So my colleague & I went out for ""lunch out"" earlier this month, & wanted to try Le Cheval 'cuz their Claypot Rice came highly recommended to her...checked my pocketbook, yeah I could do this =) So we're off for some Vietnamese cuisine.
LOCATION: Downtown Walnut Creek on N.Broadway Blvd with Mt. Diablo Blvd as major cross street. Next to Smith & Hawken furniture/fixture store.
CUST SVC: Warmly greeted & immediately seated. Thorough, polite, & friendly service.
RESTAURANT: Spacious, large, & clean restaurant catering to people of all shapes & sizes, plus handicap friendly. Plenty of natural light from large front windows in front of restaurant to side walk PLUS from the sky lights *KUDOS*. Parking is metered street parking or public garage parking just 1-block up on Duncan Street (Jamba Juice at the corner).
TASTES: Automatically waiter brings over iced water & small bowl of potato soup. I didn't take snapshot, but from all the carrots in the soup, u wouldn't have thought it was potato soup. Brothy, hot, & a simple ok..and yes, I did find some potatoes w/ the carrots. Off the bat, if Thai Ice Tea is on the menu, that's my preferred drink ;-) Sooooo, that was my beverage of choice..yum yum yum! Colleague was recommended from a personal friend to try the Claypot Rice. This was a great recommendation! Claypot keeps everything hot from the rice, prawns, beef, & veggies; the dish itself was very tasty too. I went for the Orange Flavored Chicken w/ Red Rice (red rice is cooked in butter & tomato sauce). This dish was just ok to me, nothing bad nor overly great. Red rice was new & different to me, but something I think all home cooks can prob replicate @ home, u know. Chicken was tasty, but not a strong sense of orange-taste to me. Oh, I THOUGHT I moved all the chili peppers out of the way, scoop what I thought was just chicken when something registered on my pallet ""not chicken, not rice..wait is this a seed""...yep, I chewed up ever so nicely a red chili pepper. The Heat had now entered..thank God for my Thai Ice Tea =) Dish was good & fulfilling; ate only half & took the rest 2go.
FINAL TAB: So I paid $12.57 (including tip just, under $15 bucks) for my drink & lunch item. A lil' pricey for a good lunch, but worked out fine since the lunch portion was stretched for my lunch the next day *tee-hee* That's not necessarily me being frugal either, I've just learned to try & remember it's all about portion control when you eat...at least on this ""ok"" lunch venture ;-)
Pros: Friendly & quick cust svc. Spacious & clean restaurant
Cons: Just a tad pricey
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