North China — Restaurant in Centerville

I LOVE this Restaurant!

When you come in you are always welcomed cordially, seated promptly, served professionally, and to top it all off the food is the first-rate!

Their prices are higher than average, but remain affordable even for those on a budget like me, and what you GET for those few dollars more! When you order "pork fried rice" here it's no sorry pint with three measly chunks of pork, you get a serving plate piled with more pork, rice, and vegetables than any one person could possibly consume in a single sitting, (unless they were one of those "professional eaters" I suppose,) and don't think the quality suffers from this abundance! I am quite critical of my food choices, and would not give North China 5 stars if their food weren't top flight in every respect: the meat is clearly identifiable and seasoned to perfection without resorting to the common and grotesque over the use of peppers.

If your one of those people who think the pork in Chinese restaurants used to bark and the beef neighed come to North China and think again! (But please, be civil about it, this is a family establishment and we don't need obnoxious people making a scene.)

However, let it not be said that I'm going to just enthuse about the place when it does have its share of flaws.

First: The background music has recently been changed from traditional Chinese to some sort of 'easy listening' rock station, which I find greatly detracts from the ambiance.

Second: there is a bar here, and alcohol is served on request, which has been known to lead to loud drunkenness.

Third: most of the parking is in the rear of the building, the front lot is hard to back out of in larger vehicles, and there is no public entrance in the back, meaning that on rainy days I look elsewhere for food as I dislike being wet.

All that said: North China is among my favorite eateries in the Dayton Metro Area, and I would recommend it to you and anyone else who wants to eat Chinese in the strongest terms!

Update: 14th November 2019: just came in again tonight, quick supper with my mother, nothing too fancy, Sizzling Rice Soup and Teriyaki Beef Sticks: well this time, something wasn't quite as good as normal, I'm not entirely sure what went wrong, but while the sizzling rice soup was excellent, as always two of the Teriyaki Beef Sticks tasted quite 'off': sour, like vinegar, and like a different mix of spices were used to make them. Well, I complained to the waiter, (significantly louder than I had intended to, I was quite shocked, this is the first time that anything like that has happened in the 12+ years I've been coming here), BUT, here is what separates a GOOD restaurant from a GREAT restaurant the waiter took the offensive items back, and had a fresh order prepared to replace it. I also, as I was leaving, passed by one door of the kitchens, (it opens directly behind the front counter for to-go order pick up,) and overheard a tiny bit of what had-to-have-been some kind of not-angry-but-purposeful lecture on "mixing up orders and allergy risks" or the like, in Chinese.

I will definitely return in spite of this unpleasant SNAFU with my order, they made it right and I doubt it is going to recur...

Should you believe the reviews? In one word I would describe the restaurant as efficient, except when it came to bringing out the food! I wasnt sure after reading the reviews, which were conflicted. Recent reviewers had said quality went down. But family members said it was great recently too.

So I went... I wasn't overwhelmed, but I want underwhelmed either. I find myself... whelmed. This means that it was basically what you'd expect.

Service: They got the order for soup wrong but they didn't take it off the bill and replace it, instead they just asked if we liked it. So we said it was fine but it wasn't what we ordered... In exchange they offered to box it for us, but really never acknowledged anything and they let it in the bill. (That would be a great move for them if they accidentally made the wrong soup for someone and decided to dump it on us... Because clearly they didn't want to go and get us the wonton soup we ordered and they thought that was totally fine). On the bright side, the water guy was so good he would fill our glasses very frequently, so much so that we were laughing at the topping-up when our glasses were extremely full already. I know I drank a lot of water, but the water never went down in my glass! Hahaha.... Overall servers were nice. But they seemed to be in a bit of a rush.

Location and atmosphere: good location, great parking, big space inside, super excited about the lack of television which allows one to be present (love that!), Ambience was decent, although you could hear people around you a bit more than desired because of acoustics and table proximity. Pretty sure the table next to us was participating silently in our conversation. LOL.

Food: finally I get to the food! The Mongolian Beef was very good. The garlic chicken not so much, as the celery in it didn't make sense and made it seem odd (seemed like the pieces were tossed in raw and out of place to me) and the flavors weren't as clear. Great job on the rice, and they give you plenty. If you order the soup they combine into "soup for 2" it "soup for 3" but "soup for 3" was enough for 4 people at least. Probably we could have been fine with soup for 2. Soup was nice and they crackled in the rice at the table for special effects which I thought was cool and different (though it was not what we ordered). They did serve some fried pieces of something (fried crisps made of batter) and a bright red sauce, both of which made me think this was not going to be the healthiest meal, but you shouldn't expect it to be of course... Soup was probably the healthiest, though I don't know what they add to it.

Bottom Line: If you're in the mood for Chinese food, and you don't want a salad, and you don't want to spend too much, and you like sharing, this might be the right place for you! Especially if you hate television in restaurants like I do. It's what you expect, but perhaps...

Just not my favorite, quality lacking, though plentiful: Sweet & sour chicken orange chicken fried rice $40, 4pm Saturday

Both meals were sweet and saucy, a little too sweet. I've never had orange chicken that distinctly tasted of orange marmalade. I've never had sweet and sour chicken take-out that was pre-sauced (in nearly 50 years).

The chicken pieces had a hint of shrimp flavor to them, probably shared boiling oil.

The chicken was saucy outside the breading, but dry and stringy inside... almost like it had been fried twice hoping to last while sitting in heavy sauce. Some of the pieces felt like the candied, sauced breading had baked to a really hard tough piece, almost like when you try to bite into chicken skin thats been fried... to be clear, I dont think this was skin, just the hard crunchy texture.

The white rice was strangely unflavorful, sticky, but strangely dry. I just cant seem to decide what was just not quite right.

The fried rice was ok. Actually, enjoyed the way the snow peas were sliced and added, bite size.

I've had all kinds of US chinese food in many states, and chinese food in several foreign countries... barely a step up from Pittsburgh chinese food (so not the lowest!), below coastal Virginia chinese food - but just not good enough...