Red Moon Chinese Café – Eden Prairie, MN

I needed a mental break at work, so I went out to lunch by myself. Get some reading done in the peace and quiet. Since it was close to an ATM I use, I went to the Red Moon Chinese Café. Didn’t know anything about it, no one has recommended it, and I didn’t have a ton of money to spend. Plus it’s in a strip mall and I’m apparently on some mission to hit all the strip mall restaurants in the Twin Cities based on my previous posts.

The inside is very RED. That’s all I’ll say about it. I sat down and checked out the menu. There were some traditional things and some specialties and a cool “build your own lunch combo” thing, which looks pretty appealing if you already know what you like. Since I didn’t, I opted for the lunch buffet. It wasn’t a huge buffet, but weirdly, I completely filled my plate, so they must have had everything that I usually like on this thing. Go RMCC!

Here’s a rough breakdown of the food I ate:

• BBQ Riblets: Meh. Kind of bland. Not terrible, but not great either.
• Beef Broccoli: Really good. Beef was nice and tender and the veggies were crunchy and flavorful.
• Chicken Green Beans: Really good. Great white meat pieces of chicken in a peppery sauce with perfectly cooked green beans.
• Sesame Chicken: Meh. Again, the sauce was bland. I couldn’t tell if I was eating the ribs or the sesame chicken at various points.
• Rice Noodle Chicken Soup: Very watery and missing some flavor. I could see pieces of chicken in it, but couldn’t taste them. It tasted like really watered down chicken broth with some noodles.
• Cream Cheese Puffs: Average. They were fine, but didn’t wow me.
• Egg Roll: Meh. But I say that because it was very cinnamon-y, and I’m not a fan of sweetened egg rolls.
• Sweet & Sour Pork: Not good. Very mushy breading and the sauce was much more bland than I’ve had in the past.
• Water: not good. Tasted kind of a cross between chlorine and fish tank water. Honestly, it was a really bad taste. I almost ordered a soda so I could have something to drink.

It’s kind of disappointing the best dishes were the ones with the least ingredients and the least amount of work – those were right on the mark though, truly. Anything labeled as spicy was significantly NON-spicy, so you know. I might not go here again, unless my work people want to go there. It wasn’t the best Chinese food I’ve ever had. I’m not really a buffet guy either, so that doesn’t help their odds. On the upside, my fortune cookie message was completely non-ghey this time.

Top 5 things about Red Moon Chinese Café
1. Chicken Green Beans
2. Beef Broccoli
3. Super quality service
4. Really cheap
5. Quiet relaxing lunch

Bottom 5 things
1. Really bad water (this should never be in the bottom 5 anywhere)
2. Sweet & Sour Pork
3. Rice Noodle Chicken Soup
4. Egg rolls
5. Sheer amount of RED

redmoonchinesecafe.com‎