China Bowl
“Only restaurant I like in the area that has noodle soups, congee, and roast meats.”
“There's a warmer with hanging Roast Duck and Roast Pig which is always a great sign for a Chinatown style Restaurant.”
“I'm talking back when it was in it's old location and looked even grimier (yes it's possible).”
China Bowl
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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SUNDAY DIM SUM BRUNCH is my FAVORITE! Being Asian and a Rutgers student, I've been here a handful of times because I grew up eating dim sum and authentic chinese food, which I love and crave from time to time. Also, dim sum is a fun way to bond with your friends on a Sunday morning and teach your non-Asian friends some Chinese.
I know that they offer dim sum the entire week from Monday to Sunday, but I've only been here on the weekends for dim sum and dinner on weeknights. The dim sum here is usually a hit or a miss. I would recommend you to come here during the busy hours like when it first opens at 11 to 12:30pm, and you should be save! Also, the cart service is not very efficient in a way. I feel like they tend to linger in the center/front area more than the edge of the dining room. If you have a choice, sit more towards the center area.
I LOVE my DIM SUM HOT, and sometimes the dim sum can get chilled after opening the lid multiple times to show the customers the dishes, so I tend to ask for the dish more towards the bottom of the stack. I've had fresh steamy dim sums here before, but I also received cold, unappetizing ones as well. It really depends on the timing and when you arrive to eat. One good thing about China Bowl over Wonderful Seafood Palace (literally down the street) is that they always have open tables and space in the parking lot. One time I had to wait for about an hour to get a table at Seafood, and the food is not even much better.
Besides Dim Sum, I also tried several dishes for dinner. They give you complementary soup and dessert (sweet soup or oranges) to start and end your meal, so save a little room for those! I'm not sure if the tea is complementary too, but they give you tea that is very poor in quality, almost tasteless. They do have some delicious, authentic Chinese food such as the chicken (whole/half), tofu with salted fish in a claypot, and various vegetable dishes. I noticed that the authentic dishes are only in chinese and the Americanized ones are in English.
The servers are not the most attentive, but if you raise your hand/wave at them, they'll come to you immediately. The servers are rather passive.
If I could I would give it a 3.5. It's not the greatest, but considering it's central NJ, it's not bad at all!
Downgraded for Father's Day experience. Only wanted to get take-out of the BBQ pork and chicken. They had one guy working the meat counter for Father's Day. One guy! I watched him be rude and testy to customers. While some waiters loitered around the cashiering staff was understaffed (two girls scrambling back and forth).
For a simple takeout order we waited about 20 minutes with only 1 order ahead of us.
The restaurant itself smelled musty and unappetizing with slippery floor due to humidity and lack of strong AC on a hot day.
I may be biased because I'm Asian and this is a lot more authentic than your run of the mill Chinese restaurant. The decor and environment may not be anything special, but the food is good if you want some "real" Chinese food beyond just fried rice or orange chicken. Their dim sum is also very good and prices are fair. Parking is a hassle though with the small lot and can also be crowded.
This review is mainly targeted to dim sum (I've tried the rice dishes and non dim sum dishes but do not really recall anything particular about them).
I've been here a bunch for dim sum and overall it's o.k. The food can be a hit or miss and the tables and utensils are dirty and sticky. The only service really varies- the older women are really nice, but the other staff members can be extremely rude and even ignore you.
Last week on Father's Day, we had five dishes that were actually raw. We understood it was a busy day but when we confronted the staff, they merely microwaved the dishes making it inedible. Of course, this was after chasing down a staff member to tell them.
What really made me unhappy was when I waved at a woman worker, who I've heard was the owner's daughter, she ignored me completely. The second I placed my card into the check book, however, she ran over to grab the check (of course with no comment).
The raw food and past few experience have made me decide that I will not be returning to China Bowl anytime soon.
Pro(s):
-close to H-mart supermarket and thats about it. 🙁
Cons:
– not so great dimsum
– interior was not service ready
– roast duck was just okay, comparing to other restaurant who serves roast duck in the area. This one is pretty blehhh..
I would recommend going to different place for dimsum, because i get in a bad mood if eat not so good food..hahahahha
Three Stars. No More. No Less.
The facility was open late for a Thursday night, when many other places were closed.
It has a fairly large footprint, and there were several occupied tables with people happily eating and conversing.
We ordered Steamed Dumplings, Singapore Style Broad Noodles, and Sautéed Water Spinach for the two of us. The Dumpling skin was thick and doughy with a ground Pork filling. Totally forgettable. As my companion opined, "Dumplings for Americans," as she made a sourpuss face. I agreed they sucked.
However, the Noodle dish was ample and tasty, with a mix of Pork, Shrimp and Tofu. It has a mild yellow cast from the dousing with Curry Powder. Enough for at least two meals. The Spinach was the form that had long thick stalks and small tender leaves. The Garlic accompaniment was nice, but the dish could have used more leaf and less stalk. Still, the leaf easily separated from the more coarse branch, and held its flavor well.
Overall, a middle of the road production. Solid, but not endearing.
Pretty legit place.
So this place is pretty basic. Nothing over the top with decor or even staff. We went to have dimsum for brunch and got here at the right time because within a 1/2 hour of us being seated, the barrage of people started coming into the door. Note: we got there around noon on a Sunday. The service is quick but once you're served you're initial round of dim sum from the cart, good luck trying to flag it down again once it gets really busy. They have a few servers walking around with trays of other thing like egg custard, sesame balls, and a few other things so you can likely flag then down. The food is filling and has a decent amount of flavor. I gave it three stars only because we had to flag people down (at one point, even get up to ask for an extra bowl and fork for a kid). I would come back to get a dim sum fix.