Amelea Cafe and Restaurant

Cheap Chinese food… 5.50 for a lunch special off the steam table is hard to complain about. Two entrees and steamed rice. The Fried rice looked oily, and was missing any veggies or egg: with an up-​charge for it, I’ll pass. Food was decent, but typical of any fast-​food style Chinese restaurant. I’ll give it another go and order off the menu next time… maybe.
Also, the tiny Styrofoam cups for water were less than desirable…

So I went to Amelea today because it was the last remaining one in the golden quadrilateral of Chinese Food in the High Street (Joys, Mois and Diaspora. I am sorry to the chains). Anyhow having seen a lot of friends eating there I was ambivalent about my expectations since none of those friends ever gave me rave reviews of the place.
So first thing first. This place is cheap. Make no mistake about it. For $ 5.50 for Chicken entrée and steamed rice, it is atleast $ 3 cheaper than their peers at Moi’s or Joy’s.
So I ordered the Crab Rangoon and Hot Pepper Chicken with Rice. Total damage was $ 9.2x as a takeaway. Wait time was quite long.
The crab rangoon was better than the ones at Mark Pi’s because the quantity of filling was more. However, the cream cheese filling was a little too heavy on the Cream Cheese and not so much of Crab Meat. But thats OK.
However I cannot have the same forgiving attitude towards the so-​called Hot Pepper Chicken. It was some extremely generic chicken sauteed with onions. The amount of chicken was very less and all that I found of hot pepper was two (or was it three) pieces of green jalapeño/​habanero green paper. In summary, it was not hot in any way and very generic.
And this was swimming in a pool of the oiliest fried rice I have eaten.
I give it 3 stars because for the price it is just OK. However I would think a long while before coming back here again.

This place is great for the price. Their fried rice is cheap, but has a good portion. The flavors are also pretty good. They also are open to item customization. The Szechuan Beef has a lot of flavor, but isn’t spicy unless you ask them to make it really spicy. The cooking for the beef is also spotty. Not bad for a college place to eat considering the price.

Most of the food was good but what prompted this review was the fact that one of my entrees (Mongolian Beef) was ice cold and mostly onions with a little amount of beef. I would think twice about eating there with all of the other options near by.

There have been a lot of bad reviews for Amelea here lately, but I do feel obliged to make a note that it is good at what it sets out to be. For me, my girlfriend, and a majority of our friends Amelea is the place to go for generous portions of «Americanized» Asian food. It is owned by an older Asian couple who I feel genuinely have trouble grasping American styling which would explain the odd décor of the restaurant. But, honestly, it’s not like I go to Amelea to look at the walls so this does not bother me at all and I do find it kind of enjoyable. The vegetables can be underdone so try subbing broccoli in for green peppers but they are always very fresh at least. Amelea is a great place to eat if you’re looking for a place to just stop in for a lot of food that is guaranteed to fill you up for under $ 7

Upon walking in, my boyfriend and I immediately noticed the décor. It’s pretty tacky. It is so horrendously tacky, however, that it ends up being hilariously confusing. That’s my take on it. While you wait for your food, you can wander around looking at ballerina pictures and graceful football players diving after the pigskin. You can read newspapers about news you already know (unless you never watch or read the news — in which case, catch up on your reading). I can’t decide whether to rate the décor a 1 star or 5 stars. It’s really bad, don’t get me wrong, but it’s soooo bad. It’s so bad, someone must have done it on purpose. I hope so. In which case, I applaud that man or woman for their effort.
The food — meh. It wasn’t horrendous. The tofu was chewy, the rice was glutinous, the veggies weren’t cooked very well, and the sauce was too sweet. On the plus side, it was edible, and I didn’t get sick.
The spicy shrimp dish they made for my boyfriend was pretty bland.
I would go here over McDonald’s or Wendy’s. Another reviewer said to stick with the fried rice. I recommend that you definitely do.

Horrible food and horrible management! it took them 30 min to prepare the first entrée. The second one was prepared after 40 min. Since it took them too long, I asked them to make our food to go before it came out of kitchen, but the cashier just gave me 2 boxes and didn’t help at all!
You can get a much better pad Thai at Bhan Thai (Henderson Rd) or Thai Grill (Westerville). It was my first and last time at this place.

