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Wilkanoid
Citizen
Username: Cseleosida
Post Number: 601
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, July 13, 2006 - 11:25 am: | 
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Now that Joy Luck Pavilion is gone, where do I go? |
Projects Dude
Citizen
Username: Quakes
Post Number: 172
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, July 13, 2006 - 12:06 pm: |
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Is it really gone for good? Wasn't it only for renovations? |
Wilkanoid
Citizen
Username: Cseleosida
Post Number: 602
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, July 13, 2006 - 12:11 pm: |
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I'm not sure. I haven't been there since someone mentioned that it was closed. |
Joe
Citizen
Username: Gonets
Post Number: 1277
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, July 13, 2006 - 12:29 pm: |
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Actually we went to Taste of Asia II on Main St. (at the corner of Passaic) in Chatham. It was very good. So much so that we went again the next week. But I believe they only serve Dim Sum on Sundays. |
papayagirl
Citizen
Username: Papayagirl
Post Number: 598
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, July 13, 2006 - 12:39 pm: |
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People have had good things to say about Wonder Seafood in Edison on another board.
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=84288
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mimi
Citizen
Username: Mimi
Post Number: 273
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, July 13, 2006 - 4:29 pm: |
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please tell me joy luck isn't officially gone for good. when we went a few weeks ago, the sign on the door said it was just closed for renovations.... |
Projects Dude
Citizen
Username: Quakes
Post Number: 174
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, July 16, 2006 - 2:20 pm: |
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Papayagirl,
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Wonder Seafood is awesome! Just checked it out after I saw your link. It really is excellent. Very authentic and fresh. Definitely the best I've had outside of New York City and even better than many in Chinatown itself.
The place was crowded when we went there around noon. As is typical of good dim sum places we had to share a table with others but truly worth it for the quality of food. It's a bit of a drive down but definitely worth it. |
Lizziecat
Citizen
Username: Lizziecat
Post Number: 1322
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, July 16, 2006 - 5:18 pm: |
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Just looked at the menu for Wonder Seafood. We had all those things today at the China Gourmet. They bring everything around on carts. There was even more variety, but we didn't have room. Service is great, there are tablecloths and cloth napkins, and they have a bar. And it's a lot closer. |
Wilkanoid
Citizen
Username: Cseleosida
Post Number: 603
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Monday, July 17, 2006 - 10:17 am: |
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Lizziecat --
How would you compare the quality of the food at China Gourmet with Joy Luck? I'm especially picky about the wrappers on the dumplings -- Joy Luck had wonderful, thin wrappings. That's what they're supposed to be like.
There's another place in Livingston called Ocean King which is frequented by Asians, but the dumpling wrappers at that place were thick and pasty. We never went back after we found Joy Luck.
W |
Suzanne Ng
Citizen
Username: Suzanneng
Post Number: 855
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Monday, July 17, 2006 - 10:53 am: |
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If Ocean King was in the strip mall just north of the Livingston Avenue / Mt Pleasant Ave intersection, they closed years ago, probably in anticipation of the new Livingston Center project.
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Wilkanoid
Citizen
Username: Cseleosida
Post Number: 604
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Monday, July 17, 2006 - 11:41 am: |
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Yup, I think that was it. I guess it's a good thing I never went back.
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Projects Dude
Citizen
Username: Quakes
Post Number: 176
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Monday, July 17, 2006 - 3:38 pm: |
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Where is China Gourmet? I am curious it is probably the closest remaining one if Joy Luck is truly closed for good. Previously I had only patronized Joy Luck because I was told it was maybe slightly better than China Gourmet and it's a lot nearer to where I live. Joy Luck was a very decent place for my dim sum cravings on weekends especially since it doesn't require me to drive into Manhattan or Queens, but quality-wise it was not really comparable to the better Chinatown restaurants.
Based on only one experience, I do think Wonder Seafood is a lot better than Joy Luck which is why I'm so pumped. Afficionados would be happy to know the wrappings (or the 'skin') of the dumplings are thin and light! If China Gourmet is of similar standard I will never have to eat dim sum in the city again. |
Projects Dude
Citizen
Username: Quakes
Post Number: 179
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Monday, July 17, 2006 - 3:58 pm: |
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Where is China Gourmet? I am curious it is probably the closest remaining one if Joy Luck is truly closed for good. Previously I had only patronized Joy Luck because I was told it was maybe slightly better than China Gourmet and it's a lot nearer to where I live. Joy Luck was a very decent place for my dim sum cravings on weekends especially since it doesn't require me to drive into Manhattan or Queens, but quality-wise it was not really comparable to the better Chinatown restaurants.
