I had lunch today at the new Leong’s. There has been plenty of info recently in the media about the Leong family history and fame as the creator of we all have come to know as Springfiel Style Cashew Chicken, so I won’t go into any of that here. I will say that the original Leong’s Tea House was a favorite of my wife’s family. I have great memories of many big group meals at the round table with the Lazy Susan full of Chinese food spinning around – but I digress. This is all about the new Loeng’s Asian Diner.
I think the name should maybe be changed Leong’s Asian and Diner because if you look at the lunch menu you will see both the original Cashew and Sweet & Sour chicken (and a few other Asian dishes) along with diner lunch classics like burgers and Philly Cheese Steaks. The lunch menu also lists a set of daily specials (one for each day except Sunday) – but our server said the daily specials aren’t available just yet. The daily specials were all ‘diner’ choices like pot roast, chicken fried steak, etc… Their Facebook page has the full lunch & dinner menus posted.
I’m going to keep my comments mainly to the food on this write-up. The day of my visit, they’ve only been open 3 days and the kitchen and wait staff are obviously still figuring things out – so comments about service and such wouldn’t be fair.
So on to the food.
My dining companions made selections of Cashew Chicken and Sweet & Sour Chicken (both $6.99 + .50 for all white meat). Knowing I would be able to sample theirs I decided to go the ‘diner’ route and chose a burger based on our server’s recommendation. We ordered some Crab Rangoon ($5.99) for an appetizer to share and my wife ordered a bowl of hot and sour soup. My wife and I also ordered an egg roll each – but they never showed up on the table. Fortunately, they weren’t on the bill either and as it turned out we really didn’t need them anyway.
Crab Rangoon
The 6 Crab Rangoon’s arrived first. (The picture only shows 3 as the first 3 disappeared from the plate before I could get my camera out). The skins were tough and hard to bite through. Not sure why that was – but I’ll conjecture that they didn’t make it out to the table as quickly as they should after leaving their hot oil bath. The filling however, was excellent. These had real crab (not krab) in them and you could actually taste the little crustaceans. The filling was savory unlike the ‘sweet’ variety most other places have. I liked the filling – if the wonton skins had been tender and crispy these would have scored a 10 with me.
My wife reported that the hot and sour soup had a good flavor (I snuck a taste and agreed) but she said it lacked the spicy heat she is used to. It had some body to it with lots of goodies swimming around.
SS Chicken
Cashew Chicken
The Cashew and Sweet & Sour chicken was mostly largish chunks fried up in a light and crispy coating. The chicken was tender and moist. I thought Cashew sauce was a very good rendition with a mild flavor and a light consistency. The Sweet & Sour sauce leans heavily to the sour side of the equation – it had a great tang to it which I enjoyed a lot. This was a nice change from the overly sweet sauce most other places have. The fried rice was disappointing. It was mushy and overcooked. It was like eating Uncle Ben’s (well maybe not that good). It did have some nice stuff tossed in – carrot, peas, onion & pork. An issue of both chicken dishes was that there wasn’t quite enough sauce drizzled over the chicken to go around.
1/2 lb Burger
My ½ pound burger with bacon, smoky cheddar and caramelized onion was very good. The meat was hand pattied, the bacon was thick sliced and the onions were cooked just right. The cook left just a little pink in the middle which avoided the dreaded hockey-puck-patty syndrome – overall a decent burger indeed. The fries weren’t very crispy being a fresh cut variety – as such they were just ok. Even though this is a good burger – at $9.50 I didn’t think it was $2 better than the $7.50 Full Ride at Grad School – especially when you consider the superior fries the Grad School offers.
Inside, the basic layout of the place hasn’t changed too much from the previous 2 incarnations (Charlie’s Chicken and Tortilla’s – I still miss Tortilla’s a lot). They have managed to erase the previous décor with a simple and elegant interior of light green, red and black. There is a cool glass topped bamboo-themed partition separating the dining room from the bar area. The occupancy sign says 99 people max – but that must include the wait staff as well. The dining room is not all that big and given the hype about the opening – I expect there to be long waits to get in. We arrived a little after 1pm and had a 20 minute wait. When we left about 2:30 there were still people waiting for a table.
Finding a place to wait will be problematic during busy times – there is a very small area inside by the reception desk and then some space between the inner & outer doors. Add people coming and going and things get pretty crowded. I think they should look at some buzzer coaster things if they continue getting the crowds I saw today – that way you can wait outside when the weather is nice or in your car when it isn’t.
The other thing that I found curious was the pay-at-the-register-when-you-leave process. I wonder if trying to emulate the ‘diner’ aspect of the place may have led to that decision, but it is absolutely the wrong thing to be doing in my opinion. I don’t expect or want to wait in a line to get out of a restaurant where the burgers cost $9.50 and you can order a $26 filet & lobster dinner. I hope they reconsider that decision and let one pay at the table.
So, is Leong’s an Asian restaurant, a diner or maybe something different? Well, there are some diners in town that serve sweet & sour chicken – usually without a lot of success. There aren’t any Asian places I’m aware of that serve $19 Ribeyes, Chicken Fried Steak or Pasta. My guess is that Leong’s really wants to be an up scale American food restaurant – but they really couldn’t have that name in this town and not serve Cashew Chicken and some other Asian favorites.
I will return for dinner after they’ve been open a while and report back on that.
1540 W Republic Rd– (417) 887-7500
Bob: Thanks for the review.
How does the Chinese food at Leong’s compare to Yen Ching in Ozark? Do you have a favorite between the two?
