David K.

Standard Chinese take out with pictures of their Americanized cuisine on the wall as if you these were portraits from the Hall of Fame. Upon walking into the store there is a heavy scent of burning oil and as you approach the counter you realize that the kitchen is more than three times the size of the waiting area. The waiting area consists of three tables and 8 chairs which obviously came out of some restaurant that is now defunct or has finally decided to dispose of all of their furniture that was from the late 80's. It should be clear that they want you to pick up your food and not hang around too long lolly gagging. Their menu is honest so far as it is clear that this is not mainland Chinese food unless you consider Lodi, NJ on the good old USA to be a haven for gourmet Chinese cookery. The section "American Specialties" offers a Top 12 of the Least Authentic items to appear on a menu, but I give them credit for their honesty and perhaps distance that they create between themselves and these craptastic appetizers. My first bite into my dumpling and frankly it was not bad at all. The dumplings were fried well and not too the point that they would require a jack hammer to get to the porky goodness. They were also not too gummy from an incorrect dough to pork ratio. The only issue I had was the after taste of burnt oil which confirmed the scent which I detected upon entry. So perhaps next time I would order these steamed instead, but it was not so bad as to ruin my dish. The dumpling sauce has the right balance of sweetness and a single cup is sufficient for dipping all 8 dumplings from your order. No need to make a supermarket stop on the way home as they have a fully stocked fridge of various sodas and Snapples to get a different drink for every member of your family or even 2 Liter bottles if you can manage for everyone to agree to the same. Epilogue: Within 15 minutes after completing my dumplings I felt like they were swelling up like matzo balls the size of soft balls. My only hope was to make it home where I could cure my stomach cramps in privacy. The moral to this story is to order delivery or dine-in at your own risk. Just to be clear, bathrooms are NOT available for use by customers.