Author: amywes5_wp

Food Review: The Hybrid Kitchen in Maumelle

The Hybrid Kitchen has been open almost a year and has been a wonderful addition to Maumelle, giving me access to unique Thai and Asian fusion cuisine we can’t get anywhere else. I’ve been there about four times, all for take-out. Now that I have tried more than just the panang curry (which I had to get over and over), I feel qualified to write a review finally.

Located near the Walmart Supercenter, in the shopping center with Casa Mañana, at 13120 Crystall Hill Rd. You can eat indoors, but it is very small. With the Covid situation, I’ve just been doing take-out. They are always timely and will do curb-side if you call once you arrive.

The Menu

While The Hybrid Kitchen has its own site, the menu is vastly more updated here on their Facebook Menu page. The menu is large and everything sounds SO good. they have appetizers, like a public favorite the cheeseburger eggrolls.

For main courses, they have many different fried rice dishes, like the Secret Bowl, which is their fried rice topped with korean bulgogi beef. I have to try this! They have ramen, pho, panang curry (my favorite), pad thai, street tacos, steamed bao buns, burritos, and a croissant burger. Whew, that’s a list!

Not mentioned on the menu are their fruit, milk, and boba teas. Finally, they are known for sweets as well, especially their homemade macarons and cupcakes. All of their teas and sweets come in many flavors and the sweets are always changing. Once they had fruity pebble macarons!

Occassionally, they will post a special on their FB page. For example, they used to have an amazing papaya salad. I had it three times, but this previous time, they said that will no longer be available anymore. I am so upset about this!

The Food

Panang Curry: $8.99
Description: Coconut and red curry based soup filled with marinated chicken, red bell peppers, kaffer leaves, bamboo shoots, and fresh basil. Served with a side of jasmine rice.

Honestly, I got the panang chicken curry the first time there. It was the best panang curry I have had, so I didn’t try anything else for a few trips. So unprofessional for a food blogger, right? It is that good! Full of chicken, and many vegetables, this creamy, spicy soup is perfection. It doesn’t look big, but this meal goes far. This is a great deal for authentic curry for only 9 bucks!

Pad Thai: $8.99
Description: Stir-fry noodle dish that is sweet, spicy, tangy, and flavorful. Filled with thin noodles, eggs, choice of meat (chicken, shrimp, or combo), peanuts, bean sprouts, carrots, fresh basil, onions, green onions, and cilantro.

This was a massive amount of food for $9! The bowl was very tall, so the photo does not do it justice. there is over half of it left in my fridge now. This is a great pad thai full of plenty of egg, onions, veggies, chicken. I love how the noodles are the only star of the show here. However, I did find it a little bland. Simply adding sriracha and a little soy sauce bumped its game right to where I like it. I can’t wait to eat these leftovers!

Korean BBQ Street Tacos: $7.99
Description: Marinated beef bulgogi style overnight. Four (or five on Taco Tuesdays) warm flour or corn tortillas filled with beef and garnished with onions, green onions, and cilantro. Also comes in spicy bbq or por bbq.

I got these only because it was Taco Tuesday and they throw you in a free taco! I got he corn tortillas. While they were tiny, they were full of beef and topped with plenty of onions and cilantro. The lime added the necessary brightness to really appreciate all of the flavor. While these were good, I probably won’t get them again because everything else so far I have liked a lot more. But if you love street tacos, these are a delicious take on them with an Korean twist!

At this point, this is all I have tried, besides the papaya salad I had gotten three times that is no longer there. In in remembrance, here is a photo. You will be missed!

Overall

I am so happy to have such unique food in Maumelle that is truly delicious! I love just running by and picking up an affordable, authentic meal any day of the week. The only thing that could improve is if their menus/ specials were updated on their FB page (or their site) more often. I know a social media presence is so important for new restaurants, so posting at least weekly with any new or missing items or specials would help everyone when ordering and also get the word out more about this awesome place!

Food Review: Captain Express Hawaiin BBQ & Sushi in Maumelle

I got word this morning that the new take-out only restaurant, Captain Express Hawaiian BBQ & Sushi opened yesterday! So, guess what I had for lunch?

I found their vast menu online here. Mostly, the menu consists of Hawaiian bbq styles of chicken, beef, pork, and shrimp and mahi mahi. There’s also a few appetizers, such as egg rolls, gyoza, and spam musubi (like spam sushi). Then, they also have noodles, rice bowls, and plenty of sushi rolls to choose from as well. It was hard picking out what to get just Drew and me for lunch, but I did it!

This take-out restaurant is located in the old Dominos Pizza location, right off the Boulevard at 115 Carnahan Dr, Maumelle, AR 72113. When I pulled up, there were three others awaiting their orders as well.

More and more people were piling into the parking lot as I waited for my food. They told me it would be about 25 minutes and it ended up being about 30, which is great for day two of business and how busy they were.

I must say the moment I opened the door, the smells were INCREDIBLE. I knew then the food would not disappoint. So, can we get to the food yet?

We ordered the bang bang shrimp as an appetizer, and just one combo meal that consisted of Hawaiian bbq chicken and Hawaiian bbq beef. This combo comes with white or fried rice, sautéed veggies, and potato salad, plus two sauces.

The shrimp appetizer was $4.50, which is fair. There wasn’t much shrimp there, but it was tasty. It had a tempura batter and was slightly crispy with their bang bang sauce, all on top of iceburg lettuce. I probably won’t get this again only because I want to try the egg rolls and spam musubi.

The combo- holy cow. This photo does not do it justice. It was packed to the brim of food. Underneath the ridiculous amount of chicken and beef, there was even more rice than you can see. Then, underneath all of the rice is sauteed/ grilled veggies that included broccoli, cabbage, carrots, and onion.

To make it even better, everything was delicious! The fried rice was similar to what you get at a Japanese hibachi restaurant. It was very flavorful. The beef was very tasty steak, but divine when dipped in the brown sauce. I have no idea what kind it was, but it was thick and complimented the steak with even more umami. The chicken was tender and flavorful and went better with the yum yum sauce provided, in my opinion. The potato salad on the side was very creamy and a little bland. Though, to be fair, I’m not much of a potato salad kind of girl.

After tasting everything separately, we just mixed it all up, including the sauces. Gah, it was delicious. I devoured it like I hadn’t eaten in days.

After both Drew and I ate as much as we wanted, there was still this much left over. Guess what I’m having for dinner tonight? And I’m excited about it.