MOUNTAINVIEWVOICE QRESTAURANT REVIEW We ekend QMOVIE TIMES QBEST BETS FOR ENTERTAINMENT Family-owned casual Srasa Kitchen delivers fresh pan-Asian cuisine in an increasingly crowded market review by Elena Kadvany photos by Veronica Weber Q RESTAURANTREVIEW he New York Times declared ear- lier this month that “understaffed T‘fast-casual’ restaurants — frozen yogurt, cupcake and tea shops; pokÈ bars; and salad stations where customers order from the counter” are increasingly replacing mom-and-pop restaurants in Silicon Valley. Mountain View’s Srasa Kitchen would seemingly fall into that category. Cus- tomers order at a counter from menus displayed on flat-screen TVs and watch employees compile their customizable pan-Asian bowls from an assembly line of ingredients. They’re left to their own devices when it comes to service — get your own plastic silverware, chopsticks, Sriracha sauce or water. Yelp- ers compare Srasa to another local Asian- fusion fast-casual chain, Asian Box, and to Mexican food chain Chipotle. Yet Srasa Kitchen is family-owned and argu- ably still a mom-and-pop restaurant, just wearing different clothes. Srasa Kitchen is a family-run entry into the burgeoning fast-casual Continued on next page restaurant market. Its Bankok bowl tops brown rice with lemongrass chicken, charred corn, green beans, red curry sauce, papaya salad and fresh herbs. September 30, 2016 Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q 21 Weekend Albert and Brandon Poon, father-and-son co-owners of Srasa Kitchen, prepare a customer’s meal at their E. Middlefield Road location in Mountain View. Continued from previous page choose from pre-set combi- nations or build their own The Poon family operated Asian-fusion bowls by drawing Express 7, a fast-food Chinese on an array of fresh Cambo- restaurant, for 17 years at an dian, Thai, Vietnamese and Toppings are at the ready for custom-made bowls at Srasa Kitchen. aging Middlefield Road shop- Chinese ingredients. (Srasa ping center before closing to means “fresh” in the Cambodi- the lemongrass and garlic are wood paneling and diners hold- daikon and carrot stood out in open a new concept, Srasa an language Khmer.) The curry ground in-house. It’s the kind ing chopsticks in one hand and freshness and flavor; I wouldn’t Kitchen. At Srasa, diners can sauces are made from scratch, of stuff Brandon Poon’s mother, iPhone in the other. It must order any bowl without them. a native of Cambodia who be due to the food, which has For sauce, I went with soy opened Express 7 with her a higher-quality and more ginger, served on the side, Hong Kong-native husband, authentic taste than other fast- which was good but got some- THE used to cook for him at home, casual chains. what lost in the crowd of of Best of VOICE he said in an interview. A D.I.Y. bowl with half brown other ingredients. Happy Hour MOUNTAIN VIEW The ingredients are all locally rice, half “fresh salad mix” (an Build-your-own bowls start 4pm-9pm Sun-Thurs 2016 sourced, the is menu friendly to undressed cabbage mixture) at $8.95, with some proteins +TIZSM¼[*]ZOMZ[̆ WЄ vegans and gluten-free diners, topped with grilled lemongrass and toppings costing extra. .ZMVKP.ZQM[̆ WЄ and the prices are affordable, chicken, charred corn, zuc- Customers start by choosing WЄIVaLQVVMZ Poon said. chini, sauteed kale, cilantro, from several bases (cold ver- • Kids 12 & under - buy 1 get 1 free* This combination has clearly pickled daikon and carrots, micelli noodles, white jasmine *item from kids menu of equal or lessersser value paid off. About a year in, there’s slices of fresh cucumber, bean or brown rice and the cabbage NOW HIRING a line out the door at lunchtime sprouts, a lime wedge and salad mix; you can also go half applications @clarkes.com th year and Restaurant on weekdays at the Middlefield homemade kimchi (an extra 50 and half on two options), then 70 Road location, and the fam- cents) was extremely satisfy- move to the proteins. There’s ANNIVERSARY! ily opened a second outpost on ing. The restaurant’s name is the grilled chicken as well as restaurant-heavy Castro