Whether it’s a Japanese or a Chinese food craving on Friday night, Chopstix has the ability to satisfy any urge.
Located in a hidden corner on Rock Spring Road in Forest Hill, Chopstix offers gourmet Japanese and Chinese food, whether it’s a dining in occasion or a carry out one.
Walking into the restaurant, the dim lighting and big water fountain give off an authentic, peaceful restaurant feel. The hostesses are quick to help the customers and greet them warmly. Usually on a Friday night, Chopstix is packed, and calling ahead of time might be a good idea. However, right after school lets out during the week, it’s not as crowded.
Chopstix does a pretty good job at quickly finding seating. Customers have the option of sitting at the bar, a table, or a booth. For those who want to be comfortable, a booth is definitely the way to go.
Now to the good part: the food. Chopstix offers a great variety of appetizers to choose from. The Chopstix menu ranges from salads and soups to eggrolls and wontons. We started the meal off with a seaweed salad, which cost $5.25. The seaweed salad was great. It wasn’t drenched in sesame oil or too dry, it was right in between.
Another appetizer was the fried crabmeat wontons. They were golden and looked delicious when they came out on the plate. The cost for six wontons is $4.95. Inside the wontons is crab meat with cream cheese. The combination of Baltimore’s specialty and Asian spices resulted in a delicious soft wonton filled with rich cream of crab.
The last appetizer ordered was steamed dumplings for $5.25. They come either steamed or fried, and both tasted delicious. The classic dumpling contains seasoned ground pork wrapped in dough, but these went above and beyond the average dumpling.
What’s a complete Asian meal without sushi? Nothing. We stuck with the classic California Roll which is cucumber, imitation crabmeat, and avocado all wrapped in rice. The only way to can go wrong with a California Roll is if it’s store bought or if the ingredients aren’t fresh.
Although nothing that we ordered was unsatisfactory, the order of shrimp sushi was not ideal. Like most people, we were picturing the colorful rolls filled with rice, avocado, and shrimp. However, what we had mistakenly ordered was a small mound of rice covered by the shrimp’s outer layer of meat.
There were only two of these bite-sized shrimp sushi in the entrée that cost $4.50. The miniscule meal looked even smaller on its unnecessarily large plate. Although the order was not what we had expected, the sushi was fresh and tasted similar to a normal sushi roll once dipped in soy sauce.
The shrimp fried rice, another dish at our table that is a classic at any Chinese restaurant, cost $6.75 for a small order. This dish at Chopstix was even better than at most restaurants because it was flavorful without being overly oily or salty. Every ingredient tasted fresh, making the shrimp fried rice taste even lighter than usual.
The chicken with broccoli, another common dish at most Chinese restaurants, was also enjoyable and full of flavor. However, this dish was much more filling and slightly greasier at the higher price of $7.75. The chicken and broccoli was immersed in a pool of soy sauce, adding a little too much flavor to the dish.
Chopstix provides a wide variety of Asian food in a more upscale atmosphere with reasonable prices. Go to Chopstix for exceptional Asian ambiance and delicious food.
Chopstix is located on 1523-A Rock Spring Road, Forest Hill, MD 21050-2855.
Imani Love is a Sports Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com
Cara Reilly is the Copy Chief for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com