City Corner 2 now open in Roanoke
The interior at City Corner 2. Photos by Lindsey Nair | The Roanoke Times.
Hello, dear readers! I have arrived home from vacation with a little bit of sun (but not too much) and some wonderful memories. I want to thank Caitlin Saniga and the guest bloggers VERY MUCH for keeping the blog fun and informative while I was away. I have some interesting food stories to tell from my travels, but first I have some great news for Thai food fans, especially those who live in North Roanoke and North Roanoke County.
City Corner 2, the sister restaurant to City Corner on Campbell Avenue in downtown Roanoke, opened at 3005 Plantation Road on Jan. 28. But these are two very different sisters. While the downtown location is mostly a grab-and-go buffet of salad fixings and Asian dishes, the Plantation Road restaurant is a full sit-down location with a huge menu of Thai specialties.
Both restaurants are owned by Loi Nguyen and his wife, Pranom Nguyen. Before the couple moved to Roanoke and purchased City Corner a few years ago, Pranom cooked at Krua Thai in West Covina, California for more than a decade. She and her husband were both born in Thailand.
Pranom Nguyen
Pranom’s wide selection of dishes has been available at the downtown location for at least a year, but since seating there is extremely limited (it only has a counter with several stools), menu sales were also limited. Now Pranom has the space to spread out and make such specialties as fish with Thai herbs (fish filet topped with sweet sauce, lemongrass, peanuts, red onion, ginger, lime, cilantro, chili and cashews) and angel wings (HAND-DEBONED chicken wings stuffed with ground chicken, bean threads, black mushrooms, cilantro and carrot and then deep-fried and served with sweet and sour sauce). Man, I can’t wait to try those!
City Corner 2 will also feature lunch specials (most are $5.99 or $6.99) and dim sum. Now that the second location is open, the downtown spot will only be open from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. City Corner 2 will be open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day except Monday.
If you go to City Corner 2, please let us know what you thought of it.
City Corner 2
3005 Plantation Road, Roanoke
362-0570
February 13, 2013 - 5:32 AM
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Do you know if dim sum is only Saturday and Sunday lunch? I assume it would be
Can’t wait to try it!
Amy, that’s a good question. I need to learn more about their dim sum offerings. I think I was mesmerized by the regular menu.
I’ll get back to you.
Those Angel Wings sound awesome!! Can’t wait to try an order! If someone tries them soon, please let us know what you think.
The angel wings are amazing — Loi brought them to my husband and I one night when we had dinner at the original City Corner. They are a must try! I’m so excited that they now have a location closer to my side of town…YAY!
First Thai dish I ever tried was Angel Wings! They are delicious, can’t wait to try them here!
You had me at dim sum.
Cannot wait to try this place. I may call my son and see if he can go tonight. Love the location.
My husband & I drove by the other day & he noticed the small sign saying Thai Food. We will certainly try it!
I wish them luck at that location because it seems like nothing ever lasts there! I suggest that they put up a large banner on the front of the building or do some other type of marketing to let Roanoke know there are there & they are newly opened!
I ate there Sunday. Great food! Prices aren’t bad for the portions you receive compared to another Thai restaurant in the valley. I hope they can make a go of it in this area.
I agree that they could use a larger sign out front, as well as a website or Facebook page. It’s hard to find them on the ‘net if you want to call them or get directions.
Is that the old location of the China Star.
We tried the sweet and sour chicken and the Tom Yum soup. Delicious dishes, large portions served at a reasonable price. We”ll be going back. I understand the Dim Sum is available every day during lunch.
I just called and the owner said dim sum is tues-sun at lunch, 11-3.
Woo hoo! Can’t wait to check it out.
Art and Salemite, thanks for sharing that info.
Harold, China Star was in the 4800 block of Plantation Road, in the strip mall at Hollins and Plantation that houses Food Lion. City Corner 2 is in a standalone building that used to house Bad Wolf BBQ before it moved to Williamson Road.
I just hope this place uses actual Thai chilies to make dishes hotter. At each Thai place I ate at in the Roanoke and Harrisonburg area, to make dishes “Thai hot” they just add more red pepper flakes. I know the chilies don’t cost that much.
Would love to see a menu online so I could order takeout…never have time to eat there driving from Salem for lunch. Also a note on their name…I saw the sign back in December before they opened saying City Corner 2. I honestly thought it might be an urban clothing store or something-never dreamed a Thai place. Glad you’re giving them some press so others won’t make the same mistake.
“I just hope this place uses actual Thai chilies to make dishes hotter.”
My Tom Yum had birds-eye chilies in it. Google “City Corner” for an online menu.
We really need a Thai or Vietnamese restaurant in Southwest Roanoke County… would be a great moneymaker here…good Pho, maybe a small fresh salad bar, & some spicy Thai food!
Chaba is somewhat close to SW Roanoke County.
Just left City Corner 2. Now I can stop wishing the valley had a Pei Wei. I had the Pad Thai, just to keep it simple and see if I liked it.
The pad thai was excellent and I can’t wait to go back and try other things. Just inside the door were shelves with sauces, plastic cups and the accoutraments of carry-out, so I assumed the sauces were just for that. When I was finished I asked the very nice gentleman I assume was Loi Nguyen about it and he said customers put the sauces on their meals to eat in the dining room. I definiately wish I would have tried some of them. Next time….
As I went long before the dinner rush I was alone in the place and Mr. Nguyen was very engaging, very polite. His wife even made me a free sample of a Thai dessert that had red beans, black beans, sweet rice and coconut milk. It was nothing like I expected but it was very good. This had an interesting aroma: it smelled the way the popcorn at Kmart or Hills smelled when I was a kid. You’d walk in there and the snack counter had a very distinctive aroma, and this brought that to mind.