I really like Yen Ching in Ozark, but I do think it’s on the expensive side for Chinese, and I noticed from the menu that Leong’s is even higher priced than Yen Ching.
Remember, I only had a taste of the Cashew & SS Chicken. I can say that I liked both sauces and probably liked the Leong’s versions a tad better than the Yen Ching versions. Especially the SS as it was definitely more sour than sweet. A properly cooked Crab Rangoon at Leong’s will blow away anyone else’s version – I hope the problem with the sample we got was a one time thing. The rice we were served at Leong’s was not good. Didn’t get a chance to try the egg rolls – but I tried. Yen Ching is nicer inside and will likely never be as crowded as Leongs and I do like the food at Yen Ching – so still lots of reasons to go there.
Thanks!
Had lunch at Leong’s today, everything was very good.
Cashew chicken was great, egg rolls were good, and the
crab rangoon were VERY good…best I’ve had by a wide margin.
Leong’s definitely beats out my old favorite, Yen Ching.
The wait today at noon wasn’t too bad, just about 15 minutes. They do need a larger area for those waiting to be seated, and those who are paying….way too crowded. Waitress said that hopefully soon you’ll be able to pay from the table.
The seating was also too crowded.
I really don’t want to touch elbows with a stranger while eating.
It’s not that big of a deal, but I do wish the tables were spaced further apart, like Yen Ching.
Went back for lunch today.
Got there a few minutes before 11, and people were standing outside waiting for Leong’s to open! I was surprised to see that.
Once we got in, we were seated quickly, and our drink orders taken. I thought with such a rush of people coming in at once it would take a long time for our food to come out, but I was wrong.
I would say 5-10 minutes for appetizer, and 5 minutes behind that was our food.
Service was also very good, we were checked on several times, by multiple workers.
I am surprised no one has mentioned the price and portion on the Cashew Chicken. It tasted OK, but not like I rememeber years ago at the old location. Since they have been at the new location I have had it once catered to my job, and once as a walk in. 6 pieces of chicken with a little rice for almost $8 is a rip.
I agree about the other offerings, its like some of the kin wanted to open a restaurant but they need to have a couple of asian dishes to bring people in. Cashew Inn in Nixa is still my fav.
Bob: Portion has always been fairly large, imo, and I’m definitely not a light eater. Cashew chicken, plus a couple crab rangoons, and an egg roll….definitely not hungry afterwards.
If you have any respect for people in general you will not eat here. The owner’s and management are horrible to their employees. Servers are required to tip out 23% of their tips in order for them to pay their bussers, and for the sushi they have now introduced.
The restaurant I currently work at only requires a 1.5% tip out of overall sales if that tells you how unfair their tip out is. Bartenders their are unable to make money because they are only tipped out if the servers sell alcohol and even then the tip out they recieve is a joke because most tip out money is given to the kitchen in order to not have to give raises. The owners are very rude and cuss out employees and yell at them for no reason. In addition, this restaurant is strongly ripping off it’s customers by charging for all white meat when everything is given in all white meat due to them being to lazy to cook both dark and white, supposedly, this has since been fixed. The owner’s are constantly threatening staff and are very inappropriate. Every few weeks one of the sons Wing Wah goes on firing sprees for reasons such as the hot mustard jars had too much mustard left in them. By the way I wouldn’t use the hot mustard or duck sauce sitting on the tables if I were you because it sits out all day and is scraped into a tub at the end of the night after who knows how many people have put their hands in it all day and returned to the tables the following day. Almost everything in this restaurant is unsanitary and it’s a very unprofessional atmosphere. I will be happy the day this horrible family’s restaurant is shut down. People saying the quality of the food is great is a joke as well, it all comes from Sysco where one of the son’s works. Recently checks have been bouncing from this company and they have lost both their dessert and liquor distributors because of inability to pay. If you want good Chinese go to 5 Spice.
Truthful ex employee:
Your comment “truthfully” sounds like sour grapes, or perhaps a competitor trying to trash the competition. That may not be the case….but it’s the first thing that came to mind.
I have no affiliation with Leongs, other than being a satisfied customer.
A few points:
If the servers don’t like the amount they are required to tip out, they can always quit. No one is holding a gun to their head forcing them to work there.
The prices are in the menu, so no one is getting “ripped off”.
The hot mustard: That is a little disturbing.
Unsanitary conditions: If everything in the restaurant was unsanitary, they wouldn’t be open for business. According to the latest health inspection posted online, the last inspection produced one non critical violation, and zero critical.
As for where the food comes from, as long as it tastes good, I don’t care. It’s the best cashew chicken in town.
I have read several bad reviews on many sites for Leongs. One thing the poor reviews have in common is they were written in the first few weeks of opening. I just could not wait to go to leongs but waited a few weeks till the crouwds died down. The first time was a bit dissapointing. I saw many of the same things others mentioned. However the food was so good we new we would try it again. We returned after a few weeks and found that the service was much better even the prices had been lowered and the portions larger. By the third visit everything was perfect ( exept the rice,I agree with Bob). Springfield cashew chicken is just horrible about everywhere in town. It is so nice to have a great place to get this Springfield classic. Hey I think I will go there for lunch…egg rolls YUMM!
Went to Leongs for lunch. Tried the sweet and sour pork. It is breaded just like the chicken and it was very good.
BONUS! I had never met David Leong, the inventor of Springfield cashew chicken. Today he asked if we would like to hear some of his story. Never knew after comming here from China in 1940 he fought for the US in WW2. He showed us his military discharge papers that detailed his landing under fire on the beaches of Normandy. At 91 he still works every day.
Dont mis the chance to visit Leongs and meet a great legend of Springfield.