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| - This place opened relatively recently, I think. I've tried it twice for quick lunches.
The first time I ordered a Bento box and the food was just fine, with a good variety of items in the box and relatively quick speed for the dish to arrive. The second time was not quite so good. I ordered from the Chinese menu, a garlic chicken, and it was really, really small. The flavour was okay, but you can get far bigger portions in Chinatown for the same price.
As with many Asian places, this place suffers from, well, presumptuousness. I was not pleased the second time I walked in when they automatically put the all-you-can-eat sushi menu in my hand. How about bothering to ask, huh? The waitresses spoke such poor English that I felt like I was butting my head against the wall when asking for *anything* (and I happen to speak some Mandarin). This is another one of those Asian places where the servers allow their language barrier to come across as rudeness. You really have to have a high tolerance for curt responses, stony expressions and awkward communication at this place, because TCJ really does not create a great atmosphere for your dining experience. The owners and managers need to work on getting their serving staff to look as if they actually want the customers there. They failed my usual "water refill test" -- took me about five minutes to nail down a waitress to get something so basic -- and when they did finally notice me, their response was cold and impatient.
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(Update: September 2014)
Original two-star rating raised to three stars.
I went back a third time to TCJ during lunchtime and had a good experience. While service is still hit-or-miss -- although I was the only customer there for about 25 minutes, the waitresses talked with one another too much and weren't very attentive -- I had a General Tsao's chicken that was substantially bigger in portion than the last Chinese meal I tried to have here. The order also came with decent vegetables and fried rice that actually tasted like real fried rice. The experience is good enough for me to raise my assessment to at least an average, decent place worth going to.
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