for great food, service and friendly hospitality and thanks to Michelle for meeting and having dinner with me! It was a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing you again soon! We’ll see all of you tomorrow!
We started off with combination plate of appetizers consisting of egg rolls and crab rangoon. The egg rolls were crispy and filled with delicious ingredients inside but I think the star of the appetizer show was the crab rangoon! They were really crispy on the outside and inside the crab and cheese filling was rich, hot, creamy and so delicious!
Michelle and I each ordered an entree for the main course and split them, Michelle chose the Orange Chicken and I ordered the Mongolian Beef. Both dishes were really tasty. The Mongolian Beef was spicy with juicy pieces of beef intermingling with cooked onions, peppers and crisp vegetables. It was so good and so was the Orange Chicken. The chicken had a slightly sweet taste with an undercurrent of spice coming through as well and the chicken was plump and juicy and prepared to perfection. And the fried rice came in a perfect ball in a bowl, just as much fun to look at as it was to eat!
SN Rating
Three and a half Galloping Gourmets—If you like Asian food, Chai Cuisine has both Chinese and Thai delicacies on the menu and all are freshly prepared as you order. The service is great and it’s really a nice and cozy place to have dinner or lunch on Main Street!
Chai Cuisine
1219 W Main Street
Peoria
309-637-1104
Related Posts: Thyme Kitchen + Craft Bar, Judge’s Chamber and The Silver Bullet in East Peoria.
--------------------------
The Last Of The September Festival Of Birthdays!
We’ve had a whole month of birthday wishes here on MBIP and last night was the last September birthday to be celebrated, even though it’s October now! My brother Tom’s birthday was last week and we celebrated it last night! At the top is his birthday cake, from Trefzger’s of course and below is the birthday party, top row from left: Mary Beth, Jerry, Greg, Phil and Tom, the birthday boy! The bottom row is Caylin, Terry and Anne! Happy birthday, Tom and now we can all start getting ready for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas...aaahhhhhh!