A-jiao

I almost never write reviews but I ate delivery from here night before last and I’m still sick as f**k. I have a pretty strong stomach and didn’t drink anything with or before this meal. There’s just way too much msg and bad spice in this food it seriously destroyed my stomach for 24 hours; only starting to feel better now. Do yourself a favor and don’t eat food from this place. So bad. Soo f**king bad.

Called for take out. Average to below average Chinese food. The veggie dumplings came with nothing to dip them in. And the sweet and sour soup had some underlying spice that clung to the back of your throat after a few bites and just made things unenjoyable

Very average. Dishes are really bland. Would have gotten 3 stars if it wasn’t for the price. Not worth it.

Been ordering from this place for a while now as my main go-​to place for Sichuan food since the local Sichuan Gourmet’s decline in quality, and it’s consistently managed to deliver at almost the same level as Sichuan Gourmet in its heyday. While it isn’t the most polished cuisine, the portions are very good, enough for someone like me to stretch into three meals sometimes. I especially like that they allow you to choose the spiciness of your order. Also delivery is very fast and convenient.
The Wok Roasted Diced Chicken dish is my favorite, delicious though it can be too hot sometimes. The Dan Dan Noodles are also a nice side dish, surprisingly flavorful without being too spicy. General Tso’s on the other hand are pretty underwhelming, but I don’t mind since it’s not even authentic or a main draw of these places anyway.

Quality Szechuan on the UES. Much better than your standard bullet proof glass place you find in the area. It’s focus is on Szechuan, so if you order your favorite generic American-​Chinese dish you might be disappointed.

Ordered takeout. Ordered the wok roasted chili prawn that people are raving about, hot and sour cellophane noodles and chefs Sichuan pickle. Pickle lacked vinegar and was a really bland version of kimchi. The soup had an inch layer of chili oil floating on top. Had to take that off because that is way too much oil. The soup itself was okay I could taste the raw vinegar honestly a bit disappointing. The wok chili prawn had large prawns but it also laid in an inch of chili oil and it was extremely salty. And I ordered everything spicy but it wasn’t that spicy just really salty. I need to drink a gallon of water after this.

Bad things. Customer service
Worst staff: a lady at the cashier. Never smile. Cold look. Arrogant way of talking.
Waiter without spec: he is bit too loud n fast when he does work. Especially when he cleans up the table cloths. But he is friendly and gives nice customer service.
One with spec: Jiayou ! New
– but the food here is unbelievably tasty. Best Sichuan foods in upper east !!

Seems like some of the best Chinese food in the UES. Had the ma po tofu which is pretty damn good and so is the beef noodle soup thing.

I wouldn’t say this is the best Chinese food I UES because I definitely had better. I usually like ordering here because it’s quick & fast but the few times I have ordered it hasn’t been that cheap the general tsos is soggy not crispy. The egg roll is just wonton wrapper & not enough vegetables or stuffing. I’ve been very disappointed. I don’t think I’ll order here again.

Tried the TSO chicken with white rice and then the vegetable fried rice. The food was cooked very quickly like within 5 minutes which kind of surprised me but I was happy because I was hungry.
Now to the food: TSO chicken was good but the fried rice had too much soy sauce/​maybe a tad too greasy for a vegetable rice for me.
The restaurant overall had a nice ambience when I first walked in. I did expect someone to greet me when I came in but the host was on the phone, I tried to wait for her to look up at me but since I was with my little daughter I couldn’t wait long and decided to seat myself. I did like that at the end they gave me sliced oranges with my bill :)

High quality, good Szechuan cuisine. Food and service was great.
I recommend the thousand chili chicken and spicy garlic pork dumplings!

It was the Christmas Day so I felt it’d be my honorable obligation to order some chinese food.
I moved to this area recently and this place was actually my first chinese restaurant. I was expecting something more «generic» chinese food, but wow, this place is pretty decent. It is no lie that this place specializes «Szechuan cuisine.»
My roommate and I had C25 (Wok-​roasted chicken with thousand chili) with some extra hua jiao (Szechuan pepper) and it got our tongues so numb. That was exactly what I expected from Szechuan cuisine.
I will go back or order from them again without a doubt.
***Edit/​Update***
Just see how many Chinese (or Chinese American) people reviewed this place positively. If you didn’t like the food here, it’s not the restaurant’s fault. It’s just you don’t know any «Chinese» food other than General whatever’s chicken.

Extremely solid Chinese food in the area. It is mostly Sichuan as opposed to Cantonese. I ordered the ma po tofu which was extremely good, though you can do better in Chinatown. However, for the UES, this is probably the best. Very reasonable prices, outstanding quick service, and the interior décor is very nice. Highly recommend if you are in the are and want Sichuan Chinese for dine in or take out. However, would not recommend traveling here from other parts of Manhattan because then you might as well go to Chinatown.

Lightning fast service. I asked my husband to pick up our order while I am submitting it online. We live 2 blocks away and the food was ready by the time he got there.
The mapotofu is indeed very good. Yes it is oily and I did wish they put more meat in there. When you order you can specify your spice level. I order spicy and it was pretty up there. The sauce and the silky tofu go really well with rice.
The fried chicken in garlic sauce was just okay. I think they put too much coating which makes them crunchy but too doughy at the same time. Also too sweet for me.
$ 27 total. Not the cheapest Chinese take out but better quality than average.

