There are a plethora of Asian restaurants in the Winchester area, and we wanted to try something different for dinner the other night. We had noticed a place on Route 7 called Jin Zhou Gardens and decided to give it a try. We got a handful of items with our pick up order.
Price 💲💲 out of 5
Like many Asian restaurants in the area, Jin Zhou Gardens was reasonably priced. We ordered an appetizer, a soup, a main dish, and a side dish and the total was around $40. They have plenty of lunch and dinner specials where you can get a main dish, a side of white or fried rice, and an egg roll for around $10-$12 dollars. All in all, you can have a very filling meal without too much damage to your wallet.
Ambience 🧑🍳 🧑🍳 out of 5
Jin Zhou Gardens is your typical Asian restaurant. Not aesthetically pleasing, but I would assume that most of their business is through pick up. They do have part of the restaurant open for dining in, but when I went to pick up our dinner around 5 pm, there wasn’t a single person dining in. The other side of the restaurant is very cluttered and disorganized, but the kitchen looked clean and there was a comfortable place for me to wait while they finished up my order.
Food 🥩🥩🥩 out of 5
Our order consisted of the crab rangoon appetizer, a cup of egg drop soup, a side of chicken lo mein, and the dinner combo of General Tso’s chicken, fried rice, and an egg roll.
The crab rangoons were extremely good. They were a mixture of cream cheese and imitation crab, fried in a triangle shaped dumpling. They served it with warm sweet and sour sauce, which was a little bit weird to start, but actually ended up being very tasty. I was a huge fan of the crab rangoons and would definitely go back to get them again.
The egg drop soup was also pretty good. I only had a bite, as this was what Robbie was craving, but it had the right consistency. It was a bit salty, but that is typical for egg drop soup. Robbie liked the soup, and they provided the customary crunchy wontons to drop in.
The main dishes were not as flavorful as I would have hoped. The chicken lo mein was pretty good, and they had thinly sliced veggies and the noodles were the perfect texture. There wasn’t nearly enough chicken, and the overall flavor profile was a bit bland. The General Tso’s chicken and fried rice were both disappointing. It seems like so many Asian restaurants are afraid to turn up the spice level on their General Tso’s chicken. It is supposed to be a spicy dish, but it ends up just being sweet and sticky. The rice was very bland and honestly only edible when it mixed with the sauce from the chicken.
On a positive note, Robbie said the egg roll was one of the best she has ever had at an Asian restaurant. I didn’t get a chance to sample it, but I’ll take her word for it. It did look perfectly crispy and was thick.
Experience ⭐⭐⭐ out of 5
Overall, Jin Zhou had some really delicious items, but I would not put it as my favorite Asian restaurant in the area. I think they need to turn the spice level up a lot on their dishes, and the fried rice definitely needs some work. I would, however, absolutely get the crab rangoons again and be willing to try some different items. I would recommend checking them out if you are in the Winchester area and want some Asian food.