San Diego: Chin's Gourmet

Roast duck that was not deboned and served with bread

Aside from Din Tai Fung, there is decent Chinese food in San Diego in the form of Chin's Gourmet. There are four in the city and one near us in Carlsbad. We checked it out -- twice.

The decor sadly perpetuates Asian stereotypes with round paper lanterns and wooden screens, though strangely the lighting is very dark for a Chinese restaurant!

Sweet and sour pork was enjoyable

When we arrived there were lots of non-Chinese people by the door waiting for takeaway orders, and throughout the evening it seemed most of Chin's business was takeout. No one wants to sit in the dark restaurant to eat?

The extensive menu has dishes listed in black and orange. It was only later when the Taiwanese owner and chef came out to greet another customer in English that he saw a table of Chinese people that he explained to us the dishes in orange were what Chinese people ate, ie not Chinese-American food.

The staff didn't bother tell us though the menu says, "Orange colour: Traditional Chinese Food".

Eggplant was delicious with a touch of spice

On the first night we ordered the Taiwanese three-cup chicken, which looked good, but wasn't well executed. The chicken was overcooked, the sauces not quite melded together. Sauteed string beans was a winner, as well as the eggplant in a slightly spicy sauce. 

The roast duck came out hidden under clam-shaped steamed bread and it was strange to put slices of the duck in the bread when it wasn't deboned. It was a bit of a miss and a struggle to finish because the meat was tough and the sauce wasn't enough to make it more edible. The stir-fried pork with onions were pretty good though.

We had no room for dessert, but were handed fortune cookies! 

Japanese tofu with mushrooms and vegetables

The next evening we came back again, same table.

Most disappointing was the gon chau ngau ho, or stir-fried beef with rice noodles. It looked more wet than dry with no char or wok hei. Guess the owner/chef was not there. But we repeated our order of Japanese tofu with enoki mushrooms, mushrooms and vegetables. So good. We also had eggplant again but wasn't as good, sadly. The gai lan was crunchy and fresh -- gai lan in San Diego!

Sweet and sour pork was not bad, crunchy exterior, tender inside. For dessert we ordered banana fritters but then were told the kitchen didn't have any bananas. Seriously? We instead had black sesame dumplings in sweet soup and they turned out to be very tiny, in a sweet glutinous rice soup. 

Maybe we should have just gone the first time, but our craving for Chinese food was too great.

Black sesame balls in sweet glutinous rice soup

Chin's Gourmet

West Bluff Plaza Shopping Center

6990 El Camino Real

Carlsbad, CA 

92009

(760) 438 7886