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56 reviews
Neighborhood: Outer Richmond
"This a place I have been visting for the better part of 20 years or so. It is located on Balboa next to the Balboa Theatre. I love to…" read more »
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Glad I walked in here instead of waiting in the ridiculous line next door. The dumplings were big and juicy. Everything we ate was delicious, however one star loss for the msg chemical burn in my mouth. Still I'll probably be back soon. Maybe I like msg more than I thought.
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If your pallet likes the flavors of Nan King then you might have a problem with this more authentic flavors of Chef Jia's. Look at the line and see who is in line. See any Asians?
This place still focuses on Hunan food but I just wasn't feeling it. The portions were good and the price was fair but the flavors were just OK.
Having a restaurant next to the infamous and inexplicably popular House of Nanking must be like being married to Madonna. You have to get used to the late night visits from A-Rod as they do the horizontal Kaballah limbo dance. At least that's what the New York Post says, and they only know the truth. Well, if you can suspend your plans to adopt a tribal child from Malawi, it's worth taking a look at the menu at Chef Jia's and actually eating.
After all, the food can't be worse than House of Nanking. That would be like setting the bar an inch off the ground anyway. I came here today for lunch, and only one other table was occupied. Lots and lots of lunch specials, and they all come with a very spicy cup of Hot and Sour Soup with fresh chunks of tofu. Since I was robbed of the confit duck legs no longer offered at Chow the other night, well, I felt I should get the $8.95 Five Spice Duck.
To my pleasant surprise, it was a major quacker who obviously didn't go to the gym very often. Very hearty if a tad too salty, and it came with a bowl of rice that could easily feed a small rice farm in the Shaanxi province (see my photo). The service was quite friendly with none of the Nanking attitude that comes with their T-shirt. It seems a shame that they are in the shadow of their loud, chest-thumping neighbor. But hey, Madonna also overstayed her welcome, don't you think? ...4 minutes to what?
FOOD - 3 stars...a whole lotta tasty duck but they should lay off the salt
AMBIANCE - 3 stars...no frills lunch room...but a nice view of the Zoetrope (see my photo)
SERVICE - 4 stars...I think they're really grateful for the discriminating customers who wisely bypass House of Yanking...My Chain
TOTAL - 3 stars...solid Hunan/Mandarin fare notches above that noisy neighbor
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Unobtrusive and spartan decor. Amazing, fresh food with good selection~~~we will go there again and again - each time we visit San Fran from now on!!!!
Great place! Interesting menu of nouveau chinese interspersed with traditional dishes as well. By pass the line at House of Nanking and sit right down at Chef Jia's. Like all places some days are better than others. If you bring any attitude at all with you the owner gives only 1% for you. No attitude then the food is great!
Like most, we saw the line for House of Nanking and were too hungry to wait. I read about Chef Jia's as a great alternative so thought we'd give it a go. Boy was I disappointed. The pros: big portions, quick service, cost friendly. The cons: rude service, salty salty salty!!
I had the spicy beef with string beans. For me, the spicier the better. And this dish really delivered the spice factor. But I found myself rolling each string bean in the rice to wipe off the sauce and I barely touched the beef because it was all way too salty. I'm still dealing with the aftermath the next day. I left thinking I'd rather eat at Panda Express...and I don't even like Panda.
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$5 for lunch? In the FiDi? So filling I have to take some with me? Fabulous. Though my workplace was a good 15-minute walk away, I regularly hiked over here last year when I wanted a good, cheap lunch.
The soup is a bit spicy for me, but I'm a wimp. Sorry. Yam in stir-fry is an amazing idea, one I wish I'd thought of myself. The yam is cooked just right and combined with a wonderful amount of garlic (read: a lot) and chicken, then served up with a good deal of rice. Yum.
On top of all this, you don't have to wait in line like you do next door. Who would go elsewhere? Not I.
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This is my staple for Chinese food in the city.
I have to start off by saying that I've been coming to Chef Jia for about 15 years, since I moved to this great city.
This really is a mom and pop establishment, oh, and son too.
Decor is basic, they did a little renovation in the past couple of years, it was a big improvement, not that it stopped me from going or getting take- out almost every week. It's very cool to take a look at all of Jia's recognition placks and awards he has on the wall. Service is done by Nancy, the wife of Jia, or by Jia himself. They are short sweet and to the point, they always repeat back your order, so make sure to listen.
