Chinatown, 69 28th St SW ~ 6/21/16

In business since 1975, the restaurant began its life renting the space from the owners of Robert Hall (that long ago defunct clothing store). When a 1980 fire destroyed the building, business owners Alex and Alice Lin bought the real estate and rebuilt the restaurant. They've been here ever since. And we know this because Alice told us.

When we walked in Alice was the only other person we saw in the restaurant. She was working behind the bar with a TV playing but immediately upon our being seated, the TV was turned off and a wonderful, greatest classical hits music track began playing. Seldom heard in most restaurants, we found it even more interesting and enjoyable playing here. The air conditioning was also fired up and we had the place to ourselves. (There were three cars parked out front when we pulled up, which must have belonged to employees/owners. It's a good plan because we wouldn't have stopped in if there wasn't a car in the lot.)

The bar was filled with lucky cats, a side dining room was darkened, the Japanese Steakhouse wing has been long closed, but the lunch area was pleasant and traditionally decorated. About eight tables and two booths filled out the space and could obviously handle the lunch crowd, which today was us.

We started out big with the Genghis Khans Platter for two.

Dumplings, Crab Rangoon, BBQ, Shrimp Toast, and Egg rolls made up this appetizing array. We followed it up with Hot and Sour soup, always judged against that produced by Wei Wei Palace. This was sweeter but full of vegetables and still commendable.

Each dish took its time arriving and in the meantime, Alice introduced herself to us and gave us the history earlier related. When we ordered our main dishes, she mentioned that food was cooked fresh and to order, and spice levels ranged from 1-10. We were happy to wait and enjoyed chatting with her. She delivered our main dishes and continued to chat, and continued, but that was our fault because we asked questions. Eventually she left us to our food.

Szechuan Pork was well prepared, spiced up to level 8, contained crunchy vegetables and the asked for hotness, and was an all around great dish. Our next entree was one of the Signature Dishes, Bird's Nest Double Happiness ~ irresistible, ordered at spice level 7.

Shrimp and chicken were stir-fried with crispy vegetables and were supposed to be served in a crispy noodle basket. It wasn't much of a basket but it was appealing all the same. We usually avoid shrimp in an Asian restaurant because they tend to be rubbery but this was not the case here. A signature dish indeed. 

We were entertained by various instructions found in the restaurant.

The owners have tried to sell the business previously and maybe still are (we found a 2010 YouYube listing from a local realtor). Running this business since 1975, they are probably ready to retire. The building is huge and they are only utilizing a portion of it. So enjoy this satisfying food while you can in this iconic building with its interesting history. And be sure to say hello to Alice, the friendliest hostess/server/owner in town. Social media accounts are inactive or inaccurate so just check out this place in person.

 

Jia Yuan, 3500 Remembrance Road, Walker ~ 3/17/16

We read about this place and decided to stop in for lunch, and it was so worth it. We were late for lunch so had the place to ourselves. When we walked in we seemed to surprise the woman at the counter. But she gave us our paper menus and we took a seat to decide what we wanted to order.

It wouldn't be the Hunan Tirple Delight :-)

We always check out the hot and sour soup in any new to us restaurant and our server/proprietor dished it out from the lunch buffet counter.

It was hotter than most but quite good and a close second behind our always favorite from Wei Wei Palace.

Most dishes here are served in take-out containers which is convenient for all but were heavy on styrofoam, which is not good. Customers pick up their utensils, napkins, etc. from a central shelf that also contained kids' entertainment tools, which was cool. There were pitchers of water in the cooler from which we replenished our waters. It was a little like being in their living room and we liked the atmosphere, complete with kids' drawings lining the walls.

This looks to be a two person, man and wife operation, and other than immediately bringing our soup, cooked everything else to order. English was understood but everything was written down in Chinese. And back to our initial ordering, when we stepped back up to the counter and placed our very large order, she wanted to take the menus back from us but we kept them to use as placements and reference. Hope that was ok :-)

After the soup & wontons, the Szechuan Beef and Hunan Pork Vegetables arrived.

Vegetables were crisp, pork was a little tough, but all in all, very respectable dishes. We liked the plenitude of vegetables and the plates not filled up with rice.

Under the Special Combination Plates we selected Jia Yuan Special Chicken. It came neatly in its own styrofoam container :-(  with what we think might have been the best egg roll we ever tasted. It wasn't stuffed with no-name, no-taste fillers and was actually enjoyable with flavor, as was the chicken (General Tso style but not as sweet, and spicier).

The last dishes to arrive were Singapore Mei Fun Lo Mein and our dumplings. Usually the dumplings would have arrived earlier but these were obviously made with care and had an extraordinary, thicker, wonderfully textured shell. We requested pan fried and they accommodated us with these lovely items.

The Lo Mein dish looked appealing, the noodles were great, but there was an overwhelming spice in this dish we could not identify but did not care for (maybe Madras curry?). We're generally fans of curry in food but there was something about this one we didn't like.

The men's bathroom had a sign on it not to use and a trip to the women's wasn't good. Pretty dirty.

After all of our dishes were served, the man and wife came out and sat at a table next to us and began to eat. But before he sat down, he walked into the men's room and used it :-)

We had probably interrupted their planned lunch with our arrival which is why we received a disconcerting look when we first walked up to the counter. But kudos to this hard-working couple who puts out such great food! This is not your typical Chinese restaurant and although they have sweet and sour items on their massive menu, the food preparation is superior and highly recommended.