Da Jin Hong Asian Restaurant

The famous Da Pan Ji. (Big plate spicy chicken) was just ok. Good but not memorable. And the chicken had way too much bones in there.
We also tried the sautéed string beans. And that was pretty good.
Overall, just ok. Nothing too memorable

Excellent and authentic Chinese food. Definitely one of my new staple place to go eat in Flushing. Recommend the spicy cumin lamb, must try. If you like Biang, this is a less spicier version. Also stir fried string beans are delicious.

I was guided to Da Jin Hong by my fellow Unilocaler Qian W. This is yet another very good Northern Chinese restaurant in Flushing and I’m surprised that they haven’t caught the attention of the masses yet. I came here with my wife and the 3 dishes we ordered were enough food for 5 people.
Ordering is fairly easy as the menu is in English but if you want them to explain the dishes to you, you’re better off with a Mandarin speaker. We came here around 7 pm for dinner and after we sat down, the restaurant filled up pretty quickly. The one dish almost everyone ordered, including ourselves, was the House Special # 1, Chicken with Special Sauce (aka Big Plate of Chicken). I’ve had this dish at other Northern Chinese joints before and I found theirs to be the most well balanced. It consists of stewed chicken and potatoes in chili oil served in a huge dish. Though there is a healthy smattering of Sichuan peppercorn throughout this dish, there are plenty of other spices as well making it very aromatic. It can probably serve upto 3 people. I did wish that the thin, flat noodles were over the chicken rather than under it, but on the positive side doing this got more flavor in the noodles even though it was trickier to pull them out. No pain no gain I suppose.
Also a must get at any Northern Chinese restaurant is a lamb dish. We got the Shredded Lamb with Cumin Sauce. The flavor was good but some of the lamb pieces were slightly soggy from the sauce. It was also pretty salty to eat by itself but they gave us 4 buns to eat them with and that helped balance the salt. The buns had pockets inside them so you can stuff them with the lamb. (Side note to Qian: it wasn’t that spicy)
Getting a casserole would also be a good way to go here. We got the Braised Fish Fillet with Napa and Roasted Chili. I had no idea what to expect, but it came exactly the way I was hoping: loaded with Sichuan peppercorn and drowning in chili oil. However, something seemed a little out of balance in the flavoring though I couldn’t put my finger on it. It was still a dish I enjoyed. I especially liked the flame and the small wok that the dish was served in. Those fillets were cooking in the boiling chili oil throughout the whole dinner. Exercise extreme caution.
Overall, an excellent experience that would be well worth repeating.

Oh God. I can’t take it. I can’t take it when I go into a restaurant and everyone is speaking Northern bro-​mandarin and drinking baijiu. One could immediately feel that the English literacy of the entire restaurant, customers included, was absolute zero. It made me want to fob up and revoke my citizenship.
The restaurant has the tagline «Northern homey eats» in Chinese but is complemented with a boring «Chinese food» in English, as if its meant to deter all foreigners.
Hearing my friend and I speaking English to one another, the host shyly told us to «sit, sit inside» then promptly gave up on trying to speak English and straight up assumed we understood Mandarin. We did. And I saw relief on everyone’s faces.
The menu has English! Pretty accurate English! Each item is numbered like a takeout menu so even if the waiter speaks zero English, you’re still guaranteed a great meal.
Now for our crime.
1) Lamb with cumin sauce — I hate lamb and I hate spicy food. This dish was lamb and spicy… but I loved it. Its 12 bucks for a huge plate of lamb meat and 4 toasted bread-​pouches to put the meat in. Holy. Hell. The lamb was as tender as my ass after failing a math test (Americans will not get this joke) and the taste was absolute heaven. It was not as gamey because of the spice and flavor thats been infused but it still had the distinct smell of lamb-​awesome. Highly recommended.
2) Mei cai kou rou /​pork belly — Served with bokchoi and mantou. Yes you heard me. 8 pieces of mantou surrounding the pork belly invited me to eat it like a sandwich ala Momofuku. Eat it straight or eat it sandwiched. It only proved one thing to me: when you need pork, you still gotta go to a Chinese restaurant. Oh yeah the generous serving of bok choi means you no longer need to order a vegetable dish. More meat = better life.
3) Chinese cabbage pork dumplings — I was disappointed they did not have leek dumplings. Then I became happy once the cabbage dumplings entered my mouth. It was falling apart a bit, but probably because I kept dipping it into vinegar like a fobby madman.
The service was friendly and they really treat you like family. So regardless of their English level, I think anyone would feel welcome here.
I have some Northern Chinese fetish. The whole Chinese-​bro thing turns me on and when it is enriched by delicious food, the whole experience just makes me cock my head back in ecstacy and write like a woman (yes you were thinking that).
Three plates costed 33 dollars in total. Could have easily fed four people. Oh yeah if you didn’t notice, all the meat dishes came with plenty carbs so don’t be Southerner tools and order rice. Northerners love their bread. And I love them.

Best Da Pan Chicken Ever! And they treat customers like family! Inexpensive and great value! Really recommended!