Standouts for me are the Won Ton soup, Veggie pot stickers, the hunan hot noodles (cold noodle - hot sauce), and the onion cake. I could eat anything if it's drizzled with their spicy peanut sauce, it's pretty much the best I've ever had. Main dishes you should try are, any of the sizzling platters, tofu is my favorite, Honey Chili prawns, and Sesame beef. Really, I have had very few off meals here, keeping in mind, I've eaten from Chef Jia hundreds of times in the past 15 years.
Prices are way reasonable. Next door is for the tourist trade and expense accounts.
We'd all like to bang the hot chick at the party. But guess what? She's got a huge, long line because of all the hype she gets through SFWeekly. Luckily for all of us, her still pretty cute friend that's non chalantly playing with the CD player wishing she wasn't at this stupid party is right next door.
And why not? Sure, sweet love making with the hot chick sounds like a good idea, but I promise that once you're in there, you'll find out she's sort of a bitch, rushes you through it, and makes you feel a bit used.
Her still pretty cute friend that's non chalantly playing with the CD player wishing she wasn't at this stupid party has a great menu, though. She's sweet and laid back. And you should take her word for it when she says that something on the menu is really hot and spicy.
Just don't use her cups, because they taste like bleach.
Grow up and drop the hot girl at the party fantasies, and prepare to begin a mature, longterm, real relationship with the much cooler girl next to her.
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There is one thing that keeps me coming back here.
Honey-Chili Chicken
My friends thought I was a crackhead until they realized it was that good. Their soups are good too.
I think this place is better than House of Nanking, which tasted like vinegar to me... its cheaper and faster too. Forget ordering the normal dishes its all about the rice plates.
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House of Nanking have too long a line, give this place a shot. I do not think it is as good, but it is pretty good and you never have to wait for a table!
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Inconsistent and a little shady. The supposed signature dish, Honey Chile Chicken, is a pan. It was over battered and fried until it formed a hard crunch. Some pieces were just fried batter drippings. The sauce with thin and too sweet. Other plates were good. The spicy deep fried fish was very spicy and included some nice green beans. The Spicy Peanuts to start were addictive but at 10 cents a nut....well they are big. ALERT - Here's a poor business practice. The bill included a suggested service fee. Not bad on it's own but given that is was not clearly identified (pencil scribbled and written in Chinese characters does not count), it's just deceitful. We were a party of two, btw. The entry appeared like a second tax line. My attentive buddy caught it. So we asked and were informed about the "suggested service" entry. We might have mistakenly tipped twice had we been less attentive.
This place is definitely like battleship.It is either hit or miss.
The potstickers-Miss
The chow fun-Miss
Honey chili chicken- you hit my battleship
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$6.50 for an enormous serving of awesome chicken fried rice. Sold.
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It's average at best. I had the sweet and sour chicken and it was sub par. The chicken was over fried and dry and the sauce was bland. For less than six bucks, this is not bad. At least the rice was decent.
Given that there are at least a dozen of these fast Chinese take out places in this area, I probably won't be going back. I'm sorry if I'm being harsh, but if you can't fry or make decent sauce, you have no business running a Chinese fast food joint.
I can't skimp on the stars when talking about this place. I go here often and it's good.
The food is plentiful, if you wanted to you could last a whole day on one plate. It is also cheap, and that always works well with me. Yes they use a lot of sauce, but that's the only bad thing I have to say about it.
I usually get the sweet and sour chicken (always loved it), the chicken with black bean sauce, sesame chicken, chicken chow mien, westlake soup, or beef and broccoli. Don't ever order the wonton soup, just don't.
I can understand how it might not be everybody's favorite. If you don't like inexpensive chinese food, I might not recommend coming here. For now though, it's my favorite cheap chinese in the city.
One last thing, four stars might have been a better choice, but I go here too often to give anything less :) Another reasoning behind the 5 stars is the poor tourist trap next door.
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Huge favorite.
There are so many good dishes here for vegetarians. However, the Honey Chili Eggplant stands head and shoulders above them all. Reason alone to trek over here.
Everyone is always very friendly and the service is prompt.
But the food is just amazing and very cheap. You can feed a whole mess of people for not much money at all. Truly excellent.
Chef Jia's is an ok place to go if you just want something quick to eat. It's cheap and the portions are good. I usually order the honey chili chicken which are crispy fried chunks of chicken with a sweet and spicy kick over rice. The hot and sour soup is awesome! Not bad for $5!
