Jinli Sichuan Cuisine Marlboro [NJ]

Regional Dining Discussions New Jersey
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Once again, we started out for Sichuan Cottage and ended up here. (Who knew Sichuan Cottage would close today to make up for being closed yesterday? :angry:)

Anyway, we had Fish Fillets in Black Bean Sauce and Shredded Pork in Garlic Sauce. The fish had hardly any black bean flavor (or any other flavor, come to that). The pork was fairly flavorful, but both were also a bit oily. The Hot & Sour Soup was less vinegary than before (a plus for some, but negative for us).

And I still want to go to Sichuan Cottage and find it open!

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Had a pretty mediocre meal at Jinli a couple of weeks back. Will likely return to Sichuan Cottage next time around.

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So even after reading that Cottage is closed on Tuesdays multiple times yesterday in HO threads yesterday, somehow it failed to register and we decided to get takeout for dinner… oops. So off to Jinli.

We ordered the Chongqing chicken (aka 3 pepper chicken), cumin lamb, dan dan and chongqing noodles, along with orange/General Tso chicken for kids.

The Chongqing chicken was the highlight for me - I kind of pooped on Cottage’s version in the thread over there, but I was creaming myself over this one. It’s packed with so much msg in the crust you feel like you’re eating a fried chicken dorito or something. Even though it was a good 30 minutes before we were able to eat it, it kept a bit of crunch and I couldn’t stop eating this one. It’s the perfect snack to go with some cold beer. I would probably return for this one alone.

Cumin lamb - I had the version at Cottage in the last month and overall Cottage does it better. The lamb at Jinli was sort of desiccated in an interesting way - not sure if it’s supposed to be like that but I liked it. It’s like half way to a beef jerkey, but in a good way IMO. Flavors were on par with cottage.

The two noodles - the noodles got soggy in transit but no fault to them there. I will say it wasn’t particularly exciting from a flavor perspective and I could not tell which was which. The Dan Dan at Cottage definitely brings more Mala to the party.

Orange/Tso chicken - this one was interesting. It was absolutely packed with enormous, chicken finger sized chunks of white meat. I’ve never seen a higher white meat to breading ratio in any Chinese restaurant. Unfortunately for me, that meant it was not very tasty as the meat isn’t as juicy and ultimately the meat to coating ratio was off. I can see many people absolutely loving this though, personal preferences and all that.

I think their extensive menu of fancier dishes makes it worth checking out again.

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I’m glad I’m not the only one who forgets that both Shanghai Bun and Sichuan Cottage are closed Tuesdays. (For some reason I can remember Shanghai Bun better.)

Basically, you seem to be saying that Sichuan Cottage is overall better but Jinli is a little fancier, right?

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I don’t think I would say Cottage is better overall, since I’ve only had 4 things from Jinli and in takeout form. I’m sure each place will have certain dishes they are better at. More visits are warranted!

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This bundle of words has made me giggle endlessly. Glad you enjoyed it!!! haha!

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Jinli has a coupon page in the “Community Coupons Red Edition #105”: 15% off $20 or more, BOGO bubble tea or smoothie, or $5 off $25 or more. (All cash only and not combinable.)

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Okay–five of us are going to Jinli this weekend and I’m looking for recommendations, especially hot pots or other dishes suited more for a group. (Four of us went to Southeast Asia for three weeks in 1989 and we get together every few months to eat Asian food.) Any suggestions?

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Sorry @eleeper but I’ve been a few times and am still solidly in the “Sichuan Cottage is so much better” camp.

I never tried those crabs so if you order them, please let me know if they are worth the money.

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Well, we’ve already done Sichuan Cottage, and I don’t know if it’s even re-opened for dine -in yet.

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Five of us went to Jinli yesterday (Saturday) at 6PM. There was one other party, in the other room. Nevertheless, it was so noisy we could barely hear each other speak. Between the other group (somewhat rowdy), the lack of sound-soak, and the apparent necessity to run the smoothie blender every ten minutes or so, it was not a really great atmosphere for conversation. (And towards the end, a family came in with a loud toddler, adding to the noise level.)

