Chris P.
Yelp
First off, this place is deceptive -- in a good way!
NEC looks like a little hole in the wall in a so-so area of the Old North, near a couple hookah places & run-down-looking "clubs". We had a lot of doubts when we walked in; no other customers were in the place, the walls were covered in torn menu pictures, the windows were covered over with wrinkled & old menu pictures, the lone employee we saw was listening to some podcast, etc. However, a lot of folks in the Columbus subreddit had recommended it (one had commented that it was the only place her "Chinese parents didn't complain about"), so Husband and I took a deep breath, ventured further in as Employee looked up & Smiled & said "Sit where you want", and we sat down at a table.
Wow, am I glad we DID.
We weren't sure of the menu. We didn't want the typical American-Chinese fare, but the menu didn't have much descriptions beyond basic "protein in brown sauce" type stuff, so we spent a while discussing what to get. We finally decided on the cucumber salad, an egg roll (Husband), the Eggplant/Potato/Green Pepper (Husband) and the Pork with Sweet Bean Paste (me).
Major Caveat: double-check things for the 'spicy' mark, which we both missed with the cucumber salad. The salad was GOOD, but when this place says "spicy", they don't mean "adjusted-for-Midwest-America Spicy" (which seems to be medium in the rest of the world), they mean SPICY.
(Granted, my perception might just be because my guts can't tolerate spice-heat. Again, it was GOOD, but I couldn't eat more than a couple bites. Not the restaurant's fault!)
However, the other two dishes more than made up for that blip. The Pork/Sweet Bean Paste comes with sheets of buckwheat noodles for you to wrap the pork & rice in, and it was DELICIOUS. Husband loved the Eggplant. Both were fresh, hot, well-made, & tasty -- and in portion sizes that had us taking well over half the order home. And more folks did come in & acted like they were regulars, so that's ALWAYS a great sign!
Additional bonus: all the leftovers were just as delicious the next day for lunch. :)
So, TL;DR: Don't be put off by the initial appearance; when they say spicy, they mean SPICY; and DAMN, THE FOOD IS GOOD.