What happens when coronavirus keeps a restaurant critic from dining out? Takeout or delivery

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was planning to write a review of a new Chinese restaurant in Morrisville called Flavors Kitchen. I had eaten there once, and I was looking forward to telling you about this little strip mall gem.

I was especially excited about the restaurant’s supplemental offering of authentic dishes, a quirky mix of homestyle Cantonese and Malaysian specialties listed on a separate laminated menu sheet and on a chalkboard just inside the door.

Then the coronavirus pandemic barged in and changed my plans. Well, it changed everyone’s plans. “Social distancing” became a household term overnight. Restaurants began cutting back hours, reducing the number of seats in dining rooms, closing their dining rooms entirely, and offering takeout and/or delivery only. Some even announced that they were closing their doors indefinitely.

Flavors Kitchen’s dining room was still open the night of my second planned visit on March 15, barely a week after my first visit. But in that short time, writing about — and by implication recommending — eating out in a restaurant started seeming irresponsible. Besides, at the rate things were going, I wasn’t even confident that dining in any restaurant would still be an option by the time the review came out.

Sure enough, N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order on March 17, closing all bars and restaurant in the state, but still allowing restaurants to offer takeout, delivery and curbside pickups.

It’s the right call, in my opinion, but it means that, like restaurants, I’ll be adapting to the change. I decided it would be more helpful to readers if I described one of the options that is now the default restaurant experience: takeout or delivery.

Some of those experiences may come from this growing list of Triangle restaurants offering these options.

Restaurant delivery services

Flavors Kitchen offers delivery through GrubHub, Door Dash and Lunch Drop, according to its Facebook page.

I’ve never ordered a meal through these restaurant delivery services that have sprung up in recent years. I’m sure I’m not the only one, so here’s a walk-through of the process.

Ordering on the GrubHub website or the mobile app couldn’t be easier. Just click on the items you’d like to order, enter your address, phone number and credit card info. Add a tip. In light of how hard the restaurant industry has been hit by the pandemic, it should be exceptionally generous.

This pay-in-advance method comes with a bonus that’s especially welcome nowadays: contactless delivery. The delivery person can simply place your order on your front porch (or wherever you specify), and text or call you when it’s delivered. No credit card physically changes hands, thus eliminating one more possible way of transmitting the virus.

My order arrived promptly, within the 30-to-40 minute time window I’d been given for delivery. The food was still warm, impressively so given the distance it traveled from the restaurant to my home.

The only notable disappointment was the fact that the GrubHub website only lists the dishes on Flavors Kitchen’s regular menu. I wasn’t able to order any of those dishes I’d been looking forward to: shrimp-stuffed tofu, and eggplant in garlic sauce, and three cup chicken, and spicy seafood noodle soup. And I would definitely call ahead for Malaysian Rendang beef and Hainanese chicken rice, both only available with advance notice.

When I dined at the restaurant, I already had feasted on roti with curry sauce — flaky, buttery flatbreads with a yellow curry dipping sauce traditionally sold by Indian street vendors in Malaysia. And braised pork chops with fruit juice, succulent in a homestyle take on a Cantonese sweet and sour sauce that I later learned contains no fruit juice. And tender, delicately crisp salt and pepper squid, and Chinese greens — yu choi that night, emerald green in the merest sheen of garlic-spangled oil.

Still, what I did order was good enough to leave no doubt that I’d happily order delivery again. The scallion pancakes may have gotten a little limp in transit, but the sautéed green beans were still bright and snappy, as were the vegetables in shrimp with Hunan sauce.

The noodles in beef chow fun had dried out a bit at the edges, but not enough to prevent my wife from declaring it her favorite dish of the bunch. Mine was ma po tofu, riddled with savory bits of minced pork in a vibrant, chile oil-slicked sauce.

Flavors Kitchen was still valiantly hanging in there when I called the next day for a phone interview. Candy Cheung, the mom in this mom-and-pop shop, answered the phone but was busy preparing for a catering job. She passed me on to her husband, chef Khee Wong. Wong, a native of Malaysia who has worked in Chinese restaurants since the early 90s, was upbeat about Flavors Kitchen’s prospects for weathering the coronavirus storm.

I still hope to return to Flavors Kitchen one day and write a full review.

In the meantime, I’ll be changing my focus to keeping up with the restaurant scene as it is now. I’ll share my further experiences in ordering takeout and delivery, and I’ll offer roundups with a focus on restaurants that are particularly well-suited for these trying times.

And now more than ever, I welcome your suggestions and descriptions of your experiences. Just email me at ggcox55@gmail.com. Until then, stay safe and bon appétit!

Flavors Kitchen

4051 Davis Drive, Morrisville

919-388-9432 or flavors-nc.com

Triangle Restaurant Workers Relief Fund

A fund has been set up to support cooks, servers, bartenders, dishwashers and other restaurant industry workers who have lost their jobs or had their hours cut. The fund is hosted by the Frankie Lemmon School & Development Center. Go to frankielemmonschool.org/restaurantworkersrelieffund.

This story was originally published March 21, 2020 at 4:00 AM with the headline "What happens when coronavirus keeps a restaurant critic from dining out? Takeout or delivery."