Voice-Tribune Review by Robin Garr
Think back to the days when Oriental House was new.One of the first Chinese restaurants in Louisville, it’s getting on toward 50 years old now. St. Matthews was just starting to sprawl when Oriental House settled in to its colorful quarters on Shelbyville Road back in the ’60s. The St. Matthews mall still had that new-mall smell, the Watterson Expressway had just inched around to US 60, and there were still plenty of potato fields around.
And the restaurant, of course, served the kind of safe, familiar Chinese-American dishes that were about as challenging as Louisville really wanted or was ready to handle back then: Food that was not quite so exotic as the restaurant’s exuberant decor. Sweet and sour chicken? Beef almond ding? Shrimp with lobster sauce? You could get them all back then; and here’s good news: You still can!
When Oriental House’s longtime owners sold it in 2003, the new arrivals, from Hong Kong by way of San Francisco, added an extensive authentic Chinese menu and, in a innovation that earned them the love of local “foodies,” willingly offered it to Westerners, complete with English-language translation.
This was great news for the adventurous, as most Asian restaurants had historically declined to share the “real” Chinese menu with Western diners – perhaps fearing the unpleasant misunderstandings that might result from a nervous diner alarmed by the unexpected texture of his sea cucumber.
Meanwhile, they kept the traditional Chinese-American menu too; and later added a lunch buffet and dim sum Chinese snacks. Oriental House offers something for just about everyone, and does it at affordable prices with friendly, courteous service.
Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/orien ... or-its-age
Oriental House
4302 Shelbyville Road
897-1017