Mystery Diner: East China Inn delivers tasty faire

BATAVIA – Whenever you have the urge for some great Chinese food, look no further than East China Inn, with two locations in Batavia and one in North Aurora.

I stopped in for an early afternoon dinner at the Batavia location on the corner of Wilson Street and Randall Road. I was greeted by a young woman at the counter who quickly brought me to a booth in the near corner of the restaurant.

The decor inside was more modern than most Chinese restaurants I’ve visited. It is nice to visit a place that serves Chinese food and be able to sit down in the establishment and enjoy it. Don’t get me wrong, take-out Chinese always leaves me satisfied, but sometimes you just have to have the full experience, which includes a pitcher of hot tea as you sit down.

I’m a big tea fan, especially to wipe my palette clean before enjoying Chinese food. At East China Inn, I dropped about a third of a sugar packet into my tea to give it the spark I needed.

Another standard among many Chinese restaurants are pictures of the food gracing the menu. Normally, at a take-out establishment, you’ll see about 15 dishes gracing the menu board above the counter and just a few inside the menu. East China Inn, however, has page after page showcasing pictures of each dish, so you know exactly what you’ll be getting.

After perusing the menu and trying to figure out exactly what was calling my name, I landed on the spicy dishes and, coupled with its picture on the side of the page, decided to order Kung Pao Chicken. You can also get the dish with beef, pork or shrimp. Less than 15 minutes later, the dish came out piping hot and looked marvelous.

All the vegetables in the dish – green peppers, onions, carrots, water chestnuts and many more – were fresh and crisp. The sauce was not overbearing and didn’t drown any of the items on the plate. The chicken was tender, not chewy, and the portion was generous. The chunks of chicken were large.