Casper Food Critic- Full House Leaves A Full Belly

A group of co-workers and friends wanted to get together 
recently in honor of a departing employee's last day of
 work, the proverbial "last lunch". As usual time 
constraints limited our traveling distance, and we all
 agreed to visit Full House in Mills. You know how sometimes 
a former restaurant building seems to host an onward march 
of failed restaurants, one right after the other - and you 
get the impression that the building is in some way cursed? 
I always thought that about the Mills location. Many, many 
years ago, probably about the mid-1970s, which most of my
readers are probably too young and won't even remember, the 
building was originally built as hamburger chain, "The Red
Barn". I even remember the Red Barn-costumed characters in 
the Casper parade each sweltering summer, in particular a 
giant chicken leg weaving its way through the downtown 
parade route, with its giant white-gloved hands waving and 
handing out candy to the kiddies. Imagine if you will how 
hot it must have been inside that costume, maybe the
 chicken leg didn't just appear to be golden brown and 
crispy, but perhaps it really was. The owners apparently 
eventually parted ways with The Red Barn franchise, leading 
to its three restaurants in town called Peaches. One still 
exists today on 2nd Street.

We all arrived at once, having shared rides as much as 
possible. Pull in parking was plentiful and we were right 
near the entrance. Despite this sudden bombardment, the 
servers were very kind and seated us immediately. The place 
was bright, with mostly windows all around the dining room 
exterior. No smoking is allowed, and no smoke smell was
detected. The former booths have been updated so the place 
doesn't feel like a hamburger fast-food restaurant. The
server took our drink orders and brought them right away.
Bathroom seemed clean and fresh.

There were at least two dozen lunch specials on the menu,
which includes the entrée, fried rice, an egg roll, and 
soup of choice. Throughout our large party, we had quite an 
array of items, and we took advantage of this wide variety 
to try some of each others mains and sauces. A couple of 
our party wanted something that was not on the menu, and 
the servers (and subsequently presumably the chef) kindly
 complied with any special requests. I for one have never
 had Hot-and-Sour soup, so I thought I'd give it a try. This 
was a very good soup, a little bit of a peppery bite, bu t
not too much. It was a thickened broth with finely shredded 
strips of pork, tofu pieces and bamboo shoots. Those who 
got the egg drop soup or the won ton soup all liked their 
soups as well.

Most of the dishes I tried were very tasty, and served nice 
and hot. I may have stated this for my readers before, but 
I'm a little finicky about really sweet savory foods like 
the sweet and sour dishes, but the base flavors were good 
and the fried chunks of meat were crispy. I prefer to save 
the sweets for cake or cookies or ice cream. The sesam e
beef and beef with garlic sauce were my favorites. The egg
roll was good but greasy. But, how do you deep fry 
something and not have it seem a little greasy? The rice
 was tasty, not overly mushy, which I tried in small bites 
which I mixed with a variety of everyone's sauces. The 
portions were moderate sized, plenty for most people. Some 
of our crew couldn't finish all of their plates, so I and 
those like-minded polished everything off in short order. I 
liked being able to mix and match and try all the different 
dishes. I noted that on the menu, you can order family
dinners so you could sample different entrees. Beverages 
were refilled promptly and drink glasses were very 
generously sized , I liked that.

Our servers were quick, efficient and I was quite surprised
 that our large crew got sufficiently stuffed and was out
within an hour, we even had a little time to visit before 
we left. Each individual ended up paying about $10.00 for
their mostly-inclusive lunch and beverage, before adding on 
a tip. Before departing I grabbed a couple of menus to take 
home, as they take call in orders and you can pick up.

This place garners a very well-deserved 8 out of 10 
chopsticks. Will try this for dinner sometime or maybe a
"phone-in-and-pick-up" order for the crew.

Have you eaten at Full House? Comment below and tell us what you thought!

Full House Chinese Restaurant

3550 West Yellowstone Highway
Mills, WY 82604
(307) 265-0550

The Casper Food Critic is an independent author and is not employed by K2 Radio or Townsquare Media, LLC. The views expressed by the Casper Food Critic do not reflect those of K2 Radio or Townsquare Media, LLC.

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