China Dina

Chung Sing Restaurant
210 E Lancaster Ave
Ardmore, PA 19003
(610) 649-8115
(click on the link above for a citysearch review and a complete pic.s)

So the truth is I am not the most qualified person to write this review as I'm not one of those die hard Chinese take out comfort queens.
After a bad day I want ice cream and a bed.
If I don't feel like cooking I get chicken parm or falafel.
To me chinese food is Chinese food.
Don't get me wrong, I can get down with the real deal.
I also love me some hot and sour soup almost as much as frying up an egg with left over pork-fried rice for breakfast.
Yet when it comes to the whole take-out thing I am more of a back seat eater.
But Chung Sing isn't just chinese food.
It is Chinese food in an amended diner.
A shiny , oddly seductive , self-entitled glam pagoda.
It sits across from a car dealership throwing sunshine like rotten eggs into the reflective windshields of brand new lexus's like a mischeif night hoodlum.
It's entirely bizare and as such doubly enticing.
When I first saw it I couldn't help but salivate.

I wanted an egg roll.



I probably don't need to remind you of my love for diners, so it should come as no surprise to you that I petitioned the Dr. Admiral to pull over and investigate with me. What with its precious stone like roof , red neon signage, paper lanterns and old school chrome diner get-up how could you feel anything less then charmed.
It's easy to overlook the broken tile bathroom and general brown/neglected feel. Chung Sing is magical.
It's aethstetic is at once mildly disconcerting and undeniably familiar.
Chinese restaurants are a dime a dozen, but Chung Sing offers something none of the others even come close to.
Unparalleled atmosphere.
As a troubled half breed, Chung's offers a peculiarity deserving of your after noon snack support.

The meals were cheap, and somewhat inventive ,collecting the creative better parts of mailbox menu's , though hardly deviating from what you would expect.

Everything on the menu can be made with a vegetarian "meat," which looked homemade and spongey. All the better to soak up deliscious sauces.

The service was quick and kind which leads me wondering hwere the bullet hole in the window came from.
Not that its the first Chineese Restaurant I've been to with a bullet hole in teh window
(um ... I will thank some of my brooklyn crew to think back to a brown bag night night with a 40 and a 4 top in Fort Greene)

On to the food:


I got my roll.

A good egg roll can be like an unexpected back rub;
A bad one, on par with being stood up at the alter.
Chung's egg rolls were crispy without being oily.
Craving settled.



Foods featured clockwise from the rice:
Rice (a doi Ralph...) , cashew chicken, pork fried rice, lychee duck , noodles and pickled veggies.



Dr. Admiral ordered the cashew chicken.
It was good.
It had both cashews and chicken in it.
This might sound dumb to say ,and I don't mean to offend any Chinese food store owners, but If I had a quarter for every time I asked, "is this really chicken?" with a barely discernible mass somewhat resembling meat dangling form my fork I'd have a whole lotta won ton if you know what I mean.
And if you don't I mean quarters.
With cashews for miles and beautifully cooked chicken I was forced into pointing away form the table and shouting , "LOOK!" just to break the the good Dr.'s concentration long enough to steal a fork full from his plate.
yeah.
I'm sneaky like that.



I really went out on a limb with the lychee duck ( ala Shirley Mclain).
Well, the limb broke.
It was simply unable to support the weight of my heavy expectations.
I love love love lychee, but the "sauce" it made was far too sweet, and way to viscous. Clearly made from a can, and
Impervious to any attempts I made to wipe it off the veggies.
It engulfed them , rendering them limp and lifeless next to the duck fowl on my plate like exxon valdez victims.
That brings in the second problem.
The duck.
It was uber fatty, gray and had a weird skin.



In short , Chung chicken is kickn'.
Chung duck fowl..is ...well...foul.

I would definately check this place out , if only to go inside.