Jade Cafe — Restaurant in East Pennsboro Township

This Mom-n-Pop shop has several dishes on the menu that are expertly made and served. Sadly, over the last couple decades, Chinese cuisine has been reduced to a Panda-like abbreviated menu for takeout.

Many restaurants with a real chef will have a "secret" menu for those who know. Fortunately for us, this secret menu is on the back page.

During my travels, I stumbled onto this place by finding it with high ratings on another yalpy food rating website. I was so hungry and was happy they had a dining area. As soon as I discovered the "secret menu", my original order got immediately changed, What a culinary joy!

Since then, the few times a year that I am in the area, I make an attempt to enjoy their food, especially the Fish Fillets in Chili Sauce. It is so so good. To me there is enough spice and Szechuan peppercorns to make me sweat a little, but not so much that i'm in tears or can't sleep at night. The flavor is impeccable - to the point that I think about this dish when Im away at home. The chef here excels in savory dishes and I've tried a few other menu items as well.

This restaurant has definitely seen better days in the past - and now does mainly takeout orders. Ironically, I've only ever dined-in (about a half dozen times now) and "Mom" always serves me with earnest, sincerity, and pleasantry. Although English is not her native language, she does her best - and you can tell.

I've given this place a full rating - despite shortcomings in the atmosphere, simply because you can get great authentic dishes with healthy portions, at a bargain price. Simply put, big bang...

It was $20 for the beef in spicy sauce, The taste was good and very nice service, but I find it a bit hard to justify $20 for one item that is a bowl of oil with a 75-25 beef to cabbage ratio.

EDIT: I originally critiqued the dishes oil level but after some research (which I should’ve done first) found that’s expected of the dish. So I apologize for that, however for $20 I do wish there was more beef and at the least something other than just beef+cabbage to compensate. Green onion, bean sprouts, tofu, etc, a lot could’ve been there but it was a bit disappointing on that end.

I’d be down to try again and give another chance, but I find that typically restaurants with this large of a menu tend to fall flat on a lot and that makes me a bit nervous.

Very nice...

I ordered pick up yesterday and today for lunch. Their lunch special prices are cheaper than other Chinese restaurants around.

Yesterday, I order an orange chicken lunch special, Szechuan pork lunch special, and hot & sour soup. Their fried rice has flavor and isn’t dry like many places I’ve tried before! I really liked their and hot and sour soup.

Today, I bought another hot & sour soup because I liked it so much! I bought a pork egg foo yung, (my first time trying EFY) and I loved it! I bought house lo mein because who doesn’t lift noodles????

My favorite Chinese spot in the...