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| - I've been to almost a dozen Chinese restaurants and buffets since I came to the West Valley two years ago. I have looked for (but never found) cuisine on par with the restaurants of my home town (Toledo, Ohio). But thanks to some reviewers on Yelp, and a leap of faith, I tried T & J Asian Cuisine on Christmas 09 and I can finally say--with great relief--I've found my restaurant. There is nothing fancy about the name, or the location (a strip mall with a Safeway and an iHop) but the food is very good and the prices are very reasonable.
The space itself is a single room with lots of windows. None of the surfaces, neither the sixteen tables, booths or chairs, appeared worn or damaged. There is a sheen (not quite elegance) and brightness about the place. From the dining area to the restrooms, the space is inviting and clean. It doesn't any way feel like a "hole in the wall." There is seating at the bar, and two of the tables have the traditional Chinese lazy Susan. Criticism: I encourage the management to remove the posters of dishes and party trays from the wall. They're helpful, but tacky. (Yes, they do party trays. No delivery, though.)
There are twenty-eight dishes with lunch prices. A lunch special is a very sizeable entree, fried rice (they will sub steamed rice), egg roll, crab puff, and egg drop soup. It's a lot of food for a shockingly low $5.25. They even honored this deal on Christmas. If I could level one complaint at T & J it would be that they won't sub the egg drop soup for the won ton (my preference).
The menu is typical of Chinese restaurants: BIG. Many things sounded good. My parents and I had difficulty deciding. Finally, my mother settled on the Chicken w/ Green Beans. The sauce was a "black bean sauce," and whilst I don't know what that is exactly, it was delicious nonetheless. It was designated spicy, but it was only spicy enough to give it some zest. ... My father ordered the Thai Curry Seafood Hot Bowl. It arrived bubbling in a black pot and smelling strongly of curry (no surprise). Within the broth was clams, mussels, shrimp and vegetables. He said he liked it, but not being a fan of seafood or curry, I didn't try it. ... My dish was the old standard General Tso's Chicken. I ordered mine "two times spicy" but it really wasn't really spicy at all. It was flavorful, and by no means bland, but like a lot of Chinese restaurants T & J seems afraid to turn up the heat. The Tso's was supposed to include carrots and sugar snap peas, and it did, but not nearly as many as I'd like. The chicken itself was lightly breaded and very crispy. A good word to describe the dish is "delicate." Worth mentioning: T & J uses nothing but white meat in their chicken dishes.
I returned to T & J a few days later and ordered the Chicken w/ Green Beans for take away. I asked for "extra spicy" and it was... a tad more spicy than before. Well, I guess they tried. But it was still delicious--AND CHEAP! ($5.25!) This is going to be my go-to dish from now on. And T & J will be my go-to Chinese place.
11/26/11 Update: I've been to T&J at least fifty times since my original review and I've yet to be disappointed. I usually order the Chicken w/ Green Beans, but occasionally I'll get the General Tso's (if someone will split it with me, because it doesn't reheat well, being fried) or the Kung Pao Chicken or the Black Pepper Beef. The Kung Pao Chicken has peanuts, bell peppers, zucchini, onions and water chestnuts. It's flavorful, but never spicy. T&J doesn't make their spicy dishes spicy enough. You can tell them "a hundred times spicy!" and they don't do it. For some reason, they can't. The Black Pepper Beef is a recent discovery. It says it comes with green peppers, zucchini, onions and mushrooms, but when I told them "no mushrooms" carrots and water chestnuts appeared in the dish instead. (Maybe those vegetables are always there and the menu description on the website is wrong. I'll have to inquire.) I love this dish because the beef is tender, the sauce is wonderfully peppery, and the veggies are fresh and plentiful.
I honestly do not understand why people go to Good China on Union Hills when T&J has the superior food.
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