Taste Of North China
“Usually I have the food delivered to my office and its usually there within 30 minutes.”
“This building use to house an bank – so I visit to the old bank vault for pictures is usually a hit for first time visitors.”
“Green Bean Sheet Jelly w/ Assorted Vegetables (東北大拉皮) – Another good order by my friend.”
Taste Of North China
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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As soon as my party and I sat in the place we noticed everyone ordering two peculiar dishes:
– Country Style Pork Chop. Very tasty, big, and you have to eat them with your hands with gloves. The restaurant will provide you with the gloves. It seems the best part is by sucking the bone for the flavor and eating the meat that is close to the bone.
– Lamb w Cumin in Hot & Chili. I've had these in a restaurant in Flushing. They are definitely tasty.
Too bad we didn't order them because were were on a hurry. But, next time we will order them to truly enjoy them!
We ordered Mapo Tofu, Lamb kebab, Salt & Pepper Pork Chop, and Sliced Beef XinJiang Style. They were all good dishes.
The decoration of the place can be very simple and misleading… Thou shall not judge a book by its cover! Tho some chairs and tables need to be moved around because we were seated in a corner and close by a pillar with barely enough room to enjoy the meal, and in addition the table was a little bit slanted. Other than that, the food is very enjoyable at this place!
Definitely worth coming back to this place for the dishes that we missed out: Country Style Pork Chop and Lamb w Cumin in Hot & Chili…
We've only gotten delivery from Taste of North China. Never went in to the restaurant, so can't speak for the decor or service. Call in an order and it's the usual quick exchange of information, no pleasantries. Food usually comes very quick (admittedly I can walk there in under 10min, so they don't have to go far to get to us).
As for the food, I'm giving 4 stars not because I think it is any better than average, but because everything else I've tasted in Downtown Jersey City is subpar, so this is the best option around (best of the worst?). We get the same thing every time… wonton soup, pork fried rice, sesame chicken. The wonton soup is OK. pretty basic. They never send crispy noodles or fortune cookies, which I find odd. The fried rice is decent. The sesame chicken is also decent, could use some more sesame, and more broccoli, to at least let me believe i'm eating something healthy
Decent Chinese food for the area.
We ordered the green bean noodle dish, a beef and pepper noodle soup, and the lamb chop dish. The former was fairly light and refresh with nice kick from some spiciness, while the beef and pepper noodles were decent, the noodles a bit too overcooked but pretty hefty in serving size. The lamb chops were surprisingly fried, which detracted a bit from the flavor and was sadly a little bland without it being coated in spicy flakes. Overall, the food was fine for Chinese and wasn't terribly expensive.
Chinese food, some construction around the edge. Looked in – no one eating there. Or so we thought – they didn't bother seating anyone at the front (everyone was seated inside). When we walked in, the sound of people and food filled the air.
The back looks like it was a converted bank, a large steel door and space opening into another dining room. The walls rather interestingly painted and looks like half the restaurant isn't even set up, yet. They had a grand opening earlier this year.
Service… basically you have to flag people down if you want anything. The table was lopsided and things at the edge were dangerously unstable. Watch it if you have kids. Tea was far too strong, steeped probably a while before we actually even came into the restaurant.
The dishes we tried:
東北大拉皮Green Bean Sheet Jelly w. Assorted Vegetable: Cold dish, not enough spice or vinegar, but it was a crunchy kind of refreshing salad almost in sesame and peanut sauce. Carrots, cucumbers, black tree mushrooms, and some tofu/egg sheets.
榨菜肉絲麵Pork & Salted Cabbage Noodle Soup: Enough for 4-5 people to share, and not too crazy on the salted side, the pork was a good balance.
羊肉串Lamb Kebab (3): Lacked the flavor of being cooked over the charcoal grill, and not nearly the best mix of cumin and spice. Dry lamb, too, too lean.
Overall, well attended by (literally all) Chinese people, and some of the other dishes looked good – will have to come back to try some more dishes to fully get a better review in.
I've been here a few times only because one of my coworkers loves this place. This place has your typical mediocre Chinese food- very non-authentic unless you speak to the manager and get friendly. My 3-star rating is based primarily on the food. The setup of the restaurant is very, very strange. It looks as if they're perpetually under construction!
Service is great. Waiters and managers are really friendly, and I've often ordered something not on the menu, that they suggested. Good for groups as there's plenty of space.
This restaurant has served chinese food forever. It's always been pretty decent chinese food too. But what is lacks is personality in these 3 areas – service, decor, and music.
Let me tell you why I think this:
1) One time I was here for the Lobster special, I think it was 2 Lobsters, served any way for like $30 bucks or something like that ( don't quote me! ) Everything was cool, until we realized that Whitney Houston's "I wanna dance with somebody" was on repeat. The ENTIRE TIME we were there.
2) Another time I was here we decided to try the soup dumplings. The server did not give us any spoons. So then we asked for some spoons. He came back and brought us 3 silver spoons. I. DON'T. UNDERSTAND. Am I not in a chinese restaurant that serves xia long bao?
3) They just need to do something about the decor in here. It's one thing to be minimalistic, it's quite another to just not think about it at all and open a restaurant that wants repeat customers.
3 stars for food. 2 stars for everything else. I don't think I'll be returning here.
While I'm always glad to see a new restaurant, especially one that focuses on Chinese cuisine, open up in Jersey City, I can't say that Taste of North China is one that I'll put in my daily rotation. It has it's strong(er) points: it's conveniently located in downtown JC just a quick walk from the PATH, the seating is spacious so waits for a table are almost never going to happen, and the food is reasonably priced.
The focus may be on dishes of North China, but there's a whole range of regional cuisines that are in its lengthy menu – anything from Shanghai, to Hunan, to Sichuan, to Beijing. There's the comforting Scallion Pancakes, for example, which are served crispy (albeit a tad too oily) with the requisite vingar-y dipping sauce. I was pleasantly surprised by the Pork Belly in Garlic Sauce, which was cooked to a pleasant tenderness and had a surprising punch of flavor in the savory and aromatic sauce. The soup dumplings are similarly satisfying, although the skins are a bit too thick for my personal preference.
For some reason, I've had less luck with the larger "main" dishes. The Shredded Pork in Garlic Sauce is probably one of the safer bets, but the amount of sauce that coated the pork and vegetables was a little overwhelming, and it lacked the signature "Yu Xiang" flavor. The Kung Pao Chicken shares too many similarities with its American-ized interpretation versus the original, falling prey to the issue of over-saucing and too much sweetness.
There's certainly a number of dishes on the extensive menu that I've yet to try, so it's possible there's hidden gems that I've overlooked in my two visits here. Add to that the fact that the room and decor is far from comfortable and that service isn't the most attentive, and the likelihood of finding me here grows less and less. At the end of the day, I'd rather stick with the steadfast places I've grown familiar with, however, instead of take my chances; but that's entirely just personal preference.
Restaurants in Jersey City area, you have a serious competitor here!
Try the skewers, dumplings and pork bones.