Author: jean komatsu
Last saved by: ENU

Khanh Huong Chinese BBQ Restaurant
1707 Lincoln Ave., Alameda, CA
No website/Yelp reviews at: http://www.yelp.com/biz/khanh-huong-chinese-bbq-and-pho-ga-alameda
Review date: September 2011

We chose this restaurant for lunch based on the Yelp reviews. Like many “Chinese” restaurants these days, the menu is Chinese but the execution and ownership is Southeast Asian. 

Located almost a mile out of Alameda's busy downtown Park Street district, “Chinese BBQ”, as its fans call it, is modestly sized but sparkling clean and well laid-out, with a long deli counter where they sell the usual roast ducks, steamed chickens, and roasted/BBQ pork.

Khanh Huong runs a number of specials, both daily and regular menu. Their daily seafood special sounded wonderful, but with only Carlos and me, we couldn’t handle a five-course meal for $29.95, so we had to skip it, sadly – a shame, because we both love lobster lo mein, which was one of the dishes. 

Instead we took advantage of the menu special of three dishes for $19.95 from a generous selection of fifteen of their regular menu items. We chose the ma po tofu, the crispy chicken wings, and the eggplant with roast pork.

The best of the three was the ma po tofu, although we had asked for extra spicy and it really wasn't that hot (as long as you didn't actually eat the green chile pepper rings, LOL). But the sauce had nice depth without excessive saltiness or MSG. We prefer it Chinese style with the custard tofu, but like most places nowadays KH uses the soft tofu which can be cut more neatly into cubes. Using sliced pork instead of the usual ground pork was a nice touch. Both of us really enjoyed this dish.

The chicken wings had the nice addition of chopped toasted garlic and green chile rings, but they were marinated a bit too long in dark soy sauce, making them just a touch too salty and with the taste of molasses. I like dark soy and often combine it at home with oyster sauce, but by itself it has to be used more carefully than Khanh Huong does. The batter was a thick wheat flour crust augmented by cornstarch. Good, but heavy compared to the excellent version done by Yummy Duck/Oakland.

The eggplant with roast pork was the least successful. The sauce was bland, not distinctive enough, and like most pork/eggplant dishes, tended towards the greasy. The pork was not the usual Chinese char siu, but the very fatty, crisp-skinned roast pork that is usually an entire side of a pig, just salted and roasted. It’s very similar in its meat/fat ratio to belly pork. Fortunately it was heavy on the eggplant, which I’m more fond of than Carlos.

Carlos does like this type of roast pork, however, so he ordered separately a pound of the roast pork, sliced and packaged to go, to bring home. However, when we tried it for dinner that night by itself, he felt it wasn't as good as the ones we usually get from Chinese delis. The skin wasn't crispy enough, and it wasn't quite as tasty as some of the others we'd tried.

I ordered a Hong Kong iced tea, made with regular evaporated milk and less sugar, slightly different from the more common Thai iced tea, which uses condensed evaporated milk for a sweeter, creamier drink. It was a hot day, making this less rich version preferable and more refreshing.

Overall, we rated Khanh Huong as slightly better than average, worth a return visit to see whether the rest of the menu is worth the trip over the High Street Bridge. Unfortunately, average Chinese these days is pretty pathetic, so the bar isn’t set very high. And we'll stick the Chinatown delis when Carlos wants more roast pork, LOL.

Two people: Three dish special (we brought a plate of leftovers home), an order of deli roast pork, and a beverage, with tip was $38.