Ying Yang Oriental Kitchen

My sister was complaining the other day about how I never write on the blog or when I do, it is always boring. I have to say I would agree with her. She has two adorable children to make any boring entry more interesting. However, I have to rely on my creative writing skills and photography (which, might I add, are limited) to even keep my family members interested. Just because of that, I do want to do a short review of the restaurants here in Rexburg just to keep myself satisfied and my sister off my back. This may not be helpful for all the family members out there that actually take time to read this, but hopefully at least on person in Rexburg will read my review and be influenced on whether or not to spend money at a restaurant.

Not to sound like a spoiled little brat, but going to Hong Kong, China, living in Taiwan for over a year, and having nearly authentic Chinese food living in California, I know what Chinese food taste like. But in writing this, I'm going to try to put myself in the shoes of a typical Idahoan and rate this restaurant strictly on how "Chinese" I think it is and not on the authenticity.

In Rexburg, if you crave Chinese food, there are only two places to go that claim they serve Chinese delights. First is Fong's restaurant which I give a 1/10 rating. As my Chinese teacher puts it, Fong serves "yucky sauce on top of rubber meat". Don't even think about going there. It will be the worst $5 spent. Second there is the Ying Yang restaurant which I want to give a full layout on how I would rate each category. (I took the categories from another website, so don't think I thought of them up on my own)

Here are some pictures off the internet so you can have a short eye break from paragraph writing.


Notice that the Chef really is Chinese. It just feels almost real.
And here's the real review:

Food Quality 5/10
We had some sort of pot stickers and sweet and sour chicken. The pot stickers were way too hard and lacked seasoning or any real flavor on the inside. The sweet and sour chicken was edible, but if someone brought that to my house and didn't tell me it was Chinese food, I would have never guessed. There was no sweet or sour flavor to it. Just cut up, unflavored, not juicy chicken with some sort of sauce that kept it moist. I wouldn't consider it Chinese food. Take a look at this picture someone else took.



Price 6/10
The "pot stickers" were $2.50 for 4 and the sweet and sour chicken was 8 bucks and it came with fried rice. The price wasn't horrible, but considering that it is one of the more expensive restaurants in Rexburg and I could have gotten three times as much at Panda Express (and better tasting), the price is just reasonable.

Customer Service 8/10
I was a bit disappointed when I noticed that 4 Chinese looking people worked there, but two were chefs in the back and the other two looked like they were just cleaning people that stayed in the back. They were really nice and my cup was always refilled, but the score could have been a 9/10 if they had slanted eyes or black hair.

Cleanliness 9/10
It was clean. There was even a huge windows so anyone can look into the kitchen and see how it was in the back. No problems.

Atmosphere 6/10
I wasn't in the Chinese mood while I was there, but they did do a few things so that it wouldn't look like a Denny's, but not much. All their tables were squared, and everyone knows that Chinese restaurants have at least two or three large round tables with the glass spinner thing on the top. Again, doesn't scream Chinese.

Overall, I don't think I am ever going to go there again. It might be worth trying once, but honestly, your money will be better spent driving 30 miles to Idaho falls and getting some stuff at Panda Express.