Ming

[Daniel]

Ming Restaurant

http://www.mingrestaurants.com/ming.htm

1655 Oak Tree Rd Ste 195

Edison, NJ 08820 (732) 549-5051

I have been hearing about Edison and the Oaktree road section for the longest time. When I come to visit my parents, I always try to find interesting and new places to go with them.. But, going for Indian Food is a tough sell.. I figured Ming would be a nice introduction.. Chinese Food with a little Indian Influence.. There is always the safety net of Thai thrown in there..

We went for lunch and it was pretty good.. I felt a lot of the food was over sweet, drowned in sauce, and suffered from a common fusion problem.. Often times fusion has no soul, no history.. Success has many fathers, but failure is a bastard.. This food was a bastard.. Indian staff, Indian customers, Indian Decor, but Chinese-esque food.. Like Americanized Chinese Food, this was just Indianized Chinese Food.. And whats worse, I believe it was Muslim chinese Food because there was no pork or beer.. Sorry Chicken is no substitute for Pork..

Chicken egg rolls...

Eh, whatever... Insert pork here!

Good Dish with Indian Influence, the fried Cauliflower.. This was early on in the meal so I hadnt had my fill of sweet sauce yet..

This photo doesnt do this dish justice.. This dish was fantastic.. Perfectly fried fish.. Sauce was less sweet then the others.. Had a nice spice to it.. Favorite thing of the meal..

Mao Pa Tofu:

First time had this dish where the sauce was brown.. I was also disappointed because many reviews I have read called this place Sichuan and Hunan.. So I figured this dish would be great.. The tofu was diced and small, the sauce was really thick and gravy like and brown as I mentioned.. It was ok but, overly sweet, and not firey at all...

Had my choice of noodles with vegetable or chicken again.. The noodles were ok, pretty forgetable..

So this place is Muslim, I am assuming. The lamb has to be good.. I make it a point to go to as many Muslim restaurants in CHina as I can.. I stop at every muslim street vendor while I am there.. I love the way they cook lamb.. Well this is not the case here.. I asked the waiter what his favorte lamb dish was.. The Sizzling Lamb was his immediate answer.. I was psyched. The dish was average to bad at best.. The lamb was mushy, the sauce completely disguised any charachter this poor piece of meat might have had.. It could have been setian for all I know.. It was a shame.. Served in some type of sweet and sour sauce.. Yikes.. I dont think Ketchup is a big Chinese or Indian influence in sauce..

Best thing I had there was a Mango Lassi which was not called a Lassi but, a Mango Shake.. Lassi would have been too INdian and this place was errr Chinese..

The good news is, I finally made it to the Oaktree Road Section.. I will be coming back to try some of the other places, any suggestion would be appreciated.. I dont want to appear overly harsh. My parents liked there food and the little one at her chicken pan fried dumplings.. Lunch was 100 bucks, which seemed pretty expensive.. But the restaurant is very pretty, we sat at a table with a lazy susanne and it was comfortable..

Edited February 11, 2008 by Daniel (log)

[Daniel]

One more interesting thing that happened here.. There was 5 people in our party and they charged 15 percent gratuity.. It was pretty strange and unfortunate for them because we would have tipped more out of habbit.. But since they decided for us and the service wasnt that warm, we took there advice..