Street an apt descriptor. The strips pork and chicken meatballs, Open 7 days Clarkes.com this summer. of chicken were tender with a eight-hour roasted pork belly, Lunch & Dinner 11am-9pm; Fri ’til 10pm The original location still nice char and complemented, grilled beef short ribs and tofu. Breakfast on Weekends 8am-2pm manages an authentic feel, but not overwhelmed, by the Then you go wild with toppings MountainMountain ViewView • 615615 W. El Camino Real • (650) 967-0851 despite the TV-screen menus, many toppings. The pickled and sauces. The Jean and Bill Lane The Girls’ Middle School Lecture Series 2016–2017 3400 West Bayshore Road Palo Alto, CA 94303 650.968.8338 x133 www.girlsms.org Presents Colum McCann [email protected] Reading MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2016, 8:00 PM CUBBERLEY AUDITORIUM SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 485 LASUEN MALL STANFORD UNIVERSITY OPEN Author of the National Book Award-winning novel, HOUSES © Matt Valentine Let the Great World Spin Sunday, “Mesmerizing…brilliant…symphonic…If God is in the details, then McCann is surely Oct. 9th, 1–4 pm close to heaven.” — St. Petersburg Times Saturday, FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Dec. 3rd, 1–4 pm INFORMATION: 650.723.0011 HTTP://CREATIVEWRITING.STANFORD.EDU Sponsored by Stanford University’s Creative Writing Program 22 Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q September 30, 2016 Weekend Q DININGNOTES Srasa Kitchen 225 E. Middlefield Road #2 and 292 Castro St., Mountain View 650-960-7100 srasakitchen.com Hours: Both locations, Mon. – Fri., 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Castro Street open Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. Credit Cards Takeout Outdoor seating The Cambo bowl tops vermicelli Wheelchair noodles with roasted pork belly, access seasonal vegetables, crispy shallots Srasa Kitchen’s Cali bowl is crispy tofu atop salad, sauteed kale and charred corn, with a tamarind sauce and Parking Lot and a soft-boiled egg. pickled daikon radish and carrots. (Middlefield Road) Street One of Srasa’s suggested been sitting around for too long. the green curry, the most spicy ibly difficult to operate a res- (Castro Street) “inspired bowls,” the “Cali” Good thing the fresh ingredi- of three curry sauces. taurant in Silicon Valley, and Noise level variable ($9) comes with the mixed cab- ents dressed it up. Drinks include home-brewed the Midpeninsula’s restaurant bage base, tofu, charred corn, The roasted pork belly in the teas, lemonade, horchata, sodas, rows — namely Castro Street Bathroom good sauteed kale, zucchini, seasonal “Cambo” bowl ($12.25, with local beers and ciders. and University Avenue in Cleanliness vegetables (which last week was vermicelli noodles, seasonal Service is minimal, given the Palo Alto — are increasingly cauliflower), cilantro, cucum- vegetables, papaya salad, cilan- setup, but it was friendly and populated by chains. He said “Changing to Srasa was kind bers, pickled daikon and car- tro, bean sprouts, cucumbers, efficient on all visits. Despite his family decided to close the of our way to at least still pro- rots, all topped with a tamarind crispy onions, Thai chiles, hard- the lunchtime rush at the Mid- burgers-and-baos focused res- vide a mom-and-pop, local sauce. At the new Castro Street boiled egg and a lime, topped dlefield Road location, the line taurant, Buffalo, and replace business — just to stay com- location on a recent evening, with a green curry sauce) is moves quickly — a perk of the it with another Srasa in part petitive,” he said. “It was worth what’s advertised as “crispy” served as flavorful cubes, crispy assembly-line model. because a large burger chain, the change.” V tofu was nowhere near that. It on the outside and tender on the Poon said The New York Eureka!, was set to open down Email Elena Kadvany at was limp and bland, like it had inside. They paired well with Times got it right: It’s incred- the block. [email protected]. Classes Now is begin Sept. 26 the time! 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