East Wall Restaurant Review

As part of a pre-Ozzfest powwow, I was determined to take two of my friends I am going to that event with to Cafe Fu Fu for dinner and socializing. Problem was, we found out the hard way that that fine little establishment is closed on Tuesdays! Aiiieee! And my one friend was fired up to get her some dumplings, too. But given that the plaza Fu Fu is in is on Bellaire Boulevard in Houston, it's a given that we would find another place to eat in that very plaza alone, which has an embarrassment of things including the very natty Dun Huang Supermarket. And after a couple of minutes of walking, we happened upon a very clean, small place near the end of the plaza called East River Restaurant. We were hungry and determined to feed our faces, so we reached a rapid group consensus that this would be The Place. And we were not disappointed.

We were greeted as soon as we entered the place by our hostess, who wasted no time seating us and supplying us with menus and even asked us, did we want silverware or chopsticks? She even went as far as to unwrap our chopsticks and arrange them on our plates, a very hospitable thing. They were well and truly on top of things service wise and were very friendly to us despite us being the only white folks there (always a good sign for authenticity), a good thing that boded well for us. There were the requisite amount of tanks full of live seafood at the back of the restaurant by the kitchen, another good sign as you know if you know your Chinese food.

After a plentiful amount of time choosing our entrees, we settled on Pineapple Fried Rice with BBQ Pork, Ma Pou Tofu with steamed rice, and (my choice) Singapore Style Spicy Noodles (I chose the flat rice noodles as opposed to the thin noodles). All were excellent! To my dumpling-seeking friend's consternation, they did have soup dumplings...as part of the lunch menu. I assured her this would be rectified next time we went out, though. Besides, when the food arrived, all thoughts of those went out of her head as we started eating.

The fried rice was just right and had plentiful bits of pork and pineapple at the perfect point of ripeness--I'd have preferred some soy sauce to make it slightly saltier for my taste, but it was just fine on its own, ultimately. The Ma Pou Tofu was just spicy enough, with slices of jalapeno chilli that were not obtrusive at all--you got an occasional jolt of heat here and there and this was perfect. The tofu was slippery as hell, though; you had to negotiate with your chopsticks very gently to not have it slither and squish all over them. This was a relatively minor issue for us, though, that was easily circumvented. The Singapore noodles were a raging hit, though; well spiced with turmeric, lending it a deliciously earthy scent and color, and studded with all manner of goodies such as fried egg, shrimp, pork, sauteed onion and bell pepper, bean sprouts, chicken...kitchen sink noodles, you might call them. These were so good, one of my friends kept picking and nibbling at them despite her groaning about how full she was! I had to literally push the plate away from her!

Then we were each given, to our pleasant surprise, a complimentary small bowl of sweet red bean soup for dessert that was a perfect ending statement. It was sweet, but not overbearingly so and we loved it. It was a perfect foil to the savory and earthy and spicy food we'd just eaten and we left very happy as well as full to the gills. And at just shy of $30 for three people, this was very easy on the pocket book too. If ever you are in the area, this place is at 9889 Bellaire and is well worth seeking out!