Based on only one experience, I do think Wonder Seafood is a lot better than Joy Luck which is why I'm so pumped. Afficionados would be happy to know the wrappings (or the 'skin') of the dumplings are thin and light! If China Gourmet is of similar standard I will never have to eat dim sum in the city again. |
Lizziecat
Citizen
Username: Lizziecat
Post Number: 1323
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, July 17, 2006 - 5:03 pm: |
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I've never been to Joy Luck, so I can't compare. China Gourmet is in West Orange, on Eagle Rock Avenue, off Prospect. We've been going there for years, and have tried other Chinese restaurants in the area, bu always go back to China Gourmet. |
Suzanne Ng
Citizen
Username: Suzanneng
Post Number: 857
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Monday, July 17, 2006 - 5:30 pm: |
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For a more specific location than Lizziecat provided, China Gourmet is on Eagle Rock Ave, close to Prospect Avenue, near Pals Cabin, and next door to Ponderosa. |
Lizziecat
Citizen
Username: Lizziecat
Post Number: 1326
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, July 17, 2006 - 9:13 pm: |
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Thank you Suzanne. I wanted to say that it'snear Pal's Cabin, but for some reason the name just went completely out of my head. Other things we like about China Gourmet are the friendly, courteous service and the cleanliness. |
Projects Dude
Citizen
Username: Quakes
Post Number: 181
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 8:52 pm: |
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Thanks guys! Will check it out. I'll let you know if it's worth making a little trip to Edison to eat at Wonder Seafood instead. |
Nick Pai
Citizen
Username: Npai
Post Number: 1
Registered: 7-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - 9:56 am: |
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China Gourmet is fantastic. Place is nothing to look at from the outside, but the food was excellent
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Wilkanoid
Citizen
Username: Cseleosida
Post Number: 614
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - 10:03 am: |
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OK, so China Gourmet in WO and China Chalet in Florham Park (from another thread) are on the list of places to try. If we get to one of them this weekend, I'll report back. Edison is just too far for me. |
heroman
Citizen
Username: Heroman
Post Number: 115
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - 10:55 am: |
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China Gourmet is on Eagle Rock. At Pal's Cabin turn left, China Gourmet is on the left after Ponderosa and directly across from Mayfair farms. We always go to China Gourmet. Unless it's my own dim sum or cooking, I don't go anywhere else around here...well Kam Man for groceries...but then again I'm Chinese. |
BGS
Supporter
Username: Bgs
Post Number: 1173
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - 11:18 am: |
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We have been to both China's - Gourmet and Chalet- both excellent venues for authentic cooking...
We went to Chalet with someone who is fluent in many dialects and he ordered our meal in the native language and we were so impressed with the dishes that came out...the DimSum at Gourmet is just excellent...so many choices and so reasonable.
Hope you enjoy!
B |
Daniel M. Jacobs, PP, AICP
Supporter
Username: Conrail
Post Number: 122
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - 8:23 pm: |
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Here is an obvious question: Is Kam Man a Chinese supermarket? If so, where is it located?
Xie Xie.
- Daniel |
Projects Dude
Citizen
Username: Quakes
Post Number: 186
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - 10:05 pm: |
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Kam Man is along Route 10 in East Hanover. It shares the same large parking lot as Home Depot so it's hard to miss if you do a websearch for Home Depot in East Hanover. About a 20 min drive from Maplewood.
Yes, it's a chinese supermarket which is part of a chain that has original locations in NYC Chinatown, Flushing, etc. |
Virtual It Girl
Citizen
Username: Shh
Post Number: 4851
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - 10:06 pm: |
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Based on these recs we went to China Gourmet tonight. Tried 2 dishes from the little menu, a shrimp/vermicelli/shrimp roe pot and buddhist delight filled with all good & some unusual vegetables. Both were good, but my husband was freaked out by the eyes, heads, legs and shells on the shrimp.
Saw someone on the way out with what looked like sauteed spinach, that looked good.
What do you aficionadoes recommend there? I don't eat meat or chicken, but I bet my husband and 2 of my girls would try a meat dish if we go back. I like squid & shrimp a lot.
I aksed for suggestions but our waitess was not too friendly or helpful, or perhaps it was a language thing? A waiter after told us we should order without shell next time. |
Lizziecat
Citizen
Username: Lizziecat
Post Number: 1341
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - 11:58 pm: |
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Most of the waitresses at the China Gourmet are new arrivals and don't speak English very well. The waiters speak much more English, and are generally very helpful, especially, Chow, the small, slight one with glasses, and Owen, the young crew-cut guy who is the manager.
If you're a vegetarian, there are a couple of tofu dishes that you might like. The spinachy thing was probably Chinese broccali. There is also a sauteed stringbean dish that's very good, but I'm not sure if it's completely vegetarian. Chow and Owen are both lovely people, and if you ask for them they'll be happy to help you. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 10246
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Thursday, July 27, 2006 - 1:17 am: |
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a) The stringbean dish is called Four Seasons Beans (siji dou) and is vegetarian. Another good veggie dish is the pea sprouts (dou miao).
2) The staff at China Gourmet has never been as friendly or helpful as at Joy Luck. Don't know why. They probably don't want to recommend something because 1) they like to eat things you may not enjoy and 2) they don't want to be blamed when you realize you dislike sea slug.
c) Eat the shrimp heads. They're crunchy! Get to know your food.
d) Try any of the whole fish dishes (not fillets). They're Cantonese, so that's their thing (along with dim sum and soup at the beginning of a meal). |
Virtual It Girl
Citizen
Username: Shh
Post Number: 4854
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, July 27, 2006 - 7:14 am: |
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The waiter was probably Chow, and he was much friendlier than the waitress.
My husband was a little freaked out by the heads. He said he doesn't like to work for his food, so he never gets lobster either.
There was a sole dish that I almost ordered. We could do whole fish for sure.
If we ordered dim sum, wouldn't it include a lot of pork? |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 10253
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Thursday, July 27, 2006 - 2:46 pm: |
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Just tell him to eat the whole shrimp and stop playin' with his food. No work there.
Dim sum is mostly shrimp (lots without shells), but also some pork, some veggie, some chicken, often softshell crab. The wait staff pushes carts around and they describe it to you and you signal whether or not you want it. Do NOT get the sea cucumber or radish cake. If they don't have something you think you want, just mention it to them and they can sometimes have it ready quickly. |
Virtual It Girl
Citizen
Username: Shh
Post Number: 4863
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, July 27, 2006 - 3:01 pm: |
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I was tempted to just pop the darn thing in my mouth but wasn't sure how my body would deal with the shell. I'll try it with my leftovers for lunch!
Can you get dim sum with dinner, and it comes out on a cart? I just assumed assorted dim sum was a plate of different buns & dumpling type things.
I've been eating "Chinese" food my whole life but I feel so ignorant! |
Projects Dude
Citizen
Username: Quakes
Post Number: 187
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, July 27, 2006 - 4:48 pm: |
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VIG,
Sounds like your husband's shrimp was in a stew/hotpot... unless it's a tiny dried shrimp (which doesn't sound like it is) I wouldn't recommend trying eat the shell or head in that case... if it's a deep fried that's totally different altogether because the shell will be crispy.
Dim sum is typically served as a brunch/lunch so harder to get them in carts outside of the 11am-3pm timeframe. You can always buy some of the more common dim sum frozen and steam them up at home. |
Virtual It Girl
Citizen
Username: Shh
Post Number: 4864
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, July 27, 2006 - 5:16 pm: |
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Gulp.
It was in a clay pot. I had a few leftover soI tried them for lunch. Shell was not too crispy, but it tasted a little mealy so I tossed it. The vegetables from the Buddhist delight were really good though, lots of unusual mushrooms and things I've seen in the Asian market but never knew what to do with.
