Poch's Rice Café — Restaurant in Tyler

On my forever hunt to find decent Chinese food in the city, this was on our list today.

Ordered a mixed fried rice plate and a Mongolian beef plate. Price wise it was a little bit high for the amount of food delivered to us. Also, it is a little bit more pricier than other restaurants we have gone to in the city. Considering this is East Texas, I expect prices to be a little bit higher than in the bigger cities.

Mongolian beef. This is what I ordered and sadly it was not that good. Mongolian beef is supposed to be spicy and this dish had absolutely no spice even though I did ask them to make sure it was spicy. For some reason here in East Texas Chinese restaurants seem to make their Mongolian beef sweet. In all my years traveling I've never had sweet Mongolian beef anywhere but in East Texas. So back to this restaurants Mongolia beef it was lacking in flavor and spice. One positive the beef was tender. Came with a side of what I assumed was fried rice. It definitely wasn't just plain white rice. It had a slight brown color to it and not much flavor. If this is a version of fried rice then they need to find any recipe.

Husband got the mixed protein fried rice. He said it was really good but then again he eats anything and everything because he hates to waste food. 🤣🤣

As for the restaurant. It was really dated. Boots were really worn out and they had a bunch of knick knacks in the corner of the restaurant for sale. Also they had a sheet separating one area from another area. Not sure what was behind that sheet and I'm not sure I really wanted to know.

As for the staff, lackluster at best. Tried to ask a few questions. Didn't get much of an answer. Being Asian myself I know that restaurant staff members seem to be very quiet and they only interact when you interact with them first. So not sure why the staff couldn't answer simple questions about their food. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

All in all, I doubt there will be a second visit to...

Update 9/13/22 (old review below).. I haven't been here for a while but man has this place gone down hill in so many ways. They used to have random newish things for sale inside. now it looks like the salvation army with junk everywhere. There's like 4 lights on inside it's dark and looks like a sketchy garage sale. The food used to be fresh. Fresh produce now it's freezer bag veggies (peas and those cubed carrots) you can taste the freezer burn. The sauce wasn't even Walmart brand decent. Rice tasted old and dirty, you know that weird mildew kinda tatse. And I was hoping at least for that giant delicious egg roll that they're famous for to be good I saved it for last. It was just flooded with oil no meat just mush cabbage and carrots and dripping oil. Not a single redeeming quality left here. I don't know what happened but they need to go back to their roots and bring back what made them good starting with getting rid of the thrift shop inside. Such a shame.

Good food nice and fresh and a great price too.. oh and definitely the best egg rolls in town.. little burritos .. get one you'll see what I mean lol they're huge! and so tasty! Daily special is a great deal, and changes daily unlike other places which have the same special all week or longer. Also every dish tastes different again unlike other places near by which all taste and look the same just the vegetables change. Only tip if you don't ask for steamed rice you'll get fried rice by default (I wish they would ask because I always forget to...

Ate there today with my wife at dinner for her Mother's Day (her choice). I was sceptical as the previous tenant Basil Thai was really good in my opinion.

However we ordered a meat egg roll each, they do offer veggie only egg rolls. She ordered cashew chicken and I ordered shrimp with lobster sauce.

Service was quick, all food arrived within 7-9 minutes. There were about 5-7 other people eating and another couple waiting on take out.

Egg rolls were on point, not scalding hot, not cold and pretty solid for the price.

Spousal Unit's cashew chicken was good. To me it was a bit salty but the rice leveled that out. I don't know if the extra salt was due to her addition of soy sauce or just the dish, either way very good, especially for seven dollars and change.

Shrimp and Lobster sauce (my dish) was great. It was what it should have been, very "seafoody" aka taste of the ocean without being too salty. Loved it!

Worst part, fortune cookies! I'm an old fashioned country boy who likes a fortune cookie pallet cleanser.... this cookie almost turned into gum, BAD! If I didn't get such a great fortune I would have spit it out, but alas I marched on!

4 stars for bringing solid Asian food to this part of town, not being a buffet and being affordable with...