JiangNan Philadelphia — Restaurant in Philadelphia

UPDATE:

Well, I guess everyone can see that weird response from the owner. If filling out the comment card that you provide means a customer hates you "to the bone" and you don't like it, then why provide the comment card, just for show? If a customer complimenting you on your decor and your food means a customer hates you "to the bone," then I guess everyone hates you, no matter what they say.

Don't put words into my mouth. First of all, I may have complimented you on your decor and your food, but I never said that your "restaurant is like no other." I have been to other nice restaurants with good food in Chinatown and there are many more that I still haven't tried yet, so how I can say any one is the best? Second, no, I did not get what I paid for. I did not pay for just food and ambiance. If I just wanted food and ambiance, there are many other restaurants in Chinatown that I could go to. I expect good service as well, especially at the prices you charge. I do have to say though that everyone else at the restaurant provided very good service and it was just our waitress that took a very long time to take our order and then disappeared for the rest of the night.

I don't know what makes you think I would want to waste my time and money again after I had a bad experience the first time. If you wanted to "fix" the problem, you could have refunded the money that I was charged for the duck bones that the waitress made me think was complimentary. No, you should never argue with customers, especially when the problem in the first place is that your waitress misled the customers. That's just the most basic customer service and common sense. I even repeated what she said to make sure. At any other restaurant, when a server says that something "comes with" something else, like a burger "comes with" fries, it means that it's included in the price. If I were ever to return, I will expect you to "fix it" as promised.

Original Review:

This place is fancy and the decor is hip. They get top marks for presentation. Everything is served on bamboo. The food is actually very good too. The Peking duck at $46 for half a duck is overpriced though. The biggest issue is the service.

It took a long time for our waitress to come take our order. It seems a lot of the staff don't really speak English, so communication is a problem. The waitress told us that the deep-fried duck bones comes with the Peking duck, so we thought it was complimentary. After she took our order, we never saw her again for the rest of the night, so it took a long time to get someone else to bring us our check. When the check came, we got the unpleasant surprise that we were being charged for the deep-fried duck bones that the waitress told us "comes with the Peking duck". We're definitely never coming back here again. There are plenty of good restaurants in Chinatown at more...

Disappointing Experience with Service and Food Quality!!!!!

I recently visited this restaurant and unfortunately had a disappointing experience with both the service and the food. Allow me to share the details of my visit.

Firstly, I requested a "small portion" of a dish, but I was served a large portion instead. When I pointed this out to the first server, they insisted that it was indeed the small portion. However, a few minutes later, a supervisor arrived and claimed that I had ordered the large portion, even showing me something on an iPad as proof. It was frustrating because the menu clearly stated there was a small portion, and I couldn't see what was displayed on the iPad since the server had taken care of the ordering process. It felt like I was being accused of deceiving them, which left me quite annoyed.

Secondly, one positive aspect was that the server proactively ladled soup into my bowl. However, what shocked me was that some of the soup overflowed onto the server's hand and then dripped into my bowl. It was a rather unhygienic sight, and when I brought it to their attention, there was no response or apology whatsoever. I found this quite perplexing.

Moving on to the food itself, there were a few disappointing aspects as well. The soup I ordered turned out to be extremely salty, to the point where I couldn't take more than one sip. I promptly informed the server about this, and they relayed the message to the supervisor. However, the supervisor didn't acknowledge my concern at all, which was quite unexpected and disappointing.

Furthermore, I tried the Beijing roast duck roll, which turned out to be a deep-fried spring roll cut into four small pieces. Each piece contained only a minuscule amount of meat, and I couldn't help but find it amusingly disproportionate.

Lastly, I ordered the garlic-flavored pork belly dish, but to my surprise, there was hardly any garlic flavor. Instead, it was overwhelmingly dominated by chili oil, completely deviating from the authentic taste of garlic-flavored pork belly.

All in all, my experience at this restaurant was far from satisfactory. The service was lacking, with poor communication and unresponsiveness from the staff, while the food quality fell short of expectations. I hope that the restaurant management takes these feedback points into consideration and works towards improving both their service attitude and the taste of...

JiangNan is a beautiful Chinese restaurant with a sleek, modern interior — dark wood, ambient lighting, and full AC made it a welcome escape on a hot day. The atmosphere is stylish and relaxing, definitely a place that knows how to bring the upscale vibes. We went during happy hour hoping to cool off and enjoy a few bites, but the experience was a bit mixed.

Despite the restaurant being nearly empty when we arrived, we were seated directly next to the only other couple in the space, which felt unnecessarily cramped and awkward. Later, another couple came in and they were placed right next to us too, even though the entire restaurant was open. It really killed the mood — especially since it was so quiet that we could hear every awkward conversation and even someone chewing loudly right next to us. It just didn’t make sense not to spread people out more in such a nice, spacious dining room.

As for the food, we mostly ordered from the happy hour menu: the mala wontons, seafood udon, and soup dumplings, plus one dish from the regular menu — the stir-fried loofah. The mala wontons were nicely sauced with a good amount of heat and flavor, definitely one of the better bites of the meal. The soup dumplings were unfortunately a big miss — all of them had already broken open before arriving, so the broth had leaked out, making them dry and disappointing. The seafood udon was fine — not bad, just unremarkable. The loofah dish, though, was excellent. Light, flavorful, and beautifully cooked — it had a comforting, nostalgic taste and really stood out. It also happened to be the only item we ordered off the regular menu, which makes me think the non-happy hour offerings might be stronger overall.

One of the couples near us was clearly frustrated — they had finished their meal and still hadn’t received their appetizers, which just added to the strange tension of being seated so close together. On the plus side, the restaurant and bathroom were clean, but the bathroom was out of hand soap, which was a bit concerning for a place trying to offer a refined dining experience.

Overall, JiangNan nails the aesthetic and has potential in its main menu, but the awkward seating choices and underwhelming happy hour food really took away from the experience. I’d maybe come back to try more from the regular menu — otherwise, I’d...