Yen Yen

Yen Yen is an old school Chinese joint located in a strip plaza just south of downtown Peterborough. I could probably find the name of it somewhere but it's not particularly important, if you go directly south from downtown Peterborough you cannