Wow, surprisingly good! So many US "Chinese" restaurants are tragic misunderstandings---Chinese owners providing what they think Americans want, Americans ordering what they think is Chinese food, often resulting in gloppy, unhealthy messes.
So even after seeing the positive reviews here I went inside this little shopping-strip location with low expectations. My parents live nearby, and I was frankly expecting to be reminded of one more reasons why it would be hard for me to move back to Alabama (lack of decent Chinese restaurants).
Was immediately encouraged to see more Asian families noshing away than people who looked like they'd gotten lost on their way to the Golden Corral buffet. Another customer was wearing clothes that indicated he was a professional chef somewhere else. Hmm, I thought.
I'm from Alabama but lived in China for about 5 years (and have been visiting there regularly for 20 years), so I asked if there was a special Chinese language menu. No, they said. So we ordered off the standard menu (which is quite expansive and does list the dish names in Chinese). We ordered family style, sharing dishes for the table in the normal Chinese way.
Started with the steamed soup dumplings (xiao long bao). Here they don't ask you if you want vegetable, crab or pork filling, but the dumplings were quite tasty. Thin skin, nice soup, good pork filling--not the overly thick, chewy-skinned things some places serve out of the freezer. Took them about 10 minutes to make; worth the wait. My parents had never had them before but enjoyed them. They served them with the conventional light vinegar sauce (not just soy sauce).
Sweet and sour soup didn't have much of the tangy "suan la" thing going on, but it wasn't overly thickened with starch and had a nice assortment of mushrooms, soft tofu, little bamboo shoots, bean sprouts and wisps of cabbage in it. I was neutral but my parents liked that.
Green beans (gan bian si ji dou) were next. They had lots of ground pork (usually there's less, just for seasoning), and the beans were fresh enough, not rubbery at all, not greasy. Again, the spiciness had been dialed down. My parents loved the beans; that was their favorite dish. I thought they were fine but wanted more punch. Saw some other tables with a steamed Chinese spinach dish that looked yummy.
We had a sizzling iron skillet tofu (tie ban dofu). Vegetables in it were good and fresh. Nice hearty brown sauce. My parents had probably never seen big squares of tofu served on a dish before and didn't become instant fans. Waiter said there's a "house tofu" that's spicy. Might try that one next time.
Our main course was steamed fish (qing zhen yu pian). This was, by far, my favorite dish, and the folks gave it a thumbs up, too, though by that time they were too full to eat much (more for me!). The fish was large, super-tender and succulent! The light, tangy sauce and cilantro perfectly complimented it but were not overpowering. The fish and some more jasmine tea were a nice way to finish the meal.
They served a big bowl of white rice without my ordering it specifically. It wasn't dried out or too clumpy.
Wait staff were friendly and attentive. Couple of them were guys, including one tall man from Malaysia (who speaks Chinese). Our mainland China waitress was sweet and friendly. She said the owners are Taiwanese.
Decor was better than I expected too (it's an older shopping strip, with a pharmacy next door that looks like it last updated its fixtures and much of its inventory before the civil rights movement). Chen's is simply but pleasantly decorated. It's well lit, which is not apparent from the outside. It's also very clean.
If you put this place in its local context, it's a 5-star godsend. But that could signal something even better. The soup dumplings here are not as good as those at Joe's Shanghai in NYC, but this isn't under-the-heat-lamps stuff that usually passes for Chinese food in these parts. If you want authentic Chinese in Birmingham, I don't know of a better option.
So go to Chen's, and for goodness sake order something other than General Tso's chicken and fried rice! read more