Tako Cheena by Pom Pom

Location: 932 Mills Ave., Orlando, Fla. 32803

Last Saturday, September 10, 2011, the public was first able to see the new brain child of Pom Pom’s Teahouse & Sandwicheria owner, Pom Moongauklang. Her new restaurant is called Tako Cheena, a fusion of Asian flavor with America’s favorite Hispanic food.  It was somewhat of a soft opening for the store because the word was spread only to Pom Pom’s and Tako Cheena followers on Facebook and Twitter. With that said, it was unique walking into a restaurant on its first day open.

The walls of the store were white and bare with black trim, ceiling and bar counter top. The table and chair tops were orange and accented with brown legs. Most of the lighting was provided by track lighting and there was only one ceiling fan, but the temperature was comfortable. Like it’s sister store, Pom Pom’s, Tako Cheena has an open kitchen were you can watch your food be made but it is more of a professional kitchen setup than the latter store because there is more cooking going on.

The menu was pretty simple, with a total of 16 food items, 4 sauces and 2 different kinds of salsa, all displayed on a framed section of chalkboard painted wall. There was quite a variety of things you could choose from:

Empanadas

• beef
• chicken
• vegetarian

Takos

• Thai Peanut Chicken
• Korean Beef
• Chinese BBQ Char Shu Pork Belly
• Indian Yellow Curry dusted Crispy Tofu
• Asian Braised Beef and
• Panko Crust Cod

Burritos

• Indian Butter Chicken
• Vegetable Vietnamese Summer Roll
• African Braised Beef

Desert

• Churros
• Asian Ginger Apple fried Spring Roll.

The food is very delicious and reasonably priced; almost all the takos are $2.50 (the Pank Crust Cod was $3), the Burritos $7 and desert was $3.

Since there was some down time, it was easy to hear one of the staff members, Eddie, talk about some of the things to look forward to. He explained that they were going to add art on the walls from artist, just like they have it at Pom Pom’s, and feature a different artist each month. The menu is still a work in progress so some of the things there may stay, go or end up in rotation (there was also talk of ceviche being added to the menu). Also there is going to be a grand opening soon with the rest of the businesses around Mills and State Road 50.

This is a place that is sure to attract a lot of loyal customers and be around for the long haul. Look out for the restaurant when driving on Mills and stop in when you can to say hello to the staff and grab a bite to eat.

Small Note: During their opening they did not appear to have alcohol for sale and definitely weren’t accepting credit or debts cards at that time so bring cash just in case, but they were working on fixing both of those issues.

–Ashlyn Williams