Home

North China (Chinese cuisine) $$

2830 Homestead Road, Santa Clara, 95051 (Directions)

408-247-3747

Website Menu vCard

North Chinese restaurant serves up tasty traditional dishes.
Reviewer: Jason Total Reviews: 1040 Reviewed: 8/4/2008 Rating: 8 My photo gallery	Eating lunch with Eddie can be beneficial at times but for the most part he's a pain in the ass. We walked into North China and I immediately ask Eddie to translate the Chinese menu for me. He said this side is fish and the other is frogs. Hmmm...frogs ehh?? Last time I had frogs was in Louisiana and they were deep fried. If I recall correctly, they tasted like chicken and look like mini drumsticks. I wasn't dead set on frogs so we browsed the menu and apparently whatever Ne00 ordered was nowhere to be found on the lunch menu. The nice waitress pops by and makes her suggestions. Eddie is talking to her in Chinese and says, she suggests you get the frogs. I'm thinking ooooh boy, why does my 1st meal of the day have to be frogs? Along with the frogs we ordered mixed veggies and salt n pepper fish. mixed veggies (image 4) - just your average order of Chinese veggies in a cornstarch glaze. Nothing out of the ordinary. Salt n Pepper Fish (image 6) - the recipe tasted different than other places we had, it might have something to do with thicker batter and lack of jalapenos. It wasn't salty. Fish was probably cod and stacked like a pyramid of fried foods. I'd be willing to entertain a repeat order. szechuan frogs (image 5) - try to imagine szechuan chicken dish with the chili oil, onions, peanuts, onions, bell peppers, onions, celery, and loads of chili peppers. Flavorful dish and a bit on the spicy side. The big part about me eating new meats is texture - very important to me and my mouth needs to recognize meat fibers. Frog meat has the texture of chicken and passes my test. Tender meat. name that body part - frogs have a different body structure to chickens and I pray I was only eating the legs. Small chunks of meat attached to many bones. They must have used a bullfrog since a lot of the pieces were too large for regular sized frog. taste - it taste like chicken. Doesn't everything taste like chicken? I think frog is sweeter with a unusual aftertaste I can't pinpoint. The szechuan frog was a success. I'm not sure if I would trade in chickens for frogs just yet. Given the opportunity to try it again, I'm all for it as long as I eating the legs and no organs. If you can't handle the thought of frogs, there are plenty of other dishes to try at North China.

Reviewer: Terry Total Reviews: 739 Reviewed: 7/30/2008 Rating: 7 My photo gallery	Jason was in the mood for chinese food, so we decided to take down a ne00 request for North China. We arrive at lunchtime and the parking lot is empty. I didn't have a good feeling, but Jason and agent Eddie still figured it would be legit. The specials menu at the entrance (only in Chinese characters) described the house specialty of Frogs. I was not excited about frogs, but Jason was willing to give it a try. We are seated and look over the menu. There wasn't anything in particular I was in the mood for, so Agent Eddie ordered for us: the Szechuan frog dish, the Salted fried fish dish, and a dish of mixed vegetables. The dishes arrived one at a time. I sampled the salted fish and the veggies. Veggies were solid, your normal veggie dish. Nothing wrong with it - nothing overly exciting about it either. The salted fish wasn't terribly salty, but still was good. It was thicker than the fish pieces from Top Cafe, but the flavor was a notch below. A bit greasier too. Overall I would say it was decent. It seemed like Eddie and Jason enjoyed the frog dish, but I can't bring myself to try it. So the dishes I had just didn't excite too much. . . . I think if you stick with some of the specialties you will be pleased. I am willing to give the place another shot, when I am more interested in trying some of the less normal dishes.


Disclaimer

User submitted quickies (help)

Login to write a quickie.