In the search for the best Chinese delivery in my neighborhood (Cobble Hill), my girlfriend and I one night took the 3 best reviewed places that could delivery to our address and ordered the same thing from all three places (pork fried dumplings, chicken lo mein, and general tso's chicken with brown rice) and had a taste test. We tried Happy Garden, China Wok, and Hunan Delight. All three had the same size and quality of brown rice and arrived in 26-32 minutes. Here I present the other conclusions of that test:
Happy Garden: In the middle in terms of pricing (China Wok was $17ish, Happy Garden was $23ish, and Hunan was $27ish). They used reusable plastic containers for 2 of the 3 dishes but they were too thin and cheap to actually use again. The general tso's chicken was made with bite sized pieces but was very average in that there was a lot of breading that was not crispy and they used cheap cuts of chicken and included very few pieces of broccoli. The sauce was sweet with no kick or real flavor to it. The lo mein was also very average. They were our number one choice for dumplings. The dough was properly thin and they used tasty meat and included a decent dipping sauce. Unfortunately they were no longer crispy but that could be expected from delivery I suppose.
China Wok: This was the least expensive of the bunch. Everything came in the typical disposable tin containers. The general tso's chicken had larger pieces than Happy Garden and more broccoli but was also average at best in terms of quality and taste. The lo mein wasn't that good as the noodles were thin and not chewy the way lo mein should be. The dumplings were also extremely doughy, the meat had little flavor, and they did not include any dipping sauce. They too were not crispy at all and did not seem like they ever were. We threw these away. They were the only one of the three to include a can of soda but did not let us know this ahead of time so they chose Pepsi for us (which neither of us drinks).
Hunan Delight: At over $27 this was the most expensive of the three places. It did end up being our favorite of the three but not by much. They included a nice thick reusable plastic container for the two main dishes. They were the only one of the three to include fortune cookies. Their general tso's chicken also lacked a crispy texture or high quality chicken but their sauce had slightly more flavor to it, though not by much. The lo mein came with properly thick and chewy noodles with the best flavor. It also came with a bunch of mushrooms which could be a pro or con depending on who you ask, we're not big mushroom eaters but picking them out wasn't a problem. The dumplings were disappointly doughy but had much better flavor and better seasoned meat than China Wok and came with a dipping sauce. The downside besides the non crispy thick dough was that they only gave 6 dumplings while the other two had 8.
The conclusion was that if we're hankering for dumpling delivery Happy Garden is the way to go, if we want chicken lo mein then Hunan Delight is the best choice, and if we want general tso's then it's really a crap shoot as no one in our neighborhood seems to excel at this dish, a slight edge goes to Hunan for flavor while if price and having a bit more broccoli is important, China Wok would be the better choice. We'll definitely have another round with the next best 3 choices but it will be awhile before we can justify gorging ourselves on Chinese like this again. read more