Oh how I miss the food at Chef jia's! Worked in North Beach for 19 years and Chef Jia's vegetarian Hunan dishes were certainly at least a weekly (if not more often) delight for me and many of my vegetarian and meat eating coworkers. They are happy to tailor a dish to your specific gastronomical requirements; I have extreme food sensitivities to garlic and onions, but Chef Gia has always been able to make an exquisite variation if need be.
The Kung Pao Bean Cake is my favorite of the vegetarian entrs, add a side of vegetarian dumplings and if you go at lunchtime you get the complimentary Hot & Sour soup. Ahh, vegetarian Hunan paradise! Other great vegetarian dishes I've had here are Vegetarian Honey Chilly Chicken, Vegetarian Sesame Chicken, Asparagus in Black Bean Sauce, Vegetarian Fried Rice, oh, and those enormous Vegetarian Egg Rolls!!! My meat eating friends all seem to favor the (regular) Honey Chilly Chicken.
Whether vegetarian or non, the portions are enormous. 2 people with their own entr, but sharing an appetizer WILL have leftovers.
Apparently Chef "Steven" Gia used to be the head Chef next door at the House of Ill Mannered Servers (sorry, I meant the House of Nan King). Don't know what happened, but he quit working for House of Nan King and opened his own restaurant right next door. House of Nan King may look flashier and always has as many people witing in line as there are dining, but taste for yourself Chef Gia is clearly the master chef and charges substantially less than the rude folks next door. i've never seen much of a line at Chef Jia's although there have been many a lunch hour where every table was full.
Praised be the powers that be the powers that be the powers that brought us Chef Jia's Hunan Restaurant!
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The best part about this place is how much the rabid anti-Nanking people love it. This place is good, but five stars? Five stars to this place means you're letting your hatred of another restaurant , because this place was alright, but five stars, hell no. So, in context of comparing this to Nanking, here goes:
Service: Well of course its netter, Nanking employees are straight up indignant!
Ambiance: Also, duh, better, Nanking is decorated like a bus stop men's room.
Menu Selection: About 4 times more choices than Nanking on a menu that is professional, laminated, not a photocopy, and actually makes you feel like they don't run moment-to-moment
Cleanliness: My kitchen is cleaner than Nanking, so what?
Taste: Better than generic Chinese place, but Nanking has the balance and finesse of texture and contrast of taste that Jia can't match. Sorry. Nanking reminds me of a great artist that has let himself go, but his following is so strong that he remains solvent.
In a battle between Chef Jia and House of Nanking (so long as you're not all about ambiance, polite staff, choice, and cleanliness), Nanking wins hands down.
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Love the Gia. I was first introduced to this by a last resort by my friend Mark and haven't stoped going back since. The 5 spice chicken is amazing and the soup lets just say its got a kick!
The food here is good! I would argue that its better than its next door neighbor's! If you want Chinese in San Franicsco, this is the place to get it. I love the wonton soup and Honey Chilli Chiken.
I'm never coming back here. Ellyn K. can offer to buy more of my friendship at this joint but I won't come back here, not even for free grub. That's basically what they serve. Grub. Grub with a side of blehhh, at times served by the clinically-depressed Chef Jia himself.
The response to the food was a string of "GAKu GAKu GAKu GAKu" dry heaves after we finally left the joint. I can't call this Chinese food. If I take my authentic Chinese parents here, they will disown me. However, if this was the last "Chinese" restaurant left on this planet, perhaps they won't complain about the corn starch sauces and scrappy efforts.
The free soup was a corn starch concoction that was overly spiced to mask the pungent cheap tofu smell. Cheap tofu as in the kind of smelly tofu that was traditionally made by being pressed between crappy wooden boards and cheese cloth that have never been properly cleaned ever, and has therefore infused its nasty pungency into the tofu itself.
My shrimp chow mein was an unattractive pile of broken mein that was a little overly-chowed, with bits of vegetative debris mixed in. The shrimp was okay. Kudos on not screwing that up.
The decor is kitschy-cool. The kind of cool that you reserve for stuff that's so bad that it's cool. There's the delightful pleather paper sandwiched between the tablecloth and the glass top. A lovely color palette of mustard, blue and red on the walls, along with 2 strange, gilt-frame, reproduction oil paintings of some mysterious landscape, hung way too high. Everyone gets their own lovely plastic tumbler for ice water with crumbly edges that's probably housing colonies of germs and oozing the appetizing scent of Ajax. The pepper shaker top has a beautiful crusty patina of dust and rust that will provide you with a RDA dose of iron. Yum!!
You have to ask for chopsticks, which goes to show that natural-born chopstick-users don't frequent this place. The chopsticks are wooden. The kind that don't clean well and harbors a ton of everyone else's germs and chemical residue from cleaners. Appetizing!
Plastered all over the place are articles and restaurant reviews dating back to 1984. I think Chef Jia should just retire and enjoy the good life doing something else instead. I usually like to support mom & pop shops, but this dude looks so unthrilled at his own restaurant, so why force it.
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We had our first Chinatown dinner experience last month, and we did a little research before heading to SF. We saw the line forming outside House of Nanking, but read on the SF news website that Chef Jia is as good, but without the line.
We were very impressed with the food and speed of service! We walked in, picked a table for our group of 3, and a woman was over to give us menus and take our drink orders. The place was small and didn't have Air Conditioning, but the food was great! We had the honey chile chicken, moo shu pork with pancakes & plum sauce, and sesame chicken. Everything was very tasty and very plentiful! We had enough leftovers for lunch the next day for all three of us. Why wait in that long line next door? The food here is yummy!
I don't know what the fuss is about but a former co worker swore by the broccoli chicken. It wasn't bad but I didn't really find much memorable about it.
The brightly painted walls and windows are lined with awards, tributes and declarations from institutions and publications I have never heard of. Trixie and I decided to try it today after several visits to New Saigon a few doors down.
Yes, there is a large menu and you can even get brown rice. But the food just isn't that great. The soup almost tasted like the disinfectant that permeates the joint. Trixie swears I was tasting cheap tofu, but I don't know.
The pork pot stickers were the best thing. Large, overstuffed pork goodness. I ordered the spicy prawns with string beans. It had a spicy, sweet, cloying taste with a hint of disinfectant I never knew the Hunans were so smitten with! Trixie ordered the Prawn chow mein, and wasn't exactly wolfing it down. We could only finish about 1/3 of it. She packed hers and I had them feed mine to the gods. Great portions and a low price, but not worth another try.
As I write this I have a sour stomach and a slight headache. I think I'll go back to the New Saigon next time. One star and three GAKus.
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I've never loved a place like I've loved Chef Jia's. I discovered this place about 17 years ago? Fucking A. I believe this is the first Hunan style place I ever went to. I progressively started ordering my food hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter. It's been years since I've been there, but when I was a regular the mother and son would come out and watch me take my first few bites in amazement at how spicy I ordered it. Sweat would just pour down my face. It was cleansing. Sometimes I wouldn't eat all day and then go there and just get a big plate o' Hunan goodness and be in Heaven. When I moved away to Portland and played in a touring band I always stopped there when in town with my band mates. When I've traveled through with my wife we stopped there. I fucking love you Chef Jia's. Someday I'll return.
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One of worst chinese restaurant I ever visited! I chose this one over House of Nanking because didn't want to wait and man what a mistake this meant to be. The egg drop soup was so spicy that none of us could eat it. I noticed young woman sitting at the next table was also having a cough attack because of the spicy soup! I mentioned this to the woman behind the counter -what a rude person she is ! she grabbed the bowl saying this is 'free'if you don't want it don't eat it!, I ordered #10 on lunch menu -scallops and shrimp with vegetables. After food arrived, I noticed this was squid and shrimp-You know I hate squid! I asked the server -I guess chef Jia himself- that this is not what I had ordered. Chef got angry telling me " you don't know chinese food ,you ordered #11" Finally, came the check. As I was paying cash I notice there was a $3.60 charge on the check. Woman behind the counter said this was the tip! Tip for rude server?This was another form of robbery in daylight! Finally food quality or quantity. I have been to plenty of chinese food in many places, some very good ,some you don't want to visit again. Frankly , on my list of worst places , Chef Jia Restaurant will be big number one.
Holy mary mother of God! A bunch of my friends have talked chef Jia's up. Why did I not dine here sooner?! To those who are curious about the food. It does take a leap of faith. Just do it. It is amazing!
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I like seeing these other reviews encouraging people to avoid the long lines at House of Nanking. I actually found this place when my friends horrified me by suggesting House of Nanking. I first responded with the story of how I got conned at the other place (see my review of House of Nanking), and then we peered into the lonely little restaurant next door. You know, a restaurant is usually viewed as a risk if it appears sparsely frequented. Man, I'm glad we took that risk.
The three of us, all of Chinese descent, ate a feast of good, cheap Chinese food that was better than most restaurants in Chinatown. Their food is good, and the mom-and-pop that run the place try really hard to do a good job for YOU, the courageous patron that took a chance to try their restaurant.
The same rules apply as with any restaurant: avoid the greasy dishes drenched in sauces so that your experience won't leave you feeling like the yelpers who gave this place 1 or 2 stars.
I liked the mushu we ordered. We also ordered several vegetarian dishes since one of our trio is vegetarian, so that might have helped us pick good dishes. I definitely want to go back the next time I'm in that neighborhood.
When we left, I shouted at the long line waiting outside House of Nanking to come into Chef Jia's. I think I had shouted in English so that they could understand, but I remember only getting blank stares. *shrug*
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One of my favorite places. Really tasty food and sauces. I like the honey chili eggplant with broccolli or the string bean and yams. Nice portions, nice simple, clean decor (I've been eating here for 8 years and they upgraded, believe me) and great portions. Remarkably the prices have barely risen since I first ate here.
I always see people in long lines at House of Nanking and feel like telling them to go to Chef Jia's instead.
i have never noticed this chinese restaurant before even though i have been to house of nanking (which is right next door) and walk up and down columbus almost every day. i went with a group of friends for dinner and while i couldnt stay the whole time, i had a chance to try and few things and thought the food was good!
pot stickers and hot and sour soup - both great. the soup was very very hot so get ready. i also tried the scallops, the veg fried rice, and the yams and broccoli. i liked all of them. i would definitely visit this chinese restaurant again to try more dishes.
Ever had one of those days where you make a lunch date and then realize that you told them 12:50 pm and it's really 11:50 am and you're standing on a corner like an idiot wondering why they are late? That is, until you re-read your text messages and realize that you are a big huge moron and that it's your fault so then you feel shame and call them and ask if they can come meet you know, and acknowlege that you are a little, ahem, flightly today?! No? Well fuck you.
But anyway, on to the review. I met a friend for lunch today at this lovely establishment and was quite impressed by the lack of crowd and the available tables. We had quite a time deciding given the scads of specials posted on the walls and finally settled on the boiled potstickers, beef with ginger and lettuce wrap prawns.
I want to start out by saying that I don't really like shrimp, nor do I really like prawns so it is really a mystery to me why I continue to order this crap in the face of all reason, but (see diatribe above) apparently I can sometimes be somewhat of an idiot.
Anyway, the boiled potstickers were really really incredible, and on them alone I would give 4 stars. BUTT, I sort of found the beef and prawn dishes to be, well, too sugary? I'm unsure is this is actually the correct descriptive term, but that's how they seemed to me.
But lookie here, I loved the potstickers and with this many good reviews, it seems like I would be doing my many adoring fans and my tastebuds (holla!) a disservice by not returing to this location on a later date.
Let's consider this an open ended three stars...
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San Fransisco has no shortage of good food and certainly no shortage of Chinese restaurants. During my stay there, I found Chinatown to be one of the best places to eat - especially for stretching your dollar.
Unlike the cheap, street corner Chinese restaurants here in Philly, there are some really good, small Chinese restaurants in SF's Chinatown. Chef Jia's ranks with the best in my book. Certainly for the price. Hat tip to Jason for hipping me to it as well.
If spicy, sweet/sour, Hunan cuisine is your thing then Jia's is the place. It's small but you can squeeze in. in my opinion, it's a much better alternative to it's larger cousin next door. The portions are more then generous and the seafood is fresh as well as the veggies. How I could go for Hunan prawns w/snow peas right now!!
Chef Jia's has become a weekend ritual for my hubby & me. There's never a line no matter what time we go & the food is always satisfying. Plus, it's fun to laugh at the clueless tourists who wait in line for House of Nanking.
We start with the pork potstickers, which is almost as good as the ones my mom makes. Very juicy & flavorful. My husband always gets the honey chili chicken while I like the country vegetable & tofu (beancake) rice plate. Both are quite tasty. The beef noodle soup looks yummy as well, but we love our two dishes so much, we haven't tried anything else! My husband also usually gets the white wine as well, which you get an ungodly amount for $4.
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I really hate to say negative things about this place. It's so mom & pop and so not overrated like House of Nanking, and the quality of the food is above most everything in the area... but...
