Ju Xiang Yuan

Worst service ever. Food took at least an hour, and the table beside had been waiting even longer. They got upset and walked out. I don’t blame them. Server was on her cell phone the entire time, even while she’s carrying plates. They said they had no beer left then served another table a fresh round of cold ones. I’m very surprised to see any positive reviews on this place. Stay away. Go to Café Orient down the street instead. Food is way better (same style) and they actually have service.

Very authentic northern chinese restaurant. I normally come here every two to three months. It’s like home cooking, but when u don’t want to make the mess.

I love the food there. The lamb skewers are the best in town. Spicy food are very authentic. One of my favourite Chinese restaurants in Ottawa.

Tried a new restaurant earlier tonight. Ordered the dinner combo B for two (4 dishes). It came with a huge bowl of soup, eggplant dish, chinese veggie dish and beef dish. Not sure what each dish was called again, but for $ 23 for two people, you can’t complain! I have always been a Phở person so $ 16 each (incl tax and tips) wasn’t a far stretch from the $ 10 I normally spend.
The restaurant seemed like it was cared for and not a hole in the wall establishment. The waitress was ok. But the food was tasty!
I would come back again.

Looking to try a new Chinese place a few weeks ago, we wandered into Ju Xiang Yuan. It’s quite different from other restaurants we’ve tried in Chinatown as it’s Northeastern Chinese food rather than Szechuan or Cantonese.
Ambiance: I actually thought the inside was pretty attractive, and there are lots of tucked away corners for privacy.
Service: We were greeted and seated promptly, but the server didn’t stick around to ask us if we had any questions, which might be a good idea at a restaurant with a very different style of food. Luckily we’ll try anything once!
Food: If you’re looking to try something new, this is a treat. Definitely give the Chinese charcoal bbq skewers a go, but don’t expect it to be like other Chinese bbq! It’s spicy with lots of flavours, the spices reminded me a little bit of Tibetan food. We had the spicy eggplant (one of our favourite dishes when we go for Chinese) and it was tasty. We also ordered pork belly with noodles, which came in a big pot of five spice broth with lots of noodles and cabbage. It was really different and tasty, but quite rich! What we ordered could easily have fed two more people.
Prices were in line with Chinatown — maybe a bit cheaper when you consider the huge portion of pork belly soup. Can’t wait to go back with a few friends so we can try more dishes!

As a Chinese from New York, I have naturally a high bar for expectation for authentic Chinese food. We order the Ma Po Tofu and Yu Xiang Rou Si. The one thing that I didn’t like is that you need to order food yourself by writing on the slip… Okay fine that we did. The food came out and it was only okay. It is really not that authentic, but given that we are in Ottawa, I’ll let that slip a bit.
The prices though was what I thought that was unreasonable. Manhattan’s Chinese Food in Chinatown was much much much more in value because 1. More authentic, 2. taste much better, 3. Much cheaper, 4. in locations that are much more expensive than Ottawa. They charge $ 2 for each bowl of rice while at max NY“s CTown is around $ 1!
Originally I was going to give it a 2 star, but I did see some other tasty food that we didn’t order. So giving it the benefit of the doubt, I’ll stay on 3 stars… Sorry for the NY bias, I can’t help it!

Its closed for renos right now, bummer! As one of our favorite little places on Somerset, Hubby and I feverishly await its reopening. The food is delicious, the prices reasonable. You must order the ‘beef roll’, it is off the menu but well worth it. You might have to insist that they do indeed exist as an incredulous staff seems to be holding onto them as if it was a secret, forbidden dish to the non-​initiate. Another delicious choice is the sesame beef: it is crispy, sticky, and addictive. All the veg is tried, tested and approved!

Unusual (for here) northern Chinese dishes. The spicy fried chicken is delicious. Good tofu and vegetable dishes too.

The menu is quite different from many of the Chinese restaurants you usually find in Chinatown which tend to be Cantonese or Szechuan style and tweaked for a western palate. Ju Xiang Yuan is authentic Northeast style chinese food and if you’re a westerner like me, you may be a bit put off by the plentiful selection of organ meat found on the menu! That being said, I had the best ma po tofu and spicy green beans EVER at this place. Friends of mine who have spent time in Beijing will only eat Chinese food here!