Since it is new, there weren't that many people in there when we showed up around dinner time on a weekend; however, I have no doubt that it will gain popularity soon. Let me start with the decor. I love it! As any good restaurant, Chang's is clean and orderly and doesn't smell overwhelmingly of spices as soon as you walk in. Decoration-wise it is very nicely done. There is few artwork on the walls, but the true glory of the restaurant is in its design/architecture. Chang's has multiple raised areas that guests can dine in, and the color scheme is in muted browns and metallics (which I really liked). There are even some gorgeous chandeliers hanging around (one of which we were lucky to be seated under). The restaurant also has an enormous fish tank complete with large koi-looking fish which all the kids in the restaurant hovered toward the entire time. They have big, cozy booths or nice mahogany-like tables to chose from. We sat around a gigantic, round table in the back since we went with the whole family. In the middle of our table was a large lazy Susan so that was very convenient since we all wanted to try everyone's dish and didn't need to keep passing the food back and forth. This restaurant also included a bar in the back (not that we were interested) and clean "family bathrooms". However, I was disappointed to find out they did not have any changing tables for kids. :(
Service was very good though. We had 2 waiters that attended to us since we had a large party and both did an equally good job. One of them came right away to take our order, the other one brought out our drinks. The first one came back with the appetizer, then the second one refilled our drinks. This tag team effort carried on for the rest of the night and made our dinner very satisfying.
On to the food! We found out that this place served Zabiha Halal chicken dishes so those are the ones we stuck to. I'm told they are going to try to incorporate Halal beef/lamb dishes in the future (fingers crossed!). For appetizers, we ordered the Chicken Szechuan Stix and the House Spicy Wings. The Stix tasted all right and they were a little soggy for my taste. I also felt they could use a little bit more seasoning; however, they were perfect for our toddler because they were similar to the chicken nuggets she usually eats. The Wings were delicious. Very "chatputtay" (which loosely translates into "kickin"). They weren't too greasy either, meaning the sauce wasn't all over our hands when we were done. Both the appetizers were served sauce.
For dinner (see below from left to right), we ordered the Chilli Chicken entrée (dry), Manchurian Chicken (which we ordered extra spicy for my husband, of course), Kung Pao Chicken, Mango Chicken, Szechuan Chicken, and some vegetable fried rice. All of this came with a big bowl of white rice.
Sorry, I suck at taking pictures so it got a little washed-out.
Now let me quickly tell you how each dish was. The table favorite was the Manchurian Chicken, not necessarily because it was the spiciest, because we had people with us who do not each much spice, but because it was the most flavorful. They used a lot of seasonings in it, it wasn't soggy, and my favorite part, they loaded on the cilantro (I love cilantro! On a side note: there are haters out there who dislike cilantro and even go so far as to create websites devoted to hating cilantro-I personally feel that these people have no lives :) I thought the Chilli Chicken was the second best, because it was similar to the Manchurian Chicken, just without the cilantro. The Szechuan Chicken was also pretty good, more than the chicken (which was tasty too), I enjoyed mixing its sauce into my rice as I ate the other dishes. The Kung Pao was also good, although it was not spicy at all; however, the ingredients in it like the bell peppers tasted very fresh and crisp. The vegetable rice was also not bad, the most flavorful I have eaten anywhere, but it had bean sprouts in it which I don't like. The Mango Chicken was the flop for the evening as it was bland and didn't contain much seasonings. Even its sauce was forgettable.
For dessert, the restaurant offers different flavors of ice-cream which we decided to skip on since it was around 19 degrees out. Pricing wasn't too bad either, we had 7 people in our party (plus a toddler) and we all ate our fill and the bill was less than $100 including tax and tip. I believe each entrée was around $10-12. Overall, I would definitely recommend this place. Service is excellent, they are so warm and welcoming. Food is pretty darn good if you know what to order, prices are reasonable, and the environment is nice.
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