Who doesn’t love a cheap Chinese joint? Even when that Chinese joint isn’t really that cheap. At least anymore. And, yes, I know pizzas are like $35 now, but there should still be a place where you can buy greasy noodles and fried chicken pieces in orange-colored sauce for less dollars than what used to buy you a sit-down meal replete with cloth napkins. But, alas, even these hole-in-the-wall places will run you some semi-serious clams. Okay, not semi-serious, but not comically cheap the way this type of food used to be.
Regardless of my complaints about inflation and the price of beans, every town should or does have its local Chinese dining establish. This certainly isn’t the only lower-rent Chinese take-out spot in Montclair — in fact, it’s not even the only one in the neighborhood on Bloomfield Ave. — but it seems to be the less likely of the two to be overrun with six-legged visitors. Granted, they did some upgrading lately, moving to a much more generic and boring black and white sign to match all the other black and white signs on all the businesses in the building. Which, as rumor has it, are all owned by the New Jin Lin family. I liked the old look better.
New Jin Lin was originally brought to our attention by Hipster Jr. He and his high school buddies would roll by and pick up lunch specials or a cheaper dinner than some of the other establishments in Montclair. Hipster Jr. loooooves the boneless spare ribs. The boy is a creature of habit and would constantly order the super-red little bits of what I have to assume is pig rib meat in a cloud of white rice. I can’t attest to its awesomeness, but he’s a real fan. It’s not as if I hadn’t walked by this place a thousand times myself, but these worn Chinese spots with the faded lightboard of badly photographed plates of steamed chicken and broccoli don’t exactly scream to be noticed.
I will start off by saying that the family — or what I presume to be a family — who runs this place is very sweet. Show up a couple times and they seemingly remember you. That’s what local restaurants are for. I think we made our first trip here because our normal place, Lotus, was closed for a few days for no reason whatsoever. And our first pass was good. We were surprised — based on how the place looks — that it was tasty and not overly greasy. Even Hipster Jr. Jr. was enamored with her sweet and sour chicken. Also, as previously mentioned, the prices felt much lower. But maybe perception wasn’t reality. Granted, volume-wise it’s more food than what we normally get. So I suppose the price per unit is less. It is frustrating at some establishments where your beef with broccoli ratio is way more green than brown. Or whatever. But, then, on the second visit, the food got greasier. The third, it got even more so. It’s still in the threshold of tolerable, but the trick to is find the grease-to-crunch balance with things like sesame chicken. Sure, you need oil in order to fry the chicken, but a little too much and the stuff becomes slick and the breading gets soggy. But too little and the orange sauce coagulates and doesn’t coat things evenly. It’s a real science. But, look, I like giving these folks my business, and this will always be our secondary Chinese joint. Which is where it should sit. Not the go-to, but a decent player to come off the bench when your starter decides to take off a week for Tu BiShvat.
350 Bloomfield Ave. – Montclair
973/509-2670
newjinlin-nj.com