Saturday night? Just Wok on by
| Mission’s Fire Wok has odd hours, but good food |
It’s hard to imagine that any restaurant in the metro would be closed on Saturday nights. After all, that’s traditionally the most lucrative business night of the week in the food service business. But seven years ago, the Huywh family — who have operated the Fire Wok Chinese Restaurant at 5820 Johnson Drive in Mission for 24 years — decided to close on Saturday and Sunday nights.
The second-generation members of the family, who were now running the restaurant with their parents, had started having children and wanted to spend some time with their own families.
But this cozy neighborhood restaurant, which offers both buffet dining and menu service, has a loyal following of customers who don’t mind the venue’s eccentricities. Not only is it closed on Saturdays, but the dining room shuts down early by modern restaurant standards: dinner is only served from 5 to 8 p.m. (Fire Wok also serves lunch, Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.)
It’s certainly not the most elaborate Chinese buffet in Johnson County — which has plenty of them — but the quality is better than most. Diners can cobble together a little salad from a tiny “salad bar” (I saw several variations on the carrot theme) or start their meal with a festive square of Jell-O.
The buffet is laden with the usual Chinese buffet fare, but mostly chicken dishes: Empress Chicken, Sesame Chicken, General Tso’s Chicken, Lemon Chicken, Szechuan Chicken, Fire Wok Chicken, Cashew Chicken, Sweet and Sour Chicken and, interestingly enough, Springfield Cashew Chicken — which is not a standard staple on local Chinese buffets.