Even though I do not expect authentic Hunan food in tourist central, this is straight up Chinese-American fare. Everything is super sweet and sugary. Don't get me wrong, this guy is no poser chef. The food is very well prepared, but his heavy reliance on sugar as the basis for damn near everything really turns me off.
His recreation of hot and sour soup is excellent and is loaded with delicious vegetables and the "hot" peanut noodles (which are, of course, cold and are REALLY spicy) kick serious butt, but those are about the only things I can recommend after four different visits.
Imagine this as an upscale version of Panda Express and you'll get the idea. If you like that sort of sweet, ultra-Americanized version of Chinese food, you can add at least two more stars to this review. If not, I'd have to say you might want to go up the hill for more options.
Also, note that in spite of what some reviewers mention, they do NOT accept credit cards. I found that out the hard way once.
I really, really want to like this place, but damn!
[edit] I recently went back for Chef Jia's hot and sour soup to beat a cold and found he has changed the dish! Gone is the chunky, brothy re-envisioning of the classic, instead we have the same hot and sour soup that I have had at a million other chinese restaurants. It might as well come out of a bag. A serious dissapointment.
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So we went to this place based on the Yelp reviews, expecting it would be inexpensive, decent Chinese food sans decor worth mentioning. Well, it was, but let me qualify that...
First, this is NOT authentic Chinese food. This is 100% unadulterated Westernized Chinese food. You'll notice the chicken and fish get heavily breaded, and there's a weak reliance on using the chili hot sauce instead of actual red chili peppers like an authentic Chinese place would. And decor, well, don't go for the decor (we weren't expecting much and I'm definitely NOT taking away stars because of it... I'm a SF local, I know great Chinese often comes in the least likely and attractive places.)
Ok, that aside, the fish was VERY tender - nicely done, we both liked it. The problem was they killed it with the red chili paste instead of letting the fish's natural flavor come through... and the breading was a bit much. The assorted vegetable plate was also VERY good, albeit with a sauce that was slightly too sweet.
And pricewise - WAY TOO EXPENSIVE for what we got... $34 for two entrees, rice a beer and mixed veggies? Puhlease... go to Richmond Chinatown and you could get all that for $25. This place is priced for tourists who don't know any better.
Don't get me wrong - if I was into American Chinese food, I'd give this place 3.5 of 5. But I've lived here too long to care about American Chinese anymore, so I'm giving this 2 of 5. We both agreed we wouldn't return.
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Since Scott Howard was closed (that's a restaurant), the line to get into House of Nanking was too long, and we had to be at a show in less than an hour, we decided to go here on a recommendation.
I was not disappointed. I wish everyone in my party would have ordered something different besides prawns though. We had three prawn dishes and one of them, the Lovers Prawns, served the prawns two ways. It was a veritable prawnapalooza. I ordered pork.
The spicy dishes were just spicy enough to make your nose run a little and not burn your throat and make you cough. That sounds appetizing, huh? I was surprised that you could get brown rice as an option too.
Rumor has it that Chef Jia is the one who taught Chef Nanking. OK, I don't know if that's really his name but I mean the Chef that owns House of Nanking. It's possible. I've been to House of Nanking and it was good too. The walls in Jia's had lots of articles and reviews and awards... from the 80's though. Hmmm. That just seemed weird. I would have liked to see something more recent or maybe just some art on the walls.
But the food was good, we were served quickly, and we got to our show in time albeit very stuffed. Hopefully my next experience there will be as good as this one.
While waiting outside in line for a seat at the house of Nanking, we noticed this place (right next door) was almost empty. I now know why.
This was the worst Chinese food I've had anywhere! Another meal goes unfinished.
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I remember the good old days of Chef Jia's. Great, interesting, unique food. The secret that you didn't tell all those fools waiting in line for House of Nanking. Unfortunately, the good old days are no more.
Went here recently for lunch with some of the work crew. Service was rushed and abrupt. They tried to clear my dishes before I even finished. They also don't serve tea, which I thought was weird. My dish, which was similar to the old sizzling vegetable plate, tasted vinegary and had blobs of gelatinous brown sauce and was not spicy at all. They do serve brown rice now, which is nice.
My coworkers were equally disappointed with their lunches. Honey Chili chicken/yams/prawns were all the rage, but no more. It's now dry and not glazed in honey at all.
Chef Jia's! what happened!?!? Did you peak in the year 2000? and now it's all downhill? :(
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