Helen’s Gourmet, A Feast for the Senses

Helen’s Gourmet, A Feast for the Senses

Helen’s Gourmet has been a neighborhood favorite for more than 10 years. It is prominently located at the northeast corner of Fresno Street and Alluvial Avenue, near a popular upscale strip mall. With stylish décor, friendly service and spectacular Chinese food, Helen’s Gourmet is the envy of its competitors in the local area. This medium-sized restaurant features earth tone carpeting and granite tabletops, which create a subtle and classy Asian style. If you ever travel to Fresno, don’t forget to pay a visit to Helen’s Gourmet. The calming and relaxing ambiance and unique delicacies will surprise and delight you.

House Specialties: Chicken Salad, Wonton Soup, Hunan Chicken, Orange Chicken, Tangerine Beef

Helen’s Gourmet Fact:

Dining Concept: Casual Dining
Capacity/Seats: 100
Cuisine: American Style Chinese Food
Year of Establishment: 1996
Address: 7444 N. Fresno St., Fresno, CA 93720
Phone: 559-432-4241
Fax: 559-432-4835
Website: www.helensgourmet.com


The Owner

Any successful business calls for a passionate and optimistic businessperson; restaurant operation is no exception. Running a restaurant seems simple, yet it is surprisingly complex. The owner Helen is a woman of enterprise who is very focused on her lifelong career. At a young age, Helen showed great interest in cooking delicious creations for her friends and family members. This interest gradually developed into a strong passion for food, which motivated her to enter a culinary school in Taiwan. There she polished her cooking skills and mastered the use of Asian ingredients. This experience set a foundation for her later restaurant operation.

Helen’s Gourmet opened in 1996, but the first year was not very successful. Like many newcomers to the industry, the restaurant struggled to attract customers. The lack of customer traffic was a big challenge for the owner. Helen’s constant pursuit of excellent food and service finally paid off when a reporter at The Fresno Bee wrote a review about its inviting environment, delicious food and friendly service.

During its 10 years of operation, positive word of mouth turned the restaurant into a highly-acclaimed local standout and made Helen an adored member of the community. Nowadays despite the economic slowdown in the U.S., Helen’s Gourmet is abuzz with crowds of diners. Helen has taken an additional step by becoming a culinary teacher at the restaurant. She considers it a good opportunity to explore food with the customers and to showcase Chinese culinary culture.

“I taught the customers to cook Chinese dishes. On one hand, the course can deepen their understanding of Chinese cuisines. On the other, it will serve as a platform to enhance the communication between customers and us. In addition, they will be proud to enjoy tasty Chinese dishes at home,” said Helen.

In Focus

Many restaurants seek ways to differentiate their restaurant from others. Helen just sticks to her three concepts to stand out from the crowd. First choose the freshest ingredients available and use no MSG to better cater to health-conscious diners. Although there is no evidence to prove that MSG is harmful to one’s health, the dispute over MSG never ends. Therefore many restaurant owners avoid using MSG just to be on the safe side.

The second concept is natural cooking. In food preparation, the chefs adopt natural condiments, flavors, herbs, spices and fresh seasonal ingredients to retain natural flavors. Each dish has a unique flavor so that customers can tell the difference immediately. If you ever try Orange Chicken in Helen’s Gourmet, you will find it a perfect combination of color, aroma, flavor and presentation. The lightly battered boneless chicken incorporates orange juice along with slices of cucumber. It is a pleasing treat to both your eyes and palate.

Third: simplify the menu to avoid overwhelming customers with a dizzying array of menu items. Whether a menu should be dazzlingly extensive or pleasingly simple is a conundrum that has puzzled many restaurateurs. Some buffet establishments may focus on variety and give the customers “all you can eat” choices, while Helen’s Gourmet features a simple menu that gives customers clearer options. Certain things all have the same price; for example, chicken is priced at $8.85, regardless of how it is prepared. In addition, the menu is categorized into several sections. Having one section for Family Dinners is an effective way to save time for customers who may be overwhelmed by so many choices. In this way, customers are more likely to get what they want, which will surely bring a big smile to their faces.

Helen is a woman of strong resolution and never compromises on food quality or service. She always places high requirements on her staff and on herself as well. The employees are all required to wear standard uniforms and serve customers with great sincerity. There are strict rules of service at Helen’s: the plate should be clean, and the customers should be served soup, appetizers and lastly entrees.
With such passion and determination, the restaurant thrives with rave reviews. A review posted on the website said: “If you’re looking for really, really, really good Chinese food with a wonderful ambiance, look no further than Helen’s Gourmet Chinese restaurant. I have been a customer of Helen’s for over five years. When it comes to Chinese food, I am a fanatic. If you want to sample some of the food, the best time to dine is during lunch. All lunch customers are given soup and spring roll with their orders. Dishes are served with rice or noodles, and are cooked to perfection. My favorite dishes include the tangerine beef and their peanut sauce chicken salad: it is to die for. Don’t take my advice, go try it for yourself.”
When talking about the recipe for success, Helen credits her continuous dedication to her business. To build her repertoire of delicious dishes, she is constantly refining her cooking skills and exploring new recipes from cookbooks and TV programs. However, each dish still maintains that natural flavor which is so attractive to customers. Besides those activities, Helen also conducts market investigations on a regular basis to follow trends and customers’ changing tastes. Through extensive research and analysis, Helen then decides on a plan to suit her clientele. She is always focused on improving her business.

“Many doctors and nurses like to dine here often. Some of them are really picky about the cleanliness in the restaurant, but we can satisfy them,” said Helen.

Tangerine Beef: a Stellar Entrée

Tangerine Beef is the most celebrated entrée among the many notable dishes at Helen’s Gourmet. The chefs slice the beef first and then fry it in the hot wok. Accompanied by homemade sauce and garnished with slices of oranges, the entrée has a delicate light orange flavor.


Message from the Owner:

“Whenever the customers have some special requirement, I will try my best to make perfect creations until they are content with it in the end.”