Each Tuesday The Register reviews an area restaurant, with an emphasis on establishments where a couple can dine for $30 or less. Reader suggestions are welcomed.

Already a casual dining destination, Silverado Plaza on Trancas Street has another ethnic offering — Hop Hing’s Kitchen.

Sandwiched between High Tech Burrito and Cold Stone Creamery, Hop Hing’s offers steam table Chinese food at remarkably cheap prices.

We arrived at supper time on a weeknight. Hop Hing’s was doing a steady business, most of it people wanting a convenient hot meal to take home.

The focus of this brightly lit restaurant is the steam table, offering more than a dozen rice and meat dishes, most of them involving chicken.

For $4.39, a diner can match an entree with white rice in a clamshell container. For $4.79, the rice can be upgraded to chow mein. In either case, this is plenty of food for one person. If you add a second entree with rice, the price is $6.49

The food was attractively displayed. Nothing looked as sizzling fresh as hot-off-the-wok, but there were no shriveled vegetables either. Counter staff was eager to please and fast at filling orders.

The menu was a favorite hits selection of Chinese food, including sweet and sour chicken, sesame chicken, orange chicken, sweet and sour pork, BBQ pork fried rice and chicken chow mein.

A la carte selections of the meat dishes were mostly priced $2.75 for a small serving, $4.55 for regular and $7.25 for large.

While the printed menu includes mixed vegetables, there were none on display.

Within a couple of minutes of entering, we were seated by the front door ready to eat servings of kung pao chicken, teriyaki chicken, beef with broccoli and chicken chow mein from our Styrofoam containers.

Meals come with plastic forks, individualized packets of soy and a tiny napkin. Chopsticks are available if you ask. Larger containers of soy sauce are available next to the Coca-Cola machine.

First, the winners. We liked the teriyaki chicken a lot. The meat, a  combination of tender white and dark, came with a sweet dipping sauce. If sweet is your thing, this item works.

The beef with broccoli looked great. The broccoli was a radiant green and well cooked, which some people prefer. The ovals of beef were a rich, meaty color.

But the beef sauce wasn’t particularly flavorful. We kicked it up a notch with soy sauce, but that wasn’t the ideal solution. Several of the dozen beef pieces were also impossibly tough to chew.

The kung pao chicken, labeled a “hot and spicy” dish, at first provided the punch that was missing from the beef with broccoli. The dish was flecked with red chili. We also extracted three whole chilies.

Even so, this wasn’t nearly as hot as many a kung pao. The chicken and vegetables had been cut into extremely tiny cubes. This made for predictable mouthsful.

After a while, the kung pao chicken lost its punch. We would have liked it hotter, with ingredients not so uniformly sized.

The chicken chow mein was exactly what a chow mein aficionado would expect. Nothing more, nothing less.

Dining inside Hop Hing’s during cold weather has its challenges. With every opening of the front door, bone-chilling gusts swept through the dining area. Even with our coats on, we shuddered from the blasts.

In warmer weather, that problem would go away. There were two tables for outside dining.

The interior is intensely lit. Contemporary rock music was playing on the radio.

In summary, Hop Hing’s offers quick, inexpensive meals. As the line of customers would attest, the fare fits the bill on a night when no one’s up for cooking.

Hop Hing’s is located at 647 Trancas near Silverado Trail in the Nob Hill center. Hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

Readers with tips about interesting places to eat should e-mail diningout-@napanews.com