Village Gourmet: A Chinese Bistro Serving Pan-Asian Cuisine

Where can you find a Chinese bistro that serves complimentary wine with fresh pan-Asian specialties and an upscale but moderately priced menu?

Head straightaway for , the cool and casual restaurant that also does a brisk take-out business within the Cranbury shopping plaza at 22 Chestnut Hill Road.

The menu selections are refreshingly original and have been reliably popular since Shanghai-born Eric Xie (peronounced “Zee”) opened Village Gourmet 15 years ago.

“We serve high-quality food at reasonable prices with good service,” Xie told me over a shared pot of Jasmine tea.

“Everything is cooked last-minute,” he noted. Even the egg rolls, dumplings and scallion pancakes are fresh-cooked on site.

Xie became a chef in China while studying restaurant management and immigrated to the U.S. in 1989 when he was 26. On occasion, he joins the kitchen staff of a dozen full and part-time workers as chef of the day. The wait staff hails from China and Thailand and is unfailingly polite.

With its Mandarin-style cuisine and Asian staff, Village Gourmet is so popular with its customer base that loyal diners have picked up elementary Mandarin Chinese.

“Nehu?” he asked a midday diner, inquiring of him how he was.

“Nehu” was the reply, meaning “Just fine.”

A key to Village Gourmet’s success, according to Xie, is its use of 12 basic seasoning bases and fresh cooking with vegetables delivered six days away from New York’s Chinatown. Seafood is delivered six days a week from a supplier in South Norwalk. Shrimp, lobster and calamari are shipped from a Chinatown vendor.

Another crowd-pleaser is the complimentary glass of wine—a California Chardonnay or Merlot—offered with meals.

“Customers love it!” he says with a boyish smile.

Xie deliberately never applied for a liquor license for Village Gourmet because of its location in a residential neighborhood.

However, alcohol is served at his Wilton restaurant on Route 7, Ten China Bistro, and will be served as well at his soon-to-open Ten Asian Bistro in Trumbull.

At Village Gourmet, soups and appetizers span a range from Vietnamese salad (with Jicama, mango, cilantro, nappa and crispy vermicelli) to Thai curry seafood soup for two ($7.95).

Categories of vegetable, poultry, seafood, beef and pork are matched with multiple choices of sauces and unusual treatments.

Entrees emphasize seafood, such as crispy red snapper with special sauce ($17.95), sauteed seafood with Thai curry sauce ($16.95), and sea scallops and shrimp with shanghai greens ($14.95).

Sesame chicken, Szechuan chicken and shrimp, mango beef and the red snapper are the most popular dishes, Xie said.

The surf and turf platter (grilled filet mignon with lobster tail) is the priciest dish at $18.95.

At Village Gourmet, bright sunshine floods the dining area. The street-facing wall is given over to big windows fitted with adjustable bamboo shades. Tables for two and four dominate and can be reassembled for larger groups. Clear light bulbs with bright tendrils of filaments—prevalent in Chinese restaurants in the 1970s but now hard to find, according to Xie—provide simple and economical lighting.

Art with Chinese motifs, which Xie has collected in his travels over the years, adorns the walls. The fabric covering the central banquette pays homage to classical Chinese lettering.

“Happiness” and “Good Health” are the modern translations. For other translations, Xie referred to his I-Phone, which has a Chinese dictionary app.

Village Gourmet

22 Chestnut Hill Rd., Norwalk

Open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday noon to 10 p.m.

Telephone: 203-849-8288.