BROWARD REVIEW
Design your own wok meal at Stir Crazy
Posted on Thu, Jun. 26, 2008
BY ROCHELLE KOFF
JOE RIMKUS JR / MIAMI HERALD
Oliver Braganza, one of many 'wok stars,' cooks a customer's lunch at Stir Crazy.
IF YOU GO
Place: Stir Crazy.
Address: Shops at Pembroke Gardens, 14571 SW Fifth St., Pembroke Pines (off Pines Boulevard, east of Interstate 75). Also Boca Raton Town Center, 6000 Glades Rd.
Rating:
** ½ (Good)
Contact: 954-919-4900, 561-338-7500; stircrazy.com.
Hours: 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday.
Prices: Starters $4-$14; soups and salads $2.50-$13; noodles, rice and bowls $7.50-$13; entrees $10-$18; dessert $6-$9.
FYI: Full bar. Free self-parking or $5 plaza valet. AX, DN, DS, MC, VS.
It's The Shops at Pembroke Gardens, but you could almost as easily call it The Restaurants at Pembroke Gardens. Seven of them (with more to come) play a starring role at the new, upscale shopping center near Interstate 75.
''They're our anchors,'' says John Collier, a member of the center's management team.
Of all the new destinations, my teenage daughter and her friends are most excited about Stir Crazy, sister to the popular pan-Asian restaurant at Boca Town Center. The Gardens spot is the second link in Florida and 12th nationwide for the Chicago-based chain.
The Pines' Stir Crazy is larger than Boca's, seating 280 inside and out, with a gleaming open kitchen lined with woks. Decor is contemporary, with lots of slate, wood and bamboo. Chinese lanterns hang from a 25-foot-high ceilings, and hand-painted, Asian-themed wallpaper dominates the room.
The big draw here -- for all ages -- is the Market Bar: create-your-own stir fry. You pick the ingredients and the cooks put it together. The basic vegetarian version is $10, and you add on ingredients. Tofu is $1 extra, for example; meats and seafood (chicken, flank steak, pork, shrimp, calamari, salmon, ahi tuna) are $2.50-$3.50.
Then choose rice (white, brown or, for $1.75 extra, fried) or noodles (wheat, rice, lo-mein, rice). It's pretty easy to keep the tab under $15.
The choices don't end there. The stir-fry counter offers big chunks of pineapple and 17 fresh vegetables, including the usual bok choy, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts and mushrooms. You also pick spices and any of eight sauces. We like the peanut and Thai curry best; kung pao is the hottest, but it won't set your mouth on fire.
The temptation is to add everything you possibly can, but don't. And stick with just one sauce.
You have a front-row view as you hand the chef your chosen ingredients and watch as he feverishly flips and spins the concoction in the wok. Every 20 minutes or so, a cook grabs a mallet and hits the golden Chinese gong against the wall, sending flames shooting up under each wok -- a fiery culinary show that adds a touch of drama.
We were happy with our generous stir-fry, although the sliced pork was a little chewy. (The chicken was just fine.) If you'd prefer a more conventional dining experience, the young wait staff is attentive and well-trained and the menu is extensive.
Dim sum options include shrimp shumai (plump, tasty dumplings) and less impressive char su (pork in a doughy bun). Crab-cake hand rolls -- crunchy, panko-crusted seafood patties with daikon sprouts, sushi rice and a dynamite sauce in a soft sesame soy wrapper -- are a fun snack.
On one visit, we shared a pu pu platter, which requires its own set of choices. Ours included crisp coconut shrimp with a sweet chili orange sauce, vegetable spring rolls with sweet-and-sour sauce, tender chicken satay with peanut sauce and Asian slaw and pan-seared pot stickers.
Our favorite entree here is the Hong Kong steak -- thin, luxurious slices of filet mignon served with onions and mushrooms in a kicky pepper brown sauce -- a good value at $18. Szechwan shrimp were supple and plump, nestled in a sweet-spicy sauce with mushrooms, onions, broccoli and red bell peppers.
Dessert is the place to splurge, on pyphoon (layers of coffee, chocolate and Swiss almond Haagen Dazs creams in an Oreo cookie crust), chocolate monsoon (soothing chocolate mousse in wonton shells with berries and cream), Mandarin chocolate fondue, or our favorite, crisp wontons filled with bananas and white chocolate, dusted with cinnamon sugar, drizzled with caramel and served with ice cream.
You can always walk it off window-shopping in the Gardens.
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