I used to eat at Amelea a couple times a month. Basically, when I didn’t feel I could afford the extra $ 2 to eat at Moy’s.
The food was always good, but not great. They have plenty of seating, Wi-​fi (or did) and a TV upstairs that I would turn to ESPN and watch between my classes.
I tried the General Tso’s, Sesame Chicken, Orange Chicken, Hunan Beef, Mongolian Beef, and a few other dishes. All of them were just OK. The veggies were always undercooked for my taste but still not too bad, at least they were using fresh veggies…

I don’t care what people say, but amelea probably has the best budget combo fried rice on campus. When I used to work at an establishment that was close to ameleas, I used to spend $ 4.25 for a huge portion of their delicious combo fried rice every week. They put plenty of chicken, beef and shrimp along with veges and eggs. I don’t care about their stir-​fry that much and their lo mein is sub-​par. What amazed me was how quickly they cook their dishes. I have never waited more than 3 or 4 minutes.
Recently, their combo fried rice went up in price by a whopping 1 dollar. I am willing to pay 6 or 7 dollars, that is how deRicious their fried rice is. They don’t over salt or msg their fried rice like some other chinese’s places and they use some sort of sweet sauce to give the rice a unique flavor.
And yes, I spent an entire review reviewing just their fried rice and yes, I used And at the beginning of a sentence. I could go on about their décor and services but the only thing the Unilocaling community needs to know about this place is their combo fried rice.

Every time I visit here, it’s full of Asians. So that must be a good sign of authenticity, right? Well, maybe not…
I generally only order the Ramyun Soup which I really enjoy… hence why I find myself here once a month or two. It has a nice spice to it and is a very hefty portion. I definitely recommend this on those cold winter nights!
As far as their other food goes, I didn’t really enjoy bulgogi. But I mainly just stick with the Ramyun to go.
The décor is… odd. Lots of magazines and random pictures. It doesn’t really flow well.

i would go back here. even if i get a free lunch.
the food was asian at its worst. the restaurant came up with a menu with a bit of everything, korean, japanese, chinese. i’m asian and i think that asian food should be like this, even if it’s cheap. should just go to moy’s, yau’s, joy’s, diaspora, or even panda express.

Amelea is a strange conglomeration of Chinese and Korean cuisine, and also allegedly «cajun» though I’ve seen no such items on any menus, and would probably not order them anyway.
Basically it’s quick, cheap and serviceable «Asian» food, though for slightly more money there are much better options further up High St. in the form of Diaspora and Moy’s.
However, while the food doesn’t dazzle – the Kimchi, quite honestly, sucks – the ambiance is inviting in it’s own haphazard way. The random photos of patrons on the wall, tacky advertisements and the sandwich shop layout of the booths is inviting. But as I’ve said, better options are nearby so, unless you’re hurting for money or pressed for time, I say go a little further up high.

Amelea is a pretty standard fast-​food-​ish Asian place. Well, other than the fact that they have Creole food, which I haven’t tried yet, so I can’t speak for that.
The food is pretty cheap, fast, and generously portioned. Reasonably tasty but nothing spectacular — kind of what I’d expect from walking in. It’s supposed to be a «café», and they have magazines, books and free wi-​fi. But the atmosphere doesn’t seem right for it. I could see myself going there again to grab some food, but not to hang out and relax and sip on some tea, you know?

I was curious to see what Amelea Café was when it first opened. Come to find out it interestingly served Korean, Chinese and Cajun cuisine. As a student at Ohio State, I was always looking to try places that accepted BuckID. From the Chinese section, I ordered General Tso’s Chicken. The portions were certainly large enough that I got a to go box and, being someone with a small appetite, was eating off of it for a few days. Considering the portion sizes, their prices are pretty good, averaging between $ 5.00 and $ 5.99. At that time they also served bubble tea and I tried that as well. When I returned recently, I was sad to see they had done away with the bubble tea, but they now have smoothies, slushies and lemonade. I tried something called a Jamba Smoothie and it was basically a mocha smoothie, which wasn’t bad. Though, I hadn’t had the chance to try the food itself to see if it had stayed the same.

So when Amelea first moved in I was pretty excited to get Korean food right on campus. It also advertised Chinese and Cajun– possibly exciting choices, too, but I was in it for the bulgogi.
When first reports arrived from my roommate that he had enjoyed his lunch at Amelea, I made it a point to make it over there. I got my bulgogi and was not disappointed. I had an exquisite dinner and savored the experience. I thought I had found a new favorite campus restaurant.
But then a funny thing happened: I went back, and it wasn’t the same at all. It looked the same. It offered the same food. The same guy was behind the counter. But the food was different. It was not nearly as fresh. Not nearly as juicy. Not nearly as flavorful. The rice was bland. Everything was confusingly different. And not nearly as good.
«An off day,» I said. «It happens to the best of us. Chin up.»
Well, only, every other time I’ve gone back has also been an off day. Maybe I’m monumentally unlucky– it’s very possible. But why press my luck when I can go to a place where I’m more consistently lucky? I know Amelea has it in them to make good food– I’ve had it. But I’m going to wait until I hear advance word that it’s been spotted there again.

Just like Luke, I’ve tried this place a number of times as well. The first time I ate here after they just opened, I had such a pleasurable experience! The food was fast, good, and hot. The next time was close to closing time, so I chalked up that experience to bad timing on my part.
So I decided to give it one more chance, but instead was disappointed with bad bulgogi. Tough meat and small portions were their obvious defect.
I’ll give ‘em 3 stars instead of 2, because Amelea will do in a pinch.