Mai Village - St. Paul

Mai Village is located on University Ave in St. Paul, which is well populated with Asian restaurants. Mr. C and I debated between lunch at Little Szechaun or the neighboring Mai Village, and eventually settled on Mai Village.

The entrance and interior of Mai Village is very appealing. Upon entering, you walk over a little bridge that passes over a gorgeous koi pond. The dining space is spacious and airy. We were seated, and started to look at a well worn menu. Around 10 minutes later, I had to pull the waiter over and ask for beverages. Unacceptable in my book. Anyhow, we went on and ordered the spring rolls for an appetizer. I found the menu to be a little generic, but had some interesting choices (seven courses of beef, cornish game hens.) We waited around 10 minutes, and our spring rolls came. I didn't take a pic, because spring rolls look the same. Unfortunatly, these were among the worst I've had. The wrapping was firm in some places, and there was no depth or balance to the flavors. Moving on, we decided to order the Sauteed Pork with Ginger Sauce (me) and the Beef Over Fried Potatoes (Mr. C.) I asked what vegetables came in my pork dish, and he stated mushrooms and onions were included. I asked if he could please leave them out, and he said that was not possible, so 11 red alarms went off in my head about that.

Pork w/ Ginger Sauce

Overall very dissapointed with this dish. For one, it came out steaming, but it was lukewarm (can we say: microwave?) and it had way too many water chestnuts. I LOVE water chestnits, but I got like 5 of them in every bite. The pork was dry and thin, and the sauce was not spicy or very ginger-ey.

Beef Over Fried Potato

This was a little better. It came out with the same weird steaming-but-lukewarm thing, but overall it was savory and the potatoes were somewhat crispy. One credit I will give them is the chili sauce that is on the table. I don't know what brand it is, but that stuff is HOT. I loved it.

So after we were finished, I had to grab a waiter to ask for a to go box. Then he brought the check, and we waited over 10 minutes before we grabbed him again to take our payment. Sorry Mai Village, but I am never coming back. Next time, i am going to Little Szechaun.


http://www.maivillage.net/