Jade Dumpling & Noodle House — Restaurant in Eugene

2024-04-15 207 E 5th Ave, Eugene, OR

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EAT HERE!  So good! Try this place before it gets too well known.

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We are always on the search for a good Chinese restaurant. In the Phoenix Metro area in Arizona, they were extremely hard to come by. So far in Klamath Falls we haven't found one that we would consider to be good.  So, we took our trip to Eugene as an opportunity to try and find good Chinese food.  We were also yearning for good Indian, Vietnamese and Japanese food.  (Kin Thai in Medford had scratched the Thai food Itch recently.) We only had time for two dinner meals in Eugene and wanted two great meals.

Google came up with a very highly rated "Jade Noodle House.”  I generally shy away from chains, and this was a chain of at least two restaurants, but both were highly rated. We went to the one nearest our motel.

When we walked in, I got nervous.  This place was way too nice inside.  It was both elegant and understated.  It wasn't cheesy, or loud or bare bones, it was really nice.  In my experience good food and a nice ambiance are mutually exclusive in Chinese restaurants.  (I can say this without being too politically incorrect because I'm half chinese.) I can't remember a single instance in the last 15 years when I've had good Chinese food in a really nice looking restaurant.

We sat down and received our menus from a really friendly Chinese waitress, (this also made me nervous).  The selection was good if not extensive.  The prices were reasonable but not inexpensive.

We ordered Sichuan Spicy Noodle Soup, Pork and Cabbage Dumplings, Stir Fried Green Beans, Chicken Steamed Buns.  We wanted leftovers so we ordered more than we could eat.

Everything was incredibly good, and the servings were very generous!  We had lots of leftovers to eat for breakfast and lunch the next day.  If I had died right after the meal, I would have died a happy man!

The next day, my daughter and a friend met me at the restaurant for our second dinner.  They ordered Pork, Shrimp and Chives Dumplings, Chicken Dumplings and, Vegetable Steamed Buns.  I ordered Kung Pao Chicken so I could compare a standard dish to all the other Kung Pao Chicken I've eaten elsewhere. It had been a miserable day for me so I was grateful to sit down and eat. The incredible meal dragged me by the taste buds, to a much happier place.

At the end of the meal I knew I had to write a great review of this place, so I asked my waiter if I could take some photos.  He brought over his boss and we attempted a conversation.

Communication was difficult and probably pretty funny to watch.  They didn't speak a ton of English and my Mandarin is both meager and awful.   I managed to explain I was going to do a Google review and I wanted some pictures.

This is what I think they told me.  Our waiter's name was Shunxi.  (He was very good, as was the waitress the night before).  The owner's name is Su.  They have been open a fairly short time, and they are all hopeful that the restaurant will be successful.

This place really deserves to succeed and I believe it will do so very rapidly.  Unless Eugene has an absolute plethora of fantastic Chinese food, I predict that soon  it will be so popular that you will have a tough time getting a table there.  Make sure you visit them before it gets discovered.

If I were living in Eugene, I would be eating there four or five times a week until I had gone through the entire menu three or four times.

Those of you who live in Eugene are incredibly lucky to have a Chinese restaurant of such high caliber!

P.S. We never even considered another restaurant for our second meal.   We had already found gastronomic heaven, why go anywhere else?

PPS. I apologize for being so lame and not having any photos.  I was tired and had no intention of reviewing this place.   It was so good, I was compelled to sing their praises in...

👎🏼 Edit: we got the Kung Pao tofu, and on the menu it said it was made with green onion. But when we got home and ate it, it was half white onion and not any green onions and barely any of the classic peanuts and green peppers. (and very one dimensional and not very tasty). That’s how you put totally cheap worthless ingredients and food, make it half white onion. I’m downgrading this place to one star. I know Chinese food really well and I will never eat here again. Also, my sweetheart got nauseous after eating here.

I have a gastrointestinal condition and cannot tolerate white onion, I ate around it, but it was cooked into the food, and I am suffering for it now. I’m very angry at them for their deceptive menu and for this cheap filler white onion Restaurant trick. If they do that, who knows what other shoddy practices they are doing. I would not go here at all. China kitchen over by Churchill high school is a phenomenally good Chinese restaurant. This place is living on its laurels in South Eugene, but deserves to be Passed by.

Previous version of this review : I used to live in the San Francisco, Bay Area and I was taught what good Chinese food is really all about by Asian American friends. We just had the Kung Pao tofu, and it simply was not very flavorful, it did not pop, the tanginess of Szechuan was missing. The best Chinese restaurant in Eugene hands-down is China kitchen over by Churchill. Once you try it, you will never be satisfied with Chinese cooking where they get away with mediocrity because people don’t know better. It lacked in Wok Hay, the garlicky tang of the seasoning conditioning in a good wok cooked in by a good cook who layers flavors and takes the time to not cut corners.

Now I hear they are known for their handmade noodles and their dumplings, alas, I’m gluten-free so I will not find out about that. If that’s what you’re into, go to the Bao Bao house...

I went with a friend for lunch today after chatting with Ben Maude of Chili Royale at Saturday Market, who gave very high ratings about Jade Dumpling & Noodle House (BTW, Ben knows what he's talking about), especially their soup dumplings. I have to say, I fully agree with Ben Maude, Jade's soup dumplings are delicious, and dare I say, superior than even Ding Tai Fung’s (鼎泰丰). We also had fish flavored eggplant dish, the one dish my friend had already decided to order before we even got there, her facial expression said it all after the first bite, perfectly cooked, rightly spiced with Sichuan seasonings, yes, Asian eggplant cooked right retains the vibrant purple color. The next dish was pickled vegetable fish, delicious as well, tender fish slices cooked in very flavorful broth of pickled vegetables and glass noodles. The owner also provided the in house handmade delicious san xian dumplings（三鲜水饺）with stuffings of pork, shrimp and Chinese chives, definitely in the style of northern Chinese food. That's the beauty of this local Chinese restaurant, mostly Sichuan flavor enhanced with other regional flavors of China, a true reflection of the owner's perseverance in his trade, a self taught chef, and his commitment to the local foodies. (Full disclosure, I've had conversations with the owner here and there, as a foodie only). Service's fast, waiter's very pleasant, indeed, I ...