Wokcano — Restaurant in Santa Clarita

I have enjoyed going here almost weekly for many years; the food and service have always been excellent. Unfortunately, an experience I had last night was appalling. My friend and I were eating on the patio. We were served by a gentleman named Chase, who was very pleasant. Unfortunately, Chase had his mask pulled down the entire time he was assisting us. He also spent a lot of time talking to the tables behind us, where his friends were seated. No problem, except that at one point I smelled cigarette smoke and turned around in my chair, to see the people at the table behind us were smoking. My friend and I are both prone to lung issues and are sensitive to cigarette smoke, and of course are concerned with our respiratory health during this COVID-19 pandemic. Chase came over to us ask asked if we were ok with them smoking, We said, politely, that no we weren't. Chase went to speak to these people, and one lady seemed to understand and stepped away to have her cigarette. Another gentleman did not, and Chase didn't say anything further to him. My friend and I finished our drinks quickly so we could leave, and I went to the restroom. When I returned, my friend approached the manager on duty, and in a friendly and polite manner said "Hey, I have some concerns I'd like to bring to your attention". The manager turned to walk away at this point. Honestly, this was pretty shocking to us. My friend said "You really don't want to hear what I have to say?" and the gentleman turned around. Once he'd heard our concerns, he basically dismissed them and told us to leave. My friend asked for his name and he refused to give it, and repeated that we weren't welcome there anymore. I have this on video.

We are not people that behave unreasonably or conduct ourselves in a rude way; my friend was entirely polite with this manager until he was rude and dismissive of his concerns. The behavior of these staff is highly concerning to me, because I manage an assisted living facility. I put my 90+ elderly residents at risk if I contract COVID-19, and was very sad to see our server not following mask policies as outlined by the department of public health. I and my own staff are subject to very strict policies, so I know how difficult they can be. However, they are necessary, for the health of the vulnerable populations in our community.

I don't want this restaurant to do anything for us, or even to respond to this review, only that they review current safety guidelines and make sure their staff are following them. It is so, so...

So surprised by Wokcano, my first time eating here. My expectations for any mall restaurant are low. Expected that typical “mall” restaurant food: edible but not really good. This place exceeded, by parsecs, my expectations!!! We got the Crazy Fried Rice and Emperor’s Beef. Both dishes were more than 2 can eat, about 4 servings of each. This was reflected in the price as it was moderately expensive. However, it was, without a doubt, worth the price. We had 2 servings to take home for lunch the next day. Total price of the lunch was under $50 before tip: Edamame appetizer, emperors beef, crazy fried rice and an iced tea. The edamame was cooked perfectly. Good sized pieces and plenty for 2 people. The crazy fried rice was fried rice spiked with ginger and garlic, and egg whites only, no yolks. The egg-whites-only did not detract from either the flavor or texture of the dish. This was, far and away, the BEST fried rice I’ve ever had, no exaggeration . Ginger can be overpowering but this dish had just the right amount so you knew it was there and it provided that ginger spike, that freshness, that brought all the flavors together. Amazing! The emperors beef was also excellent. Although it was labeled as spicy, it wasn’t. Again, this did not detract from the flavor. It certainly had a spice to it, but not like eating a jalapeño. It is a fried beef dish and the crunch was just right. Also, sometimes when you get a dish with beef slices, fried or not, you get pieces that have a lot of gristle which is indicative of cheap cuts being used to maximize profits. None of the pieces I ate had any of that hard-to-chew crap/garbage. This dish was so flavorful! The service was excellent. One of my key indicators for service, as strange as this sounds, is whether or not I get a drink refill promptly. It shows whether or not your server is paying attention and interested in providing the service required to earn that tip. I never had to wait/ask for that refill. It came when my iced tea was about 1/4 full. Our server was pleasant and smiling throughout, took our order promptly and provided the kind of service that shows pride in a job well done. The atmosphere was okay, nothing to write about there. The men’s bathroom was very clean. I will definitely be returning as I would like to try so much more on the menu. It has plenty of items for those, like myself, that aren’t sushi-eaters. I highly recommend...

Wokcano has a special place in our hearts because when we got married 100 million years ago we had our rehearsal dinner at the Pasadena location. They were very nice to us they provided vegetarian options which weren't on the menu, and we loved it. As a long time has gone by and we were excited to see that there was a location here in the Santa Clarita Valley where we moved recently. The menu is similar to what we remember but there are more vegetarian options available to order which excited us because we're vegetarians.

Everything we ordered was delicious! (With the exception of the Dragon's Breath Cocktail.)

My wife and I shared the Orange Crispy Tofu, the Vegan Kung Pao Chicken, and the fried rice. It was a little strange ordering the fried rice as they have a few variations on the menu we wanna just the basic one and we had to convince the waitress that it actually existed by showing it to her on the menu. But it was cleared up quickly and we got what we ordered.

The Orange crispy tofu was delicious and reminded us easily of that dish made with chicken when we used to eat meat.

The vegan Vegan Kung Pao Chicken was really delicious, with the caveat that the soy chicken was actually a little undercooked… This was surprising as typically at non-vegetarian restaurants you find that the faux-meat options are often over-cooked. This dish would've been absolutely perfect had the faux-chicken been cooked a little bit longer.

The basic fried rice was also really tasty and we didn't feel the need to have ordered one of the other variations of it to get a really nice tasting rice dish.

Portions were also generous so we had plenty to take home and eat for meals the next day.

The Dragon's Breath Cocktail was disappointing. It wasn't particularly well mixed and the only flavor I really got out of it was the alcohol which isn't really what I want when I'm spending a lot of money on a cocktail.

That having been said those vegetarian dishes were delicious and we would definitely come back to have them again and try other things. There's a full sushi bar and many other fine beverages to try.

Nice...