Asian Express in Altamonte Springs, FL

A new restaurant called Asian Express opened in Altamonte Springs in the building that was formerly occupied by Wonderful Chinese Express. For a fast food Chinese, I always thought Wonderful was pretty good, so I decided to give the new place a try.
I ordered a Kung Pao Chicken dinner combination which started with wonton soup. For whatever reason, I've noticed many local Chinese restaurants have stopped putting the strips of roast pork in their wonton soup. It used to be that the pork was standard in wonton soup, but now it seems I see it rarer and rarer in the soup. The soup at Asian Express had plenty of pork...

The soup was followed with the Kung Pao Chicken, brown rice, and an eventual egg roll that was initially forgotten. The chicken was chopped into small chunks, with green and red peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, scallions, and peanuts. The Kung Pao Chicken was tasty, and I'd gladly get it again!

Asian Chao at UCF

I tried the Asian Chao in the UCF Student Union for lunch one afternoon. I ordered the two item combination and went with Kung Pao Shrimp and Beef with Broccoli. These were both served with a side of lo-mein. Although nothing great, it all tasted okay and was equivalent to the Chinese restaurants in the mall food courts. Being that the same franchise is in several of the local malls, I suppose that's how it should be.

The same dishes are so much better from many independent local Chinese restaurants though...

Pine Garden Chinese

I was doing some shopping for a birthday present in the Waterford Lakes Town Center outdoor mall and started getting hungry. After wandering from store to store in search of a giant Pez dispenser in the horribly designed mall, I stopped by the Pine Garden Chinese Restaurant. I ordered the Kung Pao Chicken lunch combo, which included wonton soup, rice, and the chicken. I wasn't too happy with the food. Everything was pretty much tasteless. The soup tasted like oily water with wontons floating in it. Kung Pao chicken is normally somewhat spicy, but Pine Garden's chicken was very bland. The price was good, but I don't think I would return to Pine Garden any time soon.