Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Jimmy Jeng's Restaurant Review : Evansville, Indiana

I'm stepping a bit out of my normal zone here... and doing a restaurant review!

I'd prefer to give this a 2.5 star if i could... given the below mentioned 50/50 split. (This will make sense as you read)

Before people go on hating me for not raving about the wonderful food. Realize that my reviews are based both on equal parts service and equal parts food quality/taste etc. Bottom line is this, maybe we caught them on a bad time, or maybe just the fact we didn't order drinks. I was however, heavily recommended this place, by my manager at work.

That said let me start at the top. I went out with my mother and father in-law. This alone is a risk in and of itself, as they are really nice to me and I really like them. That aside, he was apprehensive in trying a new place. So we were seated by Jimmy Jeng himself, which is a treat. However his wife asked us for our drinks, and we declined and choose to go all water. My tendencies around my in-laws is to err on the side of being frugal. We also chose to not enjoy some of their wine. Upon that, I guess the wife did not seem to like the fact that we needed extra attention because she left us for a good 10-15 minutes before checking on an order. Again maybe i'm assuming something, but I've had several experiences similar, where wait staff don't want to take time with you. I guess this is because they perceive that you don't tip well.  My in laws and I, being new to the restaurant, didn't know what to order. She asked if we were ready, and we weren't. Then another 15 minutes go by, and no waitress. Jimmy came over maybe 10 minutes later, to take our order, we had questions, and took our order. All in maybe 30 or so minutes. At this point we ordered an appetizer to settle us in. The crab rangoons were INCREDIBLE and tasted pretty fresh!

Here is, however where the story turns bad... it was a table of 4 people, with 2 orders of their signature dish, string bean pancakes, and an order of sweet and sour chicken, finally an order of non spicy general tso's chicken. I'd say the order wasn't all that unconventional. However the orders took about an hour and a half to get out to us, maybe longer. As much as I love my wife and her parents, being stuck in a restaurant for nearly 2 hours without food, and being pumped full of expectations from my manager and this  Community... didn't make me feel any better. Not to mention they came over maybe 4-5 times with water, which at this point was downright offensive.We had to ask maybe 4  times, once to Jimmy himself, where our orders were. No, it wasn't busy, no there weren't any huge parties, no excuse. There were plenty of same size tables being served two-fold before we saw ours.

Anyway after about 2 hours or so, we finally got down to our food. I personally got the string bean w/ pancakes, of which you get 4 of them. A good size and I struggled to get through them. That said, the food looked great, and tasted really unique. I'd definitely recommend this dish 'if' you do go.

I hate not to concentrate on my food, as this SHOULD be where it is focused but as I said I've had such a poor experience, I could not, and probably will not, recommend this establishment. I think they were trying, but it wasn't good enough.

Final words, if I was being penalized, or treated poorly for not ordering any drinks or supplemental items, then that's just bad business. If however the service is just that slow for people who are NOT regulars (newbies), then I think it'll be hard for them to acquire some new business. It's a shame that i've had this poor experience, 3 hours ... and a headache, full stomach and some angry in-laws. That is what I got from my one, and likely only experience. Sorry JJ, I tried.

Overall ... 2.5 stars... not terrible food, just ... terrible service