Jean and Lee Kitchen — Restaurant in Newton

My family and I went there on January 20 and we drove about an hour to get there. Wow! What a disappointment. You walk in and there are 4 small tables on the first floor and a staircase to upstairs dining room which they closed off. We ordered quite a bit for just the three of us. We love Taiwanese food and would travel distances to try them but I would not be coming back to this one. We ordered 8 dishes. Xiao long bao, beef wrap, beef noodle soup, beef chili pepper, pork chop over rice, salt pepper chicken, stinky tofu, and shredded pork bamboo shoot dried tofu. The Xiao long bag is very tiny and the dough is thick. Nothing like the real Xiao long bao if you ever had the real ones. The beef wrap and beef noodle soup were the only dishes that were decent. The beef in beef chili pepper were tough. The most disappointing for me was the pork chop over rice. I specifically asked her if the rice plate comes with the ground pork sauce and it doesn't. The rice is doused with cooked soy sauce and no meat. I was also very disappointed with the salt and pepper chicken. I asked for popcorn chicken and the owner herself assured me it's authentic and comes with basil. Great! Not great.... there were bone in chicken wings. Owner also suggested stinky tofu but they were not as good as she had claimed. Lastly, the shredded bamboo shoot with dried tofu had hardly any bamboo shoots. The Taiwanese restaurant in chinatown and in Quincy are so much better than this place. So our total tab was about $137 and thisbis just for lunch. I tipped 18% due to the dishonesty of the owner. While we were in sitting in the car waiting for it to warm up.... I can see the owner coming towards us. She came to ask for more tips!!!!...

I have been passing by this golden nugget for years thinking it had to be disgusting like some small hole-in-the-wall joints we've tried. When I checked the neighborhood private website for recommendations, Jean and Lee kitchen had the most! We are now fans! From the moment we walked in we were greeted with a very warm, pleasant welcome. Our server was amazing! she knew exactly what we wanted and was so pleasant, fast, and made us feel very comfortable to be there. You can't help to notice how clean and spacious the dining area was. When the hot tea pot was placed on the table, gee, it was so dang beautiful I couldn't help but wonder how I was going to fit that in my tiny pocket and sneak it out the door! lol Then - taste the tea within the pot - oh, ya! Pot must stay to keep tea good! We had to try the Steamed bun with braised pork (2) and they were like nothing else on this planet! We ended up getting another order to take home. We also ordered pork fried rice, chicken with cashew nut, and a stir fried dish called 'Ko Cha Dish', [pork & squid]. Everything was done to perfection in a way that was different than I had seen in other places. It was hard to stop eating but my gut was busting so I was forced to do take home with the rest. that's okay too. I've never tried that boba milk tea so went all out and got this too. Made me giggle a bit I must say! lol, I'd try that again sometime. It was a fun drink, different, sweet and tea of course. I'm not fond of my tea or coffee being anything more than black no sugar you might say so this was more like a desert for me. The conclusion is: The only place I will ever go to now for my Asian delight! Out beats every...

I was disappointed for the first time at Jean and Lee Kitchen yesterday. I have been there maybe a dozen times over the years. Yesterday (Sunday) I arrived close to 3pm. I ordered hot and sour soup and Ma Po tofu. The soup came out very quickly but was nearly cold. I had barely taken a bite when one of the staff (not the one who brought it out) asked if it was cold, and when I said it was they immediately took it back, and came back in a bit with a hot bowl. I'm not sure what transpired in the conversation (maybe they had turned off the pot on the stove and the server didn't know?), but it was not ideal. The warmed soup was too salty, but otherwise fine.

The ma po tofu was honestly not great. Soupy consistency, and an oddly tomato-y flavor. It was not oily (a common problem with ma po tofu), but it was pretty mediocre.

I'm bummed - I have had many good meals here before; I'm hoping the chef was out, and I caught them between meals, and this was a fluke. The staff was at least very nice and...