Thirtysomething

Jin House Vs. New Heaven

Since we moved East of Broad Street, we've been in search of a good Chinese place. We've been going to this place on Walnut Street, in between 11th and 12th, called New Heaven. And it's good. However, my friend Star informed me that my all-time favorite Chinese restaurant, Jin House, just reopened after it burnt down 5 years ago.

I was elated and Ron and I ordered from Jin House last week--the new location is on Locust Street between 11th and 12th Streets. Whenever we order Chinese food, it's almost always the same thing: egg drop soup, steamed pork dumplings and General Tso's chicken. At Jin House, I got the Jin House special, which I always used to get back in the day. It is, for all intents and purposes, General Tso's chicken, only with smaller chicken pieces, (which makes them crispier--yum!) and a greater variety of vegetables, including asparagus (yummo!). Ron ordered the General Tso's and we also ordered the dumplings. I really liked the dumplings and thought they were tastier than New Heaven's verison. More onion or scallion, or something in them. Probably for that very reason, Ron wasn't a huge fan. I really liked the Jin House chicken. It wasn't as all-out spectacular as I remembered (but isn't that always the way?) but it was good. The General Tso's chicken, however? That was a hot mess. You know, like grade D meat that's edible, but barely? Yeah, it was like that. Gross. Even Ron was grossed out and that man eats chicken wings from all sorts of questionable establishments. I realized then that New Heaven uses all white meat and Jin House, not so much.

Last night we ordered Chinese again and we ordered from New Heaven. I have a thing about meat and I have a bigger thing about the persistent rumors regarding Chinese restaurants, so I'm an all white meat kind of girl. I'm disappointed that Jin House didn't live up to my expectations, but hey, at least we've already found a good alternative.

Labels: food

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 8:08 AM