Pick Up Stix — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

So I will preface this with the standard warning: restaurants don't respect you or your ability to taste spiciness (piquant). Surprisingly unbusy for a midday meal at an airport, the short line moved quickly until the lady in front of me asked about 7 questions on the steamed vegetables, which were only listed once in the menu. I have no idea what she was on about with those. I ordered the firecracker tofu with steamed rice. The portion was certainly plentiful, almost too much food to eat during a normal layover in one go, but I don't feel bad about ditching a little excess rice. The rice was, until mixed with the red stuff, not bad. (It is not a good thing when a reviewer has to indicate that steamed rice was good before adding sauce.) The problem was the sauce had almost no flavour, not only was it not remotely spicy (I must not get what the implication of "firecracker" is supposed to be, but it also has the token goofy menu icon that indicates this dish is spicier than the rest of our offerings) but it was damn near sweet. Like think red teriyaki without the tang of soy sauce. It was just red nothing and I should have grabbed more than one pouch of soy sauce and some mustard to make it palatable. The beauty of tofu is that you can make it into or taste like anything you want with some sauces and spices, unfortunately this restaurant is of the opinion that tofu should be as bland as possible and remind you constantly that it is just tofu and rice and sweet red goo. If I had gotten the firecracker chicken it would have been worse than boiled, unseasoned chicken because of the blandess of this sauce. Wouldn't eat here again even if I was trapped in the terminal for hours or days, like smash burger is just down the hall. Have you ever had smash burger...

The placed looked nice, I saw a cook flipping food in a hot wok, and the cashier was friendly.

I can scarcely describe the hideously disgusting taste of the food however. I am really at a loss.

I ordered the firecracker tofu for something on the lighter side. Chinese stir-fried tofu should be firm, and the exterior should be crispy. I cook it all the time at home. Just a little corn starch on the outside and saute it or fry it a little oil in the wok. The texture of this tofu was something I've never experienced. It wasn't firm. It wasn't even soft. It was weirdly mushy and unpleasant. The firecracker sauce was so weirdly sweet with barely any heat. The color of the tofu with the sauce was unappetizing. It did not taste good, and I couldn't eat most of it.

I ordered fried rice to go with the tofu. Fried rice is not rocket science, and I've made it countless times. Restaurants don't get fried rice wrong, I mean how could they? The rice grains were not just day-old, but completely stale. The texture was complete mush with unappetizing crunchy bits here and there. But the flavor was horrible. Whatever seasoning they use is not just regular soy sauce. Unless they are using a cheap industrial soy sauce. It tasted like coffee and tobacco. Very unpleasant.

Please read the reviews. This place needs to revamp the recipes, as it is not how fast casual Chinese...

This newly opened location is situated near the middle of a Terminal B. There was no line when I arrived, and I received my food after a five minute wait. If you look around and see the large bowls in front of other diners, don't get too excited. It's only about half full when you receive it.

I ordered the Beef and Broccoli, which came with a premium charge of 70 cents, and seemed to have a less generous portion than other dishes I saw.

Your entree starts at $10, and comes with a side of white rice. Upgrading to chow mein or fried rice will add $2.49. The side portion is more generous than the entree. I also ordered the egg rolls, which were actually quite good in my opinion, though I would have preferred the cabbage filling to be a little crisper.

Seating is adequate, though I could see it being rather full during busy times, and social distancing could be difficult.

Another thing I would note, is you're prompted to provide a tip. Personally, I find this to be inappropriate at counter service restaurants, where there is...