Sam Woo takeout

Inside Ranch 99 is a Sam Woo restaurant.  The restaurant has two parts. There is a sit-down section where you can order from their menu and there is also a take-out section, with lot of prepared dishes to choose from. 

I used to visit the take out section a lot.  The food is pretty good, they have a wide variety of dishes I enjoy and the quantities are huge.  Boyfriend and I often shared a three item combo and would still have leftovers.  Currently, the price for a 3 item combo is about $6.00 after tax.  They also offer 1 item and 2 item combos. 

You can choose from fried rice, noodles, or white rice.  I usually get the fried rice.  It's not really "fried rice" in my opinion.  It doesn't taste much like fried rice.  It's more like rice cooked with a tiny bit of frozen carrots, peas and egg.  I don't get the noodles because twice they go bad pretty quickly.

The dish offerings include: beef with broccoli, orange chicken, seafood tofu, sauteed green beans with beef, beef with bitter melon, fried squid, chicken wings, kung pao chicken, eggplant, and a few others that are currently eluding me.

I usually get the beef with broccoli and seafood tofu.  For my third item, I vary between the green beans with beef, the beef with bitter melon and the fried squid.  The first two items are put in the styrofoam container with your rice or noodle.  The third item is packed in a separate container.

The container used is really tiny.  When I first saw this, I thought that it wasn't worth getting a third item.  But they can fit an amazing amount of food in that tiny container.  On this occasion I got the fried squid.  The squid pieces are a bit big and I remember the first time I ordered it as my third item and being concerned that they would not be able to fit many pieces into the tiny container.  But I watched as the man squished and squished.  The squid is lightly breaded and fried with some peppers, so you get a hint of spice.  Since I don't particularly enjoy frying food myself and I like squid, this is a good choice for me.  Here is how many squid he managed to fit into the container this time:

The seafood tofu is probably my favorite item.  It's very similar to the seafood tofu claypot you can order at some chinese restaurants.  The tofu is tender, the fish so soft and flavorful, and there is also squid and shrimp in this dish as well.  They are also usually pretty good at making sure that the scoops they give you have a bit of everything.  I've watched them dump two big scoops, and then go back and get specific items to add in that looks like it might have been missing in the two scoops. 

I also enjoy the broccoli and beef.  While the broccoli is cut way too big, the beef is really tender.   I enjoy the bitter melon with beef, but Boyfriend doesn't eat bitter melon so I only get this once in a while. The beans and beef is usually good as well.

While they serve the food all day long, it's best to come during peak lunch or dinner hours in order to get the freshest food.  I usually will swing by after grocery shopping and check to see if new food has come out or if the food looks like it has been sitting around for a while.