Pretty good food

The food reviewer is recovering from the removal of wisdom teeth. The arts and lifestyle editor is trying to write several stories at once. Therefore, as the backup to the backup food reviewer, I am called on for duty.

It was Wednesday. Kelley Lang and I were starving, and David Robert, our photographer/restaurant connoisseur extraordinaire, had stopped by to drop off some photos. He was hungry, too, but this is a normal thing for David. He mentioned a new Chinese restaurant that he likes, and we were off.

We fought the traffic at the evil, cretinous intersection of Moana and Kietzke lanes to make our way to the Blue Sky Restaurant. As we entered the restaurant, I noticed how small the place was. There are 10 tables, and one of those is reserved for people to sit and wait for their take-out orders.

Kelley decided she was feeling soupy, so she told the server she’d like the wonton soup ($4.75). Our waitress took the unusual step of discouraging Kelley from ordering that, and urged her to order the wor wonton soup ($5.75) instead, because it has more in it and it tastes better. Kelley decided to take the waitress’ advice.

David went for the moo goo chicken lunch special ($4.25) and requested that it be made extra spicy. I ordered the cashew chicken lunch special ($4.25), hold the bell peppers. We all decided to split an appetizers combo ($5.75), which consisted of egg rolls, fried prawns, fried wontons, barbecued spare ribs and paper chicken (marinated chicken wrapped in foil).

As Kelley and David bantered, I looked around. Blue Sky was nice and clean. They are also apparently very proud of a review that another publication did on them recently, as it was on the wall in at least two places and was laminated under the glass table coverings at some tables, including ours.

As we waited for the appetizers, we discussed the interesting Chinese zodiac placemats, which explained each of the 12 years in the Chinese zodiac cycle. My birth year, 1975, was the year of the rabbit. About that year, the placemat read: “Luckiest of all signs, you are also talented and articulate. Affectionate, yet shy, you seek peace throughout your life. Marry a sheep or a boar. Your opposite is the cock.”

As I sat pondering what in the world this placemat meant, the appetizers arrived. We sampled the various items and agreed that everything was pretty good. The prawns were tasty, and the paper chicken was delicious. The wontons, the barbecued spare ribs and the egg roll were merely decent.

Our main courses quickly arrived. Kelley’s soup, which was huge, was chock full of wontons, pork, shrimp, chicken and a variety of vegetables. She pronounced it “pretty good.” I tried it and agreed; it could have had a bit more zing.

David was dismayed that his moo goo chicken was not spicy as he ordered it. He said it was “pretty good,” and was impressed with the chicken’s tenderness. My cashew chicken was also “pretty good.” The chicken pieces were tender and juicy, but the pieces were not as numerous as I would have liked. Celery pieces made up the majority of the dish.

That’s what it comes down to at Blue Sky: "pretty good" food. But there is a lot of "pretty good" Chinese food around here—meaning that Blue Sky will need to kick the food up a notch in order to be more than simply average.