Wang's Chinese Cuisine — Restaurant in River Edge

Second time is not the charm, it turns out. We loved our meal the first time at Wang's, so it was no brainer stopping by recently for dinner.

Unfortunately, both of our main dishes were under seasoned and I actually had a stomach issue right after eating one of the foods.

Singapore Chowmein (4/5, Main) - The comforting curry-flavored stir-fried noodle was done right, perhaps a bit light on protein and lacking the wow factor. Still it anchored our meal nicely and had good portions. Eggplant with string beans (3/5, Veggie) - Both veggies were nicely cooked but were unfortunately bland. They did not let the veggies soak in more sauce because I think it was done too quickly Hunan style spicy fish w. green peppercorn (3/5, Entree) - I'm a Chongqing spicy fish lover and we ordered this with pickled chili because that's Hunan style and I wanted to see how they do here. Unfortunately, fish was just bland - a sign that they did not season the fish first before combining with the spicy sauce mixture and cooking it. We were pretty sure they just put the fish straight into the sauce and cooked it because fish itself wasn't overcooked and flavor just did not penetrate the fish nor other veggies in any meaningful way. So while the sauce was delicious with fragrant green peppercorn and delectable sour & spicy chili bits, everything else felt separated. We hoped for the fish to absorb some of the flavor the next day and it still wasn't quite "together", which was a shame. Also, I think in a rush to cook their fish, something wasn't done right because I had a major d visit me within 15 minutes. I was surprised because everything tasted fresh, but we were sure of it. Didn't have any issue next day microwaving and eating the same.

Anyway, so as you can see it was a bit of a let down from my first experience here. Probably shouldn't order fish dish, especially since I just found out that famous spicy fish chain opened up right down the street at the mall. But I won't write them off just yet - they do authentic Chinese food well... that night just wasn't...

I have visited this new restaurant 3-4 times so I feel I am ready to write a review.First, I don't like to leave negative reviews and try to be objective as possible. I reserve the right to change the review should there be significant improvement/deterioration. Cuisine deserves 1 star. Why? Dishes there are ridiculously expensive and portion are tiny (and I only compare to the super popular/successful chinese restaurants). Need examples? ( An order of duck will set you back $70, lamb dish will easily cost $40, an appetizer of scallion pancakes nearly $10 and is a joke. Service deserves 2 stars. I blame management more than waiters. Management clearly should hire more (at least bus boys). Because there are so few servers, we didn't even get offered water. We had to chase waiters, and they often ignore you even when you make eye contact and raise concern. Ambiance deserves 3 stars. I always appreciate a restaurant with tables to sit down, but they try to pack us with minimal space from other tables. In summary, this restaurant needs to rethink value proposition to customer, have a streamlined menu whereby food is delivered quickly, and don't be so stingy on hiring...

7/13/24

Always on the lookout for a good Chinese restaurant. And they are really good!

Nice big space. Different sections, there are booths and tables and large tables with lazy susans.

So many delicious dishes. We’re only 2 so we ordered 1 dish each and plan to go back to try others. So good we went back a week later hehehe

Scallion Pancake - crispy! This was very good, we ordered a second one.

Stir Fried Pig Feet - ok we did not except such small pieces of pig feet but it’s so good! 2 pepper sign is so spicy.

Sizzling Hot Plate Duck - oh delicious! Tender duck over a bed of veggies. My favorite!

Green Pepper Century Eggs - spicy but good, I think it’s like a jalapeño pepper too spicy to eat directly. I avoided eating the pepper then it was less spicy.

Smoked Pork with Garlic Sprouts - this is really good, I only wish the pork was more tender.

General Tsos Chicken - generic

Singapore Fried Rice - this was different, love Singapore Mei Fun, but never had it as rice, but it’s good.

We saw another table get a big bowl, and we asked what it was, fish head soup. Definitely coming back in cooler...