A new Chinese and Japanese buffet called The Red Apple opened a few weeks ago in the former Ryan’s building in Kingsport. I finally tried it last Friday, and I wanted to share my thoughts.
My first impression was that they have a huge selection. If my memory serves correctly, there are 8 buffet lines. In the following paragraphs, I’ll discuss the types of food on each line as well as what I thought about the food.
Along the wall where the waitresses at Ryan’s used to pick up the food from the kitchen is where the dessert bar is now located. It seems odd to talk about dessert first, but that’s what is on the first line, and I wanted to talk about them in order. They have soft serve and hand scooped ice cream, as well as a large selection of cakes and pies. The dessert bar had the potential for greatness, but most of the cakes were almost gone and needed to be replaced with fresh ones when I was there.
The large buffet line closest to the cash registers contains a wide variety what I consider to be the “side dishes” of Chinese buffets. I’m talking about things like egg rolls, crab rangoons, teriyaki chicken sticks, and so forth. There were also some seafood items such as steamed mussels and fried shrimp on this line. Crab rangoons (also called cheese wontons at some restaurants) are one of my favorite foods, so I wanted to mention them specifically. Whether you’ll like the crab rangoons at Red Apple depends on what type of crab rangoon you prefer. Some restaurants serve crab rangoons that have a very strong flavor where the taste of the crab and also onion are very prevalent. Other places serve rangoons that are very sweet and taste like they are filled with cream cheese. Red Apple has the sweet variety.
The second of the two longer lines contains some American foods as well as some unique dishes that I haven’t seen very often. I didn’t try any of the American food, but I noticed that they had ham, roast beef, and creamed spinach. Some of the more unique dishes that I really liked were crab meat with cheese, crab meat with roast vegetables, and “crab buns”. I put “crab buns” in quotation marks because I can’t remember what they were actually called, but they were my favorite item out of everything I tried. They were like a crispy hollowed-out biscuit filled with a mixture of crab meat, cheese, and vegetables. Delicious!
Next up is the shorter buffet line where the meat carving station was located at Ryan’s. This line now contains a variety of Chinese dumplings. I saw meat dumplings that I think are typically called pot stickers. There were several other types of dumplings as well, and I recall that one type was called a “peach bun”. I know very little about these items, and I got full before I had a chance to try any of them.
The next buffet line contains rice and a large selection of Chinese entrees. This is where you’ll find selections such as General’s chicken, pepper steak, coconut shrimp, spicy chicken, and many other choices. There were probably close to 20 different entrees available. I tried several of them, and they were all delicious.
The next line is the salad bar. I didn’t pay much attention to it, because I didn’t want to fill up on salad when there were so many other things to try! One of my friends said the salad bar looks great, except for one complaint you don’t hear very often – he says their lettuce isn’t chopped into small enough pieces!
Next is the line that contains raw ingredients that you can have cooked at the Hibachi grill. I’ve been to Chinese restaurants that have Mongolian grills, and the Hibachi grill seems to work the same way, although I don’t know if there is a difference between the two. There is a selection of raw meats and vegetables, and you put what you want in a bowl and take it to the grill, where they prepare it for you on the spot. I must admit that even though I’ve eaten at Mongolian grills many times, I was still a little bit confused about how it works at Red Apple. For one thing, I didn’t see labels on any of the raw ingredients like most Mongolian grills have. That might seem like a minor issue, but when there appear to be multiple types of beef, chicken, and shrimp to choose from, it’s hard to tell the difference between each one without some help. Other Mongolian grills also typically have some instructions on how to mix your sauce from the various ingredients available, but I didn’t see any such instructions at Red Apple. That being said, my friend loves Red Apple’s grill, but I just felt a little intimidated by it. Red Apple’s Hibachi grill seems to be geared towards experts, while I need a Hibachi Grill for Dummies. Just a few labels and a signs with basic instructions would be a big help.
The final serving line is the area where Ryan’s dessert bar used to be located. It now serves two purposes. First, it’s where the Hibachi grill itself is located. Second, there is a sushi chef there who makes fresh sushi and serves it on a mini sushi buffet. I know very little about sushi, and this was the first time I’ve ever tried fresh sushi. I put a little bit of wasabi and soy sauce on each piece I tried. I think that’s how it is supposed to be eaten, but I’m not certain. The first piece of sushi that I tried was called Spicy Tuna, and I though it was very good. The second piece was one of those rectangular blocks of rice with a piece of raw fish on top, which I didn’t like very much at all. The third piece I tried was rather unusual and I don’t remember what it was called. It appeared to be battered and deep fried, and was topped with an orange sauce. Inside, it seemed to contain basically the same ingredients as a Californa roll. I liked it OK, but the Spicy Tuna was my favorite. However, since I’ve never had fresh sushi anywhere else, I can’t make a comparison to any of the other places that serve sushi in Kingsport.
Now, I’ve heard mixed reviews from several different people about Red Apple, but I must say that I really enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to going back. I found a lot of dishes that I really liked, and I want to try to some more sushi as well. Based on my first visit, I’m going to give Red Apple a rating of 8 out of 10.