Dude, we bought a bunch of dim sum for my daughter's asian themed b-day. We loved them! |
heroman
Citizen
Username: Heroman
Post Number: 122
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Friday, July 28, 2006 - 1:19 pm: |
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VIG, that's amusing. Americans don't know from Chinese food. It stares back, is sometimes really slimy, some is fungus etc. We eat pork and parts...it's not for the timid and the real stuff is just not in the average restaurants. dim sum is chinese tea/brunch. anglos have little cucumber sandwiches, spanish have tapas, and everyone has some sort of dumpling. At least you're adventurous. |
Projects Dude
Citizen
Username: Quakes
Post Number: 188
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Friday, July 28, 2006 - 7:38 pm: |
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Actually Chinese food is really not all that strange compared to Old World cuisines. If you look at traditional European cuisines - be it French, German, Italian, etc. - you'll see that it's not at all uncommon to have things like bone marrow, tongue, intestines, liver, hooves, whole fish, etc. as a dish. I guess here in America most of the food are pretty 'standardized' - probably reflects the bounty of food available in this land, and not having to make do with whatever's edible out of necessity due to things like famine, etc. |
Projects Dude
Citizen
Username: Quakes
Post Number: 191
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, July 29, 2006 - 12:51 pm: |
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So just checked out China Gourmet with a few other dim sum fanatics. The place is clean and feels more upscale than the former Joy Luck pavillion. However, as much as I was hoping that it will be my new dim sum haunt, I have to say that we left disappointed. My personal opinion - and there's no accounting for personal preferences and tastes - is that the former Joy Luck was better and Wonder Seafood in Edison is a LOT better for the quality of the dim sum per se. Not that China Gourmet was inedible or anything just that the dim sum didn't seem to stack up to other places. I probably will return again just because it was decent, reasonably priced especially for the cleanliness and it's definitely conveniently located.
But for the bunch of us who would actually make long drives into the city for dim sum fixes occasionally, if there's any flexibility to add some driving time, seems like I'd prefer to head to Wonder Seafood.
It do get the feeling that the restaurant really didn't start out as a dim sum place and is a more traditional restaurant. Will definitely want to go back to check out their non-dim sum menu which looked promising. |
Wilkanoid
Citizen
Username: Cseleosida
Post Number: 621
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Monday, July 31, 2006 - 10:58 am: |
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I would say that China Gourmet is a good enough substitute for Joy Luck, but it's still just a substitute. The dim sum is good enough, a bit less flavorful (less salt? msg? fish sauce?), and the variety wasn't as good. We were there at 12:45pm so the late hour might have something to do with it. Some specifics of what we did have in comparison to Joy Luck:
- Roast pork buns (char siew pao) have less food coloring and a more watery filling, but the dough was fine.
- Chicken with broccoli was more flavorful than Bill and Harry's, but less so than Joy Luck
- shrimp dumpling wrappers were properly thin, and were ok.
- Sesame Ball filling was thinner, tasted like it had peanuts in it rather than just red bean paste
There was no congee cart that we saw, and the char siew so (sp?) - a triangular flaky pastry filled with the same roast pork filling as the pao - looked pretty bad so we didn't try it. The pastry looked greasy and gloppy.
I agree with Projects Dude -- the restaurant seems like it's more upscale than Joy Luck. I was also amused to see the traditional chinese building, complete with the lions in front and the pagoda-like structure.
Not bad for a quick dim sum fix, but I'm still hoping that Joy Luck reopens.
Anyone care to post the must-have dishes from the regular menu?
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Projects Dude
Citizen
Username: Quakes
Post Number: 192
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Monday, July 31, 2006 - 6:34 pm: |
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For me, China Gourmet is a place where I just need to figure out which dim sum dishes to avoid and which specific ones are better. Here are my quick observations from that one visit:
- Steamed shrimp in rice sheet rolls (har cheong): was overcooked. the wrap was breaking up into small pieces which made it impossible to grab with a chopstick and you had to scoop with a spoon instead.
- Steamed diced pork ribs: was a little blander compared to others but was reasonably good.
- Steamed tripe: same as above.
- Fried turnip cake: had a nice crust on it but inside was really mushy... didn't really care for it.
- Steamed pork dumpling (siew mai): was a little overcooked too but was good.
Perhaps we were unlucky and caught the dishes that had been steaming for too long, although we arrived before noon which is at the start of peak dining. On our way out we noticed that the fried stuffed bell peppers and eggplants frying near the entrace did look good. |
Projects Dude
Citizen
Username: Quakes
Post Number: 193
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Monday, July 31, 2006 - 6:36 pm: |
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BTW, Joy Luck seems to be closed for good. We drove by and pulled into the lot to see if they had put up a new sign stating their reopening date, but there was none. Even the sign that previously stated they were undergoing renovations was gone and there didn't seem to be any work being done.
What a shame although I can't say I'm overly surprised. The place is pretty big but never seemed to have too many patrons except for weekend dim sum. |
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