The Chinese Quest Finding the best Chinese restaurants on Long Island and NYC
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Restaurant Reviews, specifically Chinese restaurant reviews, is what The Chinese Quest is all about. When all is said and done, the only thing that truly matters is fulfilling our god assigned Quest. Our Quest is to find the best Chinese restaurant on Long Island and New York City. We enter each Chinese restaurant with no preconceived notions, and we leave with unbiased opinions we record when writing our reviews and assigning a numerical rating of each Chinese restaurant that we review.
But, what goes in to these Reviews? It’s a not so secret formula that we apply based upon six criteria. We have described them in the past, but now is as good a time as any to recapitulate them.
Chinese Restaurant Reviews
Here are the metrics that we rate Chinese restaurants on:
- Taste (50%) – To us, this is the most important metric. If it doesn’t taste good, what’s the point? We could do a blind taste test. It all boils (or stir fries) down to the taste. Without taste, it just wouldn’t be right. And if it’s not right, then it’s NOT Chinese Quest worthy.
Presentation (10%) – Now dazzle our eyes. This is the WOW factor! Let our eyes feast over your dishes. Bonus points if you get us to drool 
- Aroma (10%)– Time to close your eyes, and just let your nostrils savor the scents and spices as they waft from the kitchen. If you can make our noses… well, let’s not go there. But, we want all of our senses to be titillated when we spend our hard earned shekels on something. Especially our food. You know, Jews and their food! Aren’t you hungry yet? Good thing there’s a Chinese take-out restaurant practically on every corner. And if you call now, in less than ten minutes you’ll have a happy belly!
- Creativity (10%) – We like to experience something new once in a while. We like it when the Chef dazzles us with their brilliance, and dare I repeat it, creativity!
- Service (10%) – When Mee’s go out, Mee’s want to be treated like Royalty. Treat us (and that goes for everyone) like we are special, and that will go a long way to making our dining experience pleasurable, and increase the likelihood that we will return to that Chinese restaurant again. And again. And disciples of The Chinese Quest will want to dine there as well.
- Jew Appeal (10%) – For the full definition of what this mean, please read our article “What is Jew Appeal?“
When you Rate your Chinese restaurant, what are some of the things that you take in to consideration?
Humbly submitted for your consumption,
—Mee Magnum (“Chop! Chop!“)
Those sound like fair criteria.
Taste is the main point, there’s no need to explain that. Then, here in Italy we say that you eat with your eyes as well as your mouth, so I think the second point is a very good one too.
All the others are bonus, in my opinion 🙂
Add your nose to the equation, and you’ve hit the trifecta! Sell the sizzle. Dazzle the eyes. Titillate the taste buds. Sheesh, I’m STARVING now!!
Hey there,
I’m visiting because we both follow Sara Zama’s Roaring 20’s blog – I’ve seen your name on the comments enough that I wanted to check you out. Now I have to read the Jewish criteria…. your review criteria made me hungry. How many places have you visited? Happy A to Z, btw!
Hi Jeri! Thanks for stopping by! We have reviewed over 30 Chinese restaurants so far in the just over two years since we started this Quest. I have a feeling that we’re not even close yet to finding the Chinese restaurant that we would say, “STOP! We’re done”. But, we’re also never going to stop searching for it!
Ive done a fair amount of looking for awesome Chinese. For me criteria is taste and there arent bugs crawling about ( so cleanliness).
Hope you find it…
Hahaha! Totally agree… finding bugs would be a huge turn-off. Luckily we haven’t found any. Yet!
I agree. Taste is of primary importance. Service and ambience next. These days the restaurant and menu being kid friendly is important to me, but it is not something I would hold against them, as long as the food is good.
Shantala, you aren’t going to find too many kid-friendly Chinese restaurants. At least not the real authentic ones. That said, I don’t know too many kids who don’t like spareribs or dumplings! 🙂
Your reviews seem very methodical and systematic. Do feelings come into play, when you think a restaurant is TERRIBLE but you don’t want to write a review that will trash them because they’re a friend of the family, or some other reason? I have to be careful how I write, because I don’t want to diss an event, person or situation, but I always want to convey the real experience to the reader. Sometimes I try to be very tactful and write between the lines.
Courtney, Feelings definitely come in to play. And if we don’t like a Chinese restaurant, we don’t sugar coat. Otherwise, how could we call our reviews unbiased. We hope that readers will come to us, and trust us, to write honest and fair reviews! Feelings come in with Service and our unique “Jew Appeal” metrics.
Though I do understand completely where you are coming from!
I just remembered something else. I dated a Jewish guy when I was in college. His non orthodox family always celebrated Xmas and other holidays by going out to a Chinese restaurant! Only the Chinese restaurants were open on Christmas. So maybe there’s a Jewish x-factor concerning Chinese food.
Courtney, there is a strong correlation between Jews and Chinese food. Here’s a good article on the subject ==> https://www.thechinesequest.com/2014/07/jewish-comfort-food/
Great criteria for rating a restaurant and for me it’s about the same thing, not matter which restaurant it is. First and foremost, taste. It’s got to taste wonderful. And it has to look great – presentation is so important. Then the scent of the food and the restaurant in general, followed by ambiance. I like to feel that I have stepped into a special world when I eat, particularly with ethnic cuisine. And, of course, service.
Rene, you’ll see a list of all the Chinese restaurants, with links, that we have reviewed. Some are clearly less than favorable. We will be honest. We will highlight what, if anything, we like, and what we didn’t. Hopefully they will take heed and make improvements 🙂