China Light Cafe - American Fork, UT

China Light Café is a place that my husband and I have frequented for many years. I would say that it’s a staple in American Fork when it comes to Chinese cuisine. Despite the fact that I have been there more times than I can count, I have only ever gotten one thing: the #80 daily special. (Don’t get too excited, there aren’t actually 80 specials. They count by ten on their menu for some reason…) This special comes with special chow mein (the “special” part is that it’s actually lo mein), sweet & sour chicken, an egg roll, ham fried rice, and a cup of soup. This review will be based on my most recent trip to China Light Café. 

Soup: The soup options this time were Cantonese (egg drop) soup and cream of broccoli soup. I’m not generally a huge egg drop soup so I went with the cream of broccoli. Spencer ordered egg drop.  Spencer let me taste his soup and it was fine. I’m always put off by the taste of egg drop soup and I don’t understand how they’re able to get that thick-ish texture to the broth. Cornstarch, maybe? Ew. I’m not a fan. But, for egg drop soup, it was fine. My cream of broccoli was a bowl of cream soup with a very small, token piece of broccoli. The soup tasted like thickened milk and had zero broccoli flavor. I mean zero. I was quite disappointed. I should have ordered egg drop. 

Special Chow Mein: I have no idea why they call this chow mein, because it is obviously lo mein. That being said, it is delicious. Truly, it’s the best thing there. I’m a big fan.

Sweet and Sour Chicken: China Light’s sweet and sour chicken is a little different than most others that I have had. Instead of cooking small, individual pieces of chicken, they fry up one long piece of chicken and slice it. Definitely unusual, but very yummy. The batter is light and crispy and the chicken is always high quality white meat. A winner for sure. 

Egg Roll: China Light definitely does not skimp when it comes to their egg rolls. They are huge! They seem to be double wrapped (Which I love! The fried wrapper is the best part, right?) and they are stuffed with lots of veggies. Very good egg rolls. 

Fried Rice: I’m pretty disappointed by the fried rice. Although it is obviously fried (as indicated by the overall oily texture) there is very little flavor. It’s like they just tossed the rice with oil and called it good. There are also carrots, peas, and small pieces of ham with the plain rice. Honestly, I prefer the fried rice that I make at home. 

One note that I must make about the food overall: It is very heavy. When you’re finished eating, a sheen of oil seems to coat the entire surface of the plate. Some people really like this kind of Chinese food, my husband being one of them. I prefer my Chinese food to be a bit more fresh and bold with fried elements as accents, not as the whole. You won’t taste a ton of spice, ginger, or garlic at China Light. However, the food is pretty yummy and very affordable. Whenever I leave China Light, I feel full, satisfied, and like my arteries are going to clog up on the way home.

Ernie's Sports Deli - Orem, UT

I had never been to Ernie's. Having been a former Mountain View High School Bruin, I know that this is almost blasphemous to say, but it's true.  Well, we received a coupon in the Value Pages mailer so my husband and I decided to go and try it out. I was pleased to see that it's still the Mountain View hangout that it was during my day (even though it wasn't my hangout then - my friends went to Wendy's.) We went at noon on a weekday and the place was packed, but we were still able to find a small table in the back where we could fit our baby's car seat with relative ease. I was surprised at how quickly they got our food out! Even though the place was hopping, we had our sandwiches in a little over 5 minutes wait time.

I got the Slider sandwich. It was served hot with grill chicken, mozzarella, and marinara sauce. It was DEE-licious. The marinara was very fresh and light with big chunks of tomato. It tasted so fresh that I wondered if it was made in house. The chicken was tender and sliced thin to make the sandwich easier to eat. (I hate it when restaurants throw a huge chicken breast on a sandwich. You get ten bites that are all chicken and then the rest of the sandwich is just bread.) I was very impressed by the Slider. I will definitely purchase it again.

My husband got the Slam Dunk sandwich. It was a cold turkey sandwich with avocado, swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, honey mustard, and oil and vinegar. He was not particularly enthused. He thought that the turkey was nice and moist, but the sandwich overall was somewhat soggy (should've grilled the bread) and was overwhelmed by the flavor of the vinegar. He also felt that there was an insufficient amount of avocado. There were only two small slices for the entire 6" sandwich. He was unable to taste the honey mustard because the vinegar was dominating the sandwich so heavily.

Although we only sampled a small portion of Ernie's fairly vast menu, our overall impression was that the hot sandwiches were MUCH better than the cold ones. (A fairly good rule of thumb and most sandwich shops, I think.) The service was good, the atmosphere was fun, and the ingredients were of excellent quality. I don't know if Spencer and I will go back without a coupon ($8 is a lot for at 12" sandwich), but the next time the Value Pages come in the mail, we will definitely be taking a trip back to Ernie's.

Magleby's Fresh - Lindon, UT

This is a review of the Lindon, UT Magleby's Fresh. It is VERY important to distinguish between the Provo and Lindon restaurants. The Provo restaurant is terrible. The lines are long, they take forever and a day to get your food out, the food portions are smaller, and the staff is mostly comprised of obnoxious students. (I say MOSTLY because I am sure that there are some very nice servers there. I have simply never met one.) Whenever I go to the Provo restaurant, I leave frustrated and anxious. It is NOT a pleasant dining experience.

The Lindon restaurant, however, is lovely. The lines are never too long, the staff is very polite, and the food is delicious. Although I have hardly tried everything on the menu, here are some of my favorites:

Stuffed Breadsticks: It doesn't matter what the breadstick of the day is, any stuffed breadstick you get is amazing. I think my favorite is the turkey, but I've also had the ham and blackened chicken. They take their famous breadstick dough and stuff it with meat and cheese and then serve it with either marinara or alfredo sauce. I usually get the marinara sauce because I figure that it must be healthier than the alfredo sauce and I can therefore rationalize eating more breadstick. Both sauces are excellent, though.

Classic Magleby Cheeseburger: This is what my husband ALWAYS gets. If you're craving a cheeseburger, you cannot go wrong with this beauty. They put two (we suspect homemade, but we're not sure) large patties between a toasted bun with cheddar cheese, onion straws, lettuce, tomato, and onion. It's served with a large pickle spear (The worst part, in my opinion. I HATE pickles. *Shudder*) and some of the best battered fries I've ever had.

BBQ Chicken Salad: This is my favorite salad at Magleby's. It comes with honey mustard dressing, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, mozzarella, and BBQ chicken. I always switch out the dressing for ranch because...I can..., but the honey mustard is great too. The chicken is covered in a homemade BBQ dressing that goes great with the salad. It's super yummy.

Ceasar Salad: I'm not necessarily recommending this as a favorite, but I  feel the need to make a note about it anyways. It is a very good Ceasar salad, but be aware that the dressing is a very traditional Ceasar. I suspect that they use real anchovies in the dressing, because it can sometimes taste a little fishy. If you like this flavor, by all means get the salad. If not, consider yourself warned.

Breakfast Burrito: If you go to Magleby's Fresh for breakfast, the breakfast burrito is definitely the best bang for your buck. It's a very large burrito and is topped with the most heavenly slice of candied bacon you've ever had. The endless french toast may sound tempting, but I'm telling you...Go for the burrito! Unless you hate Mexican food, you will not regret it.

Dessert: Get the chocolate cake. End of discussion.

Magleby's is a Utah classic and the Lindon location is the best place to get your Magleby's fix.