One of the most touted restaurants in the Notre Dame area, J.W. Chen's is hardly a well-kept secret. Nestled between Ari's Grill and a Papa Johns, it is quite possibly the best Chinese food in the South Bend-Mishawaka region.
Admittedly, the first impressions when walking in were far from great. The décor, while 99% classy, appropriately themed, and tasteful, was marred by a giant cardboard bubble tea cutout overlooking the register that seemed a little out of place. There is very limited seating to accommodate the high volume of alumni, students and locals, and even less room to stand and wait to be seated (my friends and I were forced to wait in the awkward area between the two sets of double doors). Then, once finally seated, we were in a combination of leather, old-fashioned, wheeled office chairs, and the wooden chairs one would find at south dining hall.
Once seated, though, the meal was phenomenal. We started with a round of hot tea that was the perfect remedy for the overstated cold South Bend weather. Though we avoided appetizers, our table was served an order of Almond Shrimp on the house, which ironically happened to be the best dish we had. One wouldn't expect quality or tasty seafood in the Midwest, but even those of us from the coasts loved the shrimp. Crusted with sliced almond pieces and in a pool of sweet almond ginger glaze, there's little else to say to describe its deliciousness.
Moving to our actual dishes, we were each asked to give our spice tolerance on a scale of 1 to 10. Being my bold, fearless, and sometimes unintelligent self, naturally I said 10. As the owner laughed and said, "We'll see about that!" I waited in fear for what they might bring. She had recommended the Ginger Chicken after hearing I liked spice, so I went along and ordered the dish. It came, covered in red chili powder and freshly sliced jalapeños, looking quite daunting. Still, don't worry readers, I muscled my way through it, and aside from the moment I thought I could handle eating the peppers straight up I didn't break a sweat.
Other noteworthy menu items included foremost the Ma Pa Tofu (tofu with a spicy sauce); despite being under the PORK heading on the menu it is in fact vegetarian, spicy, and delicious. The shrimp with lobster sauce, despite having a distinctive egg flavor in it, was also quite good and the sauce went particularly well with the mountain of sticky rice served at each table. Even the FuNa Chicken (chicken with spicy black bean sauce) was well worth it, as there was truly not a dish I tried that wasn't thoroughly enjoyable.
Like I mentioned before, J.W. Chen's is not unknown to most of the Notre Dame community. But, for those of you who have, like myself, overlooked it to instead order from Golden Dragon because of ease and convenience, I challenge you to try J.W. and I'm sure you will not be disappointed. At the very least, you can admire the statue of a cat holding its paw up sitting on the cashier's table.
