Chinatown Kitchen — Restaurant in Teaneck Township

Anyone who has read a review I have posted knows this stuff already: we are a Chef family and we are not above ordering Take-Out as often as possible. Chinese take-out is our fave, and for the most part, you can't really go wrong in the Hackensack/Teaneck area for it.

But.

When you trip upon that jewel, that diamond, amongst all of the dross...when it has been hiding in plain sight..and it ratchets your idea of take-out up a few notches, well, my friend, you almost don't write about it.

Write I must. Chinatown Kitchen on DeGraw Avenue in Teaneck is simply the best Chinese Food Take-Out we have had in the area. In years. And years.

Let's go thru the reasons. First of all, the lady in charge is incredibly nice, and I have never seen her NOT smile. Always good-natured, always kind, she seems to love what she does and take pleasure in working the counter. And the place is surgically clean. You can choose to eat there; they have a few tables. We choose to take home.

Now. The food...they have a dollar Egg Roll that will make you jones for another a day later. Just well put together, what can I say? Dumplings, spare ribs, some magical sesame wonton, shrimp toasts, chicken wings...all so very good. You can't pick a bad appie.

We judge Chinese Take-out on their Lo Mein, their Mu Shu, and if we are very lucky, there is a Shrimp dish that coats them in a white sauce, usually citrus, coconut or gran marnier-flavoured. Here, they have Shrimp in Coconut Sauce. Oh my my. Greatness right there. Never had something like that? Order the damned dish already. Any of their beef dishes are tender and not smothered in veggies, already huge for me. Of note, their Crispy Beef, Mongolian Beef, Sesame Beef. Chicken you can find anywhere and Kitchen's no different with their offerings -- but it's just done, well, BETTER. Anything pork is always better than anything not pork.

When two of us order dinner, we kind of go nuts and have enough for the next evening, so it's not uncommon to ring up a $50 tab. That's a lot of food, dear reader. The free stuff they throw in when you spend certain amounts is really generous and they don't have to do that, but they do. And that $50 tab? We include an order of Steamed Pork Dumplings, which come in the cutest little divider to-go container, for our son. And there's enough for tonight...did I mention we were there last night? Yeah......we were.

Go and say thank you to the nice lady up front when she hands you that bag...

Lunch specials seem fairly priced, but the value is arguable because they sneak so much rice off to the side and even under your entree of choice, making it a pretty small serving in the end. I've also noticed that beef orders are touch and go, because the meat pieces tend to be rather tough. That said, I love the seasoning and saucing here. Tough meat aside, their beef and string bean meal has become one of my recent favorites. My husband raves about their spicy Chinese eggplant dishes, and he's been pretty happy about any chicken dish he's ordered. So many stick with chicken over other proteins?

Unlike other Chinese takeout spots in the area, they don't take delivery orders. Delivery orders can be fulfilled either through UberEats or through their website, which seems to outsource orders to another delivery service. I've used the nameless delivery service once and got the order just fine, but the ordering process is somewhat inflexible (e.g. my husband's favorite order from the lunch special menu isn't available as a standalone entree and there's no way to make those requests through the website, so we had to do a pickup order just so we could ask a person to make it happen).

There are very few parking spots out front, so we've often had to double park when picking up orders, with one person waiting in the car while the other...

Ordered here for years. Received my order and immediately my house smelled like fish. I knew something wasn’t right. I identified what meat dish was smelling like seafood and called the store back. It did not smell right, or look right. I was really nice about it but the person on the phone got so defensive and flat out rude. I’m sorry but beef should not look the way it did or smell like seafood so strong. She offered no real solution and kept saying because it was on a card she couldn’t refund just one item. So I threw it out, and chalked it up to a lesson learned. This business clearly didn’t care about a long...