Formosa Chinese Restaurant

• Cuisine(s): Chinese, Taiwanese
  Hours: Sun, Sat 10am-9:30pm, Tue-Fri 11am-9:30pm
  Price: $ $
  Payment Types: All Major Credit Cards, cash
• Attire: Casual
  Features: Kid Friendly, Takeout, Wheelchair Accessible
  Serving: Dinner, Lunch
  Alcohol: Beer/Wine
• Reservations: Not Accepted
  Parking: Lot Available

Description

Formosa Chinese in Lake Forest is a Chinese restaurant, but not the orange chicken palaces you might expect from a place in South County. Seriously: Who knew a cafe inside a Quality Inn & Suites could be... good? Most of the 154 or so items on the regular menu are the dishes your grandparents found exotic—crab Rangoon; chicken, beef, and pork cooked any number of ways; soups, rice, and noodles. The advertised chef’s specials provoke just a bit more excitement—macadamia chicken is nothing more than hen sautéed with the nuts, and the Three Sizzling Musketeer (shrimp, scallop and beef) is just a Sino-ized version of our surf ’n’ turf. Ignore most of the menu; Formosa Cafe, as its name implies, is a Taiwanese eatery. While you may not be able to read the Chinese-only specials on the whiteboard on the wall, a little polite insistence will lead you to the back page of the menu, where you'll find beef noodles, Taiwanese breakfasts, and the best san bei ji (three cup chicken) in Orange County.