I hope they succeed and have to move out of this little place because they need more seating, like Bad Wolf did years ago.
Chaba doesn’t even offer Thai Coffee any more. Looking forward to checking out CC2 with my daughter. Those wings sound delicious.
My husband and I visited the restaurant tonight and had a WONDERFUL meal. I had a chicken coconut milk soup and Chicken Pad Thai. One note though- we clicked on the hyperlink of the address in the article and Google maps pointed us to China Star restaurant at Plantation and Hollins. The location is actually further down closer to the 460 end of Plantation.
I was at Chaba last week. I wasn’t encouraged by either the food or the mood of the place.
THANK YOU for pointing that out, Lila. When Henry asked earlier in this comment thread if it was the old China Star location, I didn’t realize the Google map was wrong. I still can’t figure out why it’s pinpointing China Star, which is up in the 4800 block of Plantation while CC2 is at 3005, so I omitted the link. A good way to find CC2 is to know that it is very close to the intersection of Plantation Road and Liberty Road.
I’m excited to hear these positive reviews. I had the most disappointing pad Thai recently (not in Roanoke) and I can’t wait to get some good pad Thai and other goodies.
So excited to have City Corner 2 open! We live near the restaurant and are excited to have a Thai restaurant close by.
Can’t wait to try – I know the one downtown is great but not convenient hours for me. Agree with the comment “we need one in SW Roanoke” and re Chaba
was VERY disappointed.
Many PLUSES…very few Minuses. Super fast service during lunch time. Immaculately clean establishment. Many large photos of their dishes displayed ‘outside’ to help you make a quick and easy choice before entering. Well seasoned dishes with multiple layers of flavors. No MSG. Fairly priced. During cold weather it can be drafty (wear a sweater). Lacks windows/natural light. Small dining room. Bottom line…a place worth visiting again and again to try each and every one of their uniquely prepared dishes.
Huge delicious Thai iced coffee, perfectly sweetened! That alone makes me a fan, and my daughter said the Chicken Pad Thai was the best she’s had in Roanoke. Loved the Angel Wings, and grilled eggplant…and the owner was a sweetheart. Will definitely go back even though it’s quite a trek from my neck of the woods.
We split an order of chicken pad Thai and an order of angel wings for dinner last night. Both were superb. The wings were a little different than I imagined. One order consists of two huge wings, and the boned-out, stuffed meaty part of the wing is sliced into several big pieces to make it easier to eat. Pretty neat and very delicious, and the sweet and sour sauce is a must (but the teriyake is pretty good with it, too).
The pad Thai left me wanting more. Now I need to go back to other local Thai places and try theirs for comparison!
Those wings were huge! I joked we were eating Pterodactyl wings. What I really liked about them is that for deep-fried they weren’t greasy at all. Agree about the sweet & sour sauce.
We went today for lunch. We shared several dim sum, beef ka paoh, and the angel wings. Everything was good, but next time I think we’d dispense with the wings and get more of the dim sum. The service was very friendly, if not very fast.
Loved the self-serve sauce bar…we’ll be going back.
We went for dinner on Saturday night. The food was wonderful! We ordered egg rolls (6 small fried rolls with a creamy center); chicken satay (perfectly grilled & seasoned, the sauce had just a little kick, which was nice); Tom Yum Kai (just spicy enough to open the sinuses, which I needed, and nice brightness from the lemongrass, with lots of mushrooms & chicken); special rad nah ($2 more than regular rad nah, but for that $2 I got seafood & chicken. Dish was nicely seasoned, but the gravy was a little thick); duck curry (BEST. DISH EVER. Large chunks of veggies, perfect sauce, delicious duck); and three meat combo, which our friend said was excellent. We ordered some sauteed shrimp & veggies for our 4 y.o. son, which wasn’t on the menu but they made for us, and he ate everything except some of his rice. As I’ve said, all of the food was wonderful and we will definitely go back. The only issue was that apparently word has gotten out and they were busy, but only had 1 server and 1 cook. Halfway through our meal one of the owners returned from an errand and began waiting on customers, but things were slow with just 1 cook. The owner came over to our table and apologized for our wait, which we appreciated and assured him we had a wonderful dinner & experience. I do hope that the owners can get some more help in the kitchen to keep up with what I am sure will be a growing customer base.
One of my co-workers told me this morning that she and a friend went for dinner on Saturday night, as well. She said the same thing you did, Lori – that the food was great but the service was too slow because there was only one cook in the kitchen.
I think they know a lot about cooking great food, and not as much about managing a sit-down restaurant. I hope it all comes together for them…the food was really good.
Kristen, Sorry to her about the lackluster experience at Chaba. We’ve always had a good meal there. You are right about the mood. It has never been crowded when we have been there and that lends to a more muted atmosphere as opposed to a hustling, bustling restaurant that has lively, multiple conversations. I like quiet dinners and all, but sometimes it is fun to sit and “watch” the crowd buzz. You don’t get that at Chaba. Hopefully, they were having a off-night with the food on your visit. If not, they simply don’t have the clientele to keep going. Looking forward to trying CC2.
My son and I were there Sunday at noon. We ordered two appetizers and two main courses. Everything came to the table separately at about 10-15 min intervals, including the rice. One appetizer came after one main course and the other came at the end of the meal. I never did get the hot tea I ordered on that frigid day. There were only a few tables occupied so I don’t know why the food came to the table so slowly. Apparently the sauce bar is what you use to season your own food as the hotness level was not apparent in the dish I ordered – essentially a plate of stir fried vegetables. The bathrooms are not heated and the toilet seat must have been 35 degrees. I don’t think I will return.