We order Cold Noodles in Sesame Sauce, Chicken and Eggplant in Garlic Sauce, Lamb with Cumin, Chicken Chow Fun, and Mapo Tofu (with no meat). The Cold Noodles in Sesame Sauce was good, but the sauce was a thin liquid and it was served on a plate, rather than in a bowl, so when we were passing it around, we had to be very careful not to spill it. The Chicken and Eggplant in Garlic Sauce and the Chicken Chow Fun were both good. The Lamb with Cumin had a lot of cumin, but not much (if any) Sichuan brown pepper (i.e., no mouth-numbing). The Mapo Tofu was the spiciest of the dishes, but the sauce was (again) more liquid than sauce. (This may have been because we asked them not to add the pork bits, so YMMV.)

The bill with tax and tip came to $90, or $18 each. That’s what we paid last time we went to Huddy’s, where I got a salad and Mark got a bulgogi sandwich, so I would definitely said the price performance is better at Jinli–not that that is a comparison that is very useful to people. :slight_smile: I just wish it weren’t so noisy.

We didn’t get any of the pricey stuff–one person said something about the high prices when she looked at the menu, so we pretty much all independently decided to not go for broke. I did notice that the lamb dishes were all about $15, except for the lamb chops, which were $36.95, so apparently it’s the chops that have gotten ridiculously expensive (yes, I’m looking at you, Aarzu) rather than lamb in general.

(And as for Sichuan Cottage being better: yes, it is, but a recent posting somewhere on HO indicates that Sichuan Cottage is still not open for dining in.)

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At Jin Li we always get the dan dan noodles, extra spicy, with pork. Think it’s $8.95.

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I haven’t checked Jin Li’s status lately, but unless you rush out tonight for take-out from Sichuan Cottage or Shanghai Bun, it may be the only authentic option for Chinese New Year on Tuesday. Gong hei fat choy!

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( psss @seal I think she’s talking about you at the end there “fat choy”)

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SO not nice, but I did snicker just a tad.

Gong hei fat choy, you HOs!
Love,
A Fire Horse

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Xin nian kuai le hu nian da ji

san1 nin4 faai3 lok6 fu2 nin4 daai6 gat1

Assuming I didn’t screw it up ( I’m betting I did ) I hope I just wished us all

Happy Chinese New Year and the best of luck for the Year of the Tiger

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We decided to try JinLi for NewYearsEve dinner home delivery via DoorDash tonight. Quick notes: usually we patronize SC ‘just down the road’ but with our car temporarily out of service waiting for repair, availability of delivery was a deciding factor [and not due to any dissatisfaction with SC whatsoever, along with perhaps more than a little curiosity after reading on HO previously about JinLi and wondering what took Koo’s spot in the plaza.

Anyhow, I was delighted with my choice. My wife had the chicken with broccoli (her favorite) on the not too spicy flavoring angle while I (enjoying spicier fare) had the default General Tsos chicken. I also had a hankering for a dish new to my taste buds so I paired it with the minced pork/DanDan noodle small platter accompanied by a cucumber salad appetizer which came with garlic vinegarette dressing. We also split 2 scallion pancakes and 2 spring rolls between the two of us, and finally the dinner included two boxes of white rice with the entrees. The portions were quite ample and I thought a good fair value for a reasonable cost.

After my usual disclaimer that I am more of a casual consumer of Chinese/Szechuan food than the knowledgeable sophisticated students of the cuisine here on HO; I will without any hesitation or reservation state how flavorful, fresh, nicely presented and deliciously spiced just right our dinner was. The Door Dash infrastructure worked perfectly with everything arriving hot and spill-free at the scheduled time (noteworthy on probably one of the busiest days of the year for this sort of food and with the roads around here quite foggy no doubt concealing more than one future serving of venison waiting to scurry out of the wooded areas as evening approached. Here’s a quick photo I snapped of our food on our kitchen counter after the bag was unpacked.

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Glad I tried JinLi tonight! Happy 2023 to all here on HO. Cheers! :clinking_glasses:

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Had a meal at jinli, got ginger scallion beef, mapo tofu, and kung pao chicken. Honestly I was a bit disappointed! The beef was a bit tough, kung pao tastes more like the takeout style than authentic. Mapo was good. The thing is this place is EXPENSIVE. Basically every entree is 20+ now. I will be going back to Sichuan cottage from now on. I always thought between Jinli and Cottage they were about even, but this experience was a bit disappointing.

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The dan dan noodles, extra spicey are really good. Sometimes I get those before heading over to Sichaun for the main order.

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I like the way you roll!!

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