Restaurant offers genuine Chinese cuisine at local mall

Chow's Asian Bistro offers diners an opportunity to experience Chinese food like they've never had, all in the center of the Cottonwood Mall.

by STEPHANIE KITTS

Photo By: Stephanie Kitts

The Cottonwood Chow's location offers a comfortable yet upscale enviornment to accomidate mall shoppers.

Take a break from shopping and enter Chow’s Asian Bistro, a restaurant that combines the popular flavors of Asian cuisine and fuses them with western culture.

The mall may be the least likely place one would expect to find an award winning Asian restaurant, but Jason Zeng has changed the formula. Dimmed lighting and a comfortable atmosphere welcome hungry shoppers to a meal like they’ve never experienced — especially in a mall.

Family pictures and modern Chinese art decorate the walls of this family owned restaurant known for its long-standing reputation in Santa Fe. Chow’s has been around since 1994 when Jason Zeng and his father, Richard Zeng, opened their first restaurant in Santa Fe.

“My father loved to cook so he got formal training — he was a trained chef in China.” Zeng said. “He would entertain his friends at the house and they loved his cooking so much that they thought it would be great if he opened a restaurant.”

In 1994, the opportunity came for the Richard Zeng to open a restaurant when a small Chinese restaurant in Santa Fe was looking for a new owner. Richard Zeng bought the restaurant with all the savings he had, spending time to renovate the 2,000 square foot restaurant to make it his own. The Zengs chose to name the new restaurant Chow’s because it was easy to remember and acted as a play on words — to “chow” and Chow’s.

“When we opened in '94, the restaurant was an instant success,” Zeng said. “There was no quality Chinese restaurant in Santa Fe and we came in and provided that service.”

There are now three locations — the original Santa Fe restaurant, a location on Juan Tabo that opened in 1999, and a restaurant in Cottonwood Mall that opened in 2005.

Since then, Chow’s has been considered one of the best Asian restaurants around. For the past 10 years, the Santa Fe location has won the Santa Fe Reporter’s award for best Asian food. In addition, the Albuquerque locations have won Albuquerque the Magazine’s award for best Asian restaurant for the past three years and The Weekly Alibi’s award for best Asian in Albuquerque for the past five years. Chow’s has also been named one of the top 100 Chinese restaurants in the nation by Chinese Restaurant News and the National Restaurant Association.

Loyal Chow’s customer Billy Martin says he’s been eating at Chow’s since 2006. He first heard of the restaurant when he drove by the Juan Tabo location.

“I like Chinese food and when I drove by I wanted to see if it was worth trying so I looked up their Web site,” Martin said. “I looked at the menu and it looked good. I also noticed that they had won multiple awards so I thought, ‘It must be good.’”

The food served at Chow’s is Asian with influences from all over the world, including Japan, France, Mexico, and Thailand. Zeng said some of the most popular dishes are the potstickers, sesame chicken, coffee chicken, Mongolian beef, and wasabi shrimp.

Although Martin has not tried some of the non-traditional items offered at Chow’s, he says everything he has tried has been better than any other Chinese restaurant in town.

“The sauces are always better and more flavorful than any other Chinese restaurant,” Martin said. “The food is always fresh and combines flavors that I’ve never had before. A good example would be the potstickers and the dragon sesame chicken.”

Richard Zeng continues to contribute to the restaurants by creating new recipes. The food served at Chow’s is not all authentic — the recipes have been Americanized to suit the customers. Zeng said that most Americans would not like authentic Asian food because it is too greasy and most would be overwhelmed by the spices. Nevertheless, customers continue to enjoy eating at Chow’s and rate the food on the top of their list.

The Zengs came to the United States from China in 1988. Jason’s father was a professor of Chinese literature and his mother was a librarian. They arrived in the U.S. knowing little English and brought with them only what they could carry. Jason, who was 8 years old, was sent back to the first grade in order to learn English. Twenty years later, he has two college degrees — general management and entrepreneurship — and is the proud owner of Chow’s third location.

“I think this country is great, as it is one of the few places where you can have nothing and still be successful through hard work,” Zeng said. “We have had a great response to our restaurants. We can see the appreciation because we win the best Asian food in Santa Fe and Albuquerque every year.”

The Chow’s philosophy is to bring the freshest food available, made to order, in a friendly and relaxed environment.

“At Chow’s the food isn’t over-priced like other quality Asian restaurants, but the food is always better,” Martin said. “Every time I leave I know I’ll be back because I always have great service and the food is always fresh and delicious.”

Written April 15, 2008

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