Foon Ying

The other day my son made a horrible mess in the backseat of my car (I will spare you all the details), but needless to say, I realized I needed my carpets steam cleaned fast and in a bad, bad way.  I called around to the car washes around me and they were all busy, so I ended up at 38^th and Shadeland which is a little far for me, but trust me, I was desperate.

Anyhow as I paid, the cashier told me I should go get something to eat (it was lunchtime) because it would take awhile. As we discussed my options (White Castle? No. Rally’s? No.), she mentioned the Chinese place I spied on my way in and I decided that was what I would go for. 

I had no idea what to expect. It’s a place with those faded out pictures of meals above the counter. You order there and then you either take it to go or you can sit and eat in the dining room. Either way, you get your meals served in the same Styrofoam to go containers.  They give you a number and they call it when it’s ready. I have to say, they did have a decent customer base coming in and out the whole time I was there.

As I am prone to do in the case of a new and slightly divey Chinese place, I tried the garlic chicken ($4.75). For one, it is easy to compare from one place to another. For another, I just generally like garlic chicken.  You certainly get your money’s worth of food here. I think my Styrofoam container weighed about 3 pounds.  The chicken was decently tender and the veggies were very plentiful. Mainly broccoli and peapods with some peppers, water chestnuts and the occasional mushroom.  The sauce was a little thick and a little sweet for me though. I doused it with some soy sauce to help dull the sweetness a little (from all the signs around, you don’t want to use too much soy sauce though because they will charge you for it).

You also get a choice of soup with your lunch (seriously, this is an insane amount of food for under $5.00) and I got the hot and sour. I liked it better than the main dish—it was a good hot and sour soup. Not the best and certainly not the worst. A tiny bit too thickened for my taste, and more sour than hot, but I kind of like the sour vinegar taste in the soup and there were nice chunks of tofu and pieces of egg in there, which are my favorite parts.  They gave me a little bag of fried wontons as well with the meal, and I generally like putting them into my soup, but these were pretty stale tasting (I put them in anyway).  Just not much crunch.  It was rounded out with a fortune cookie.

This place offers a huge amount of food for a moderate price. It’s decent food with fresh veggies.  I would not seek it out, but if I ever am at that car wash again, I’d consider it (certainly better than the other options). I would try a different sauce for sure. I’d probably stick with my hot and sour soup and my fortune was pretty good as well.  And I always love an excuse to try a new place wherever it is. Feel free to recommend your favorite dive!

Foon Ying

3770 N. Shadeland Ave

Indy,  46226

317/547-2285