Chef Jon's Authentic Chinese Cuisine Review

Our friends Gail and Marc live in Mendham, we live in Montclair. We are always looking for restaurants in between. Gail suggested Chef Jon's Authentic Chinese Cuisine in Whippany, NJ. It turned out to be a winner. a real winner. In fact I think this places turns out some of the best Chinese in New Jersey.

In September of 2010 the New York Times gave Chef Jon's a great review in Chinese Cooking, as the Chinese Do. They wondered then "Can this last." Well it certainly has Chef Jon's is still wonderful 16 months later. We hope it continues because we certainly will be back.

We love their slogan "Be An Honest Man; Cook Authentic Food."

It used to be that you had to go into New York City to get really good Chinese food. It could just not be found in New Jersey. Not so anymore.

We have a few favorites including our own T.S. Ma here in Upper Montclair, Chendu 1 in Cedar Grove and Cheng Du 23 in Wayne to name a few.

But Chef Jon's has quickly risen to the top of our list.

We have a favorite Chinese dish called Stir-fried Rice Cakes. It is very rare in New Jersey and often only served during Chinese New Years at many restaurants. In fact it has another name Chinese NEws Years Rice Cakes. Chef Jon's has three varieties and we had the Rice Cakes with Fish Fillet and Chinese Cress, finely chopped Shepherd's Purse herb. Wow was that good.

We drank a nice Chenin Blanc with the meal, Essay from South Africa. It has good strong fruit and is a little sweet which contrasts with the garlicky flavors nicely. Next time I am bringing a Pinot Noir. 

Another dish we really loved was called Grandma's Red-cooked Pork. This is not the thin slices of braised pork with red edges like you find in most Chinese American restaurants. It is thick rich juicy chunks of marbled pork meat, that reminded me of pork belly, that is stewed with red sauce for hours and served with Bok Choy and marinated eggs. Very good. 

We also had the sizzling chicken with mixed vegetables, black wood mushrooms, baby corn, green pepper, broccoli and onion. With that we had a wonderful California Sauvignon Blanc by Silverado

Oh yes we did really like the fried pork dumplings with pork and chinese cabbage and the tasty scallion pancakes.

You would never guess from the outside that this is a great place. It is in an unremarkable storefront in an unremarkable New Jersey strip mall, but once inside......     

Chef Jon's Authentic Chinese Cuisine
Pine Plaza / Pathmark Shopping Center
831 State Route 10 #33, Whippany,
(973) 585 6258