Anthony S.
Yelp
I'll start with the positives:
This place has a very welcoming old-school Chinese restaurant vibe. The staff is kind and the owner is very sweet.
They offer $10 lunch specials, which is a very good value. There are 30 something options to choose from, and each meal comes with rice and a soup of your choice (and hot tea!)
However, when it comes to the actual food, Jade Dynasty is just a bit lacking.
First, instead of bringing baskets of fried wonton strips and duck sauce out to the table when you get there, they just leave them sitting on the tables at all times, so that they're already there when you arrive. This might sound convenient, but it makes for very stale wonton strips.
I ordered the spare ribs with vegetable fried rice. The sauce on the ribs was pretty good, but the meat itself was quite bland and a bit tough. They were definitely edible, but nothing to write home about. I wouldn't order them again.
I asked the waiter for a spicy sauce he would recommend. He smiled and brought out a dish of what looked like some kind of chili oil (pepper flakes, seeds, etc.). I was excited. However, to my surprise, this sauce had -- and let me be clear, this is by no means an exaggeration -- no flavor whatsoever, let alone any heat. It literally just tasted like oil, and I'm not sure how this is possible given the fact that there were mounds of crushed pepper in it. And let me repeat this for emphasis: I'm not saying that the pepper oil was too mild for my own personal tastes, or that I wasn't a fan of the flavor profile. I'm saying that there wasn't even a flavor to judge.
The rice had a very burnt flavor, which was unfortunate.
The hot and sour soup was decent. It definitely had a sour element and a mild kick. There was pork in it. However, at times I couldn't help but think that it tasted like those bottles of lemon-pepper dressing.
I've been here a few times now over the years.
Would I go back? Sure. But I'll go back because of the communal atmosphere and local charm, not because of the food.