One thing every diner needs in their toolkit is good, simple Asian food. Not simple in the sense that it’s of poor quality, but simple in the sense that it isn’t decorated to death, to the point of terminal tackiness. Just something approachably tasteful, and tasty.
That’s the line May Wah, in the Baseline Shopping Center in Boulder, is taking.
The decor is simple. Not harsh and fluorescent simple, but clean, with a green and white theme, bits of bamboo, and nary a tablecloth in the joint. As Wayne and Garth might say when clearing a pool, “dive on.”
The restaurant is uncommonly narrow, but if anything, it highlights the dive vibe.
Another key element is found on the lunch menu: the lunch special. An essential ingredient of the Asian dive is that lunch shouldn’t be a la carte, but served with a cup of soup and an egg roll like the founders intended. May Wah makes with the lunch specials, and adds a nice pan-Asian twist with entrees from Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. There aren’t a lot of surprises, with the Vietnamese menu centering on noodle bowls, the Thai on various curries and popular noodle dishes like Pad Thai and Drunken Noodles, and the Chinese section reading like a list of “greatest hits.”
One odd item that stood out was the Tequila Lime Beef, served with steamed broccoli, bell peppers, carrots and snow peas with a side of fish sauce for $7.95. I’m fairly sure tequila isn’t a traditional Asian sauce, but then again, all my tequila research tends to end with a headache and a lot of ominous questions the next morning. Perhaps I have repeatedly discovered and blacked out Tequila’s Ming Dynasty origins and just don’t know it.
On a recent trip, I went with an old standard: Mongolian Beef ($7.45). It was heavy on the onions, and not quite as spicy as the little warning on the menu would lead one to believe, but the beef was tender and well seasoned, and it wasn’t overly sweet, as Chinese food occasionally can be.
The hot and sour soup and egg roll served on the side wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, but that’s what I want out of a lunch special.
True to form, prices on the dinner menu jump a few bucks, but the offerings remain pretty similar — minus the soup, tragically. There are more things on the dinner menu, but nothing that will turn your head in shock; just a continuation of the standards. But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Service was efficient, and not overly in my face. There are times that a diner wants to discuss the historical roots of parsnips with their server, but not all the time. Some days you just want to put your head down and chow down. On chow mein. And May Wah is a good place for that.
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