Asian Dining in Aurora, Colorado: The Rainbow Grill

My family and I love to eat Chinese. The mixture of flavors, the differences in cuisine and a change from the usual all spur us from time to time to dine out. We have tried to recreate some of our favorite dishes at home such as Sesame Chicken and General Tsao Chicken. Unfortunately, we have yet to master the skills some restaurants have shown. In our efforts to please our palates we have attempted to find the best price for our favorite dishes. This has proven a challenge.

There are times we do not like to go out, but would rather dine in. The trouble has been finding a place close to our home that will allow us to do this and still get a fair price for the food brought to us. We have five places to choose from within a few minutes' drive of our home. The Tea Station is one option that will deliver the food. The last time we ordered from there it took over an hour to get our meal; it was cold, and very tough. Ya Ting is a new restaurant in the area, but they have over used oil to create their dishes. The only difference between the two meals we ordered was also that one was overly spicy. We still have not tried East China, mostly because we forget about that location and it does not have a welcoming building structure. The fourth choice is Panda Express. I think most of us can agree that for what they offer it is decent. If you hit the restaurant during the regular eating hours you are sure to get fresh, tasty food. Unfortunately it is a situation of hit and miss with a good dining experience.

It may seem highly critical to list what we don't like first; however, it is imperative to help you understand how we have arrived at the Rainbow Grill as our choice location. We drive by the restaurant quite often, and rarely see cars in the parking area. We have eaten there twice recently, and both times we were at the restaurant alone for the majority of the time. Granted we were eating before the lunch hour this last time so it is not surprising to find the restaurant less than full. The little unassuming building and lack of consumers can make it appear as though the business does not do well. This would be a false statement though. Despite the lack of apparent consumers the restaurant has been open longer than we have been in the community which is going on five years.

The restaurant style is art deco, pleasing, yet a bit sterile in appearance. The front of the building is brick. The building is not really what is important though. The entrees and the cost of each is more to the point. On our last visit to the restaurant I was with one other person. We decided to go for the wanton soup as an appetizer. We ordered the small portion twice. The small bowl was $1.75. We received two wantons in each bowl with a little bit of barbeque Chinese pork. The broth had a delicate flavor with green onion in the mix. It was not overly salty like other places we have had wanton soup. Along with the soup we also received fried wantons.

For the main meal we ordered Sesame Chicken. We elected to share the portion feeling that soup and a half of entree would be enough. In fact it was more than enough. We actually ordered the dinner portion for the entree thinking the lunch portion would be too little. To our surprise we actually had a whole other portion left over after eating our fill. It is rare to get three meals out of one entree no matter where you visit. The dinner portion was $10.95. With the whole meal at $15 you can't ask for a better value with your meal.

But, you might be asking yourself was it worth it? Was the Sesame Chicken worth every penny? Yes! The all white meat is securely encased in a thin tempura ensuring that you taste the chicken as well as the breading. After the chicken has been deep fried, the restaurant pours a generous layer of the sesame sauce over the chicken, heating it up ever so slightly to thicken it. The sauce is delicately spicy, not overwhelming, yet tasty. The meal is presented over a bed of rice noodles. The chef takes the time to cut a carrot into a beautiful garnish. The Sesame Chicken is then accompanied with white steamed rice. Words can hardly describe the succulent taste one can divine from the Sesame Chicken dish. The mixture of flavors combines to be just the right amount. The meat is never overcooked leaving the tempura pieces easy to cut with a fork.