Ordered directly from the restaurant and it took about half an hour to arrive, which was fine. We had the noodle and brisket soup – listed under the noodle, not soup section. As with other Szechuan restaurants, this is never marked as spicy, but it is, which is what we wanted. I asked for extra spicy, which it was not. Portion size was OK, we added some chicken broth to stretch it a bit. We also added some tofu, because we just bought some in Chinatown. Soup was fine, brisket rather minuscule but not too fatty, as can be the case.
We also ordered the cold appetizer of «Ox tongue and tripe“in chili sauce. That was terrific– heavier on the tripe than the tongue, but very tasty, and not oily, and pretty spicy.
All in all, the first «real» Szechuan we have had in our UES neighborhood.

Ordered a pickup yesterday and I’m super satisfied with my lunch special. They were very quick and service was attentive. My food was ready in like 10 mins.
I had a mapo tofu with a side spring roll. Mapo Tofu is really flavorful though I expect it to be more meaty (more minced meat please!). I like the sauce a lot so I finished my rice. Spring roll is just spring roll, a lil mushy inside though but that’s ok. I had some leftovers for my mom and she’s a very picky person… but she gave them a «OK, not bad.» review. So… That’s a go from us!
Looking forward to try more on their menu!
It’s pretty empty in there though, hopefully they get more business so they won’t be like the previous owners of this place. (The sushi place, then the vietnamese place.)

Most of the Chinese places in Yorkville are cheap takeout quality. This one is an actual authentic Sichuan place. The food was actually pretty spicy, though not overly so. I tried several things from here like ma po tofu, beef tendon, and sichuan pork dumplings. The best thing for me were the dumplings which had a rich, spicy flavor to them. However, I am not a big fan of Sichuan cuisine, so I found the other dishes underwhelming with their pungent tastes. The food here was also way too greasy — it seems that they like to pour chili oil all over their food. Almost everything I tried was covered in this red chili oil that got all over my hands.

Wow. This place is such a gem on the UES. It is hard to find an authentic Sichuan joint and this is the best Sichuan place I’ve had in a long time. I’ve ordered delivery from here (super fast) and dined in (it’s actually a white table cloth joint with really good service so dining in is acceptable — they are great with water refills). It is a above average in price and as far as I can tell, I don’t think they do a lunch special for the true Sichuan dishes. Still, even though dishes can be $ 15-​$ 16, they are really tasty with big portions.
The first time, bf and I had delivery. We had the dan dan noodle (unfortunately not my favorite because it is very vinegar-​y? I like it spicier, saltier with more garlic). He had the kung pao which he said wasn’t the best unfortunately, and I had what I think deserved 5 stars– the wok stir fried chicken with a thousand chillies (Han Dynasty, my fav place downtown calls it Dry Pepper Chicken). DELICIOUS. Salty, crispy, with the right amount of bitterness from the Sichuan numbing peppercorn, and the right amount of saucyness. Han’s is drier. The first time I ordered this through delivery; I described what I wanted on the phone and the host helped me identify what they called it– maybe because it traveled but it was really saucy the first time. $ 15.95. Comes with your choice of white or brown rice.
I love this place and would recommend it to anyone looking for some good Chinese uptown. It’s pretty traditional but I think caters to all tastes.

Haven’t Unilocal’d in a while, but am back just to review this place.
First recommendation I can make: go to dinner in person at A-​jiao. The décor is nice and soothing and you forget you’re on a busy, construction-​filled corner of 2^nd Ave.
But also, go because the server is so nice and friendly and will really take care of you. I have a very uncommon food allergy and the server was patient and kind in helping me to decide what my menu options were.
The dishes we have tried were all exceptionally made and we’ve been back several times since our first visit.
It’s also BYOB, with a decent wine store right across the street.
Like some other reviewers have said, this is the best Chinese food I’ve had by leaps and bounds in the UES/​Yorkville area. If you had an unhappy delivery experience, like some people on here seem to have had, I would urge you to go in person and you will definitely be taken care of!

This review is based on just one experience, but it was great!
Been living in the UES for 3 years and have never had good Chinese food up here. Ordered A-​Jiao on a whim on Seamless because their delivery minimum was only $ 10, and I’m very glad I did!
I ordered the Ma-​Paul Tofu (Mapo Doufu/​麻婆豆腐) lunch special with soup:
PROS
— Delicious, spicy, silky, oily, meaty tofu (as good as those in Sichuan restaurants downtown, pretty authentic too)
— Tasty and rich Hot and Sour soup with lots of bamboo, tofu, egg, and seaweed inside — no anemic chicken broth lunch special soup here
— $ 10.16 with tax and 20% tip
— Arrived at my place in 15 min
CONS
— None so far, will definitely order the lunch special again
— The menu seems relatively pricey, will have to go there and try things like Twice-​Cooked Pork Belly (Hui Guo Rou/​回锅肉) to see if the prices are justified
Will definitely order again and probably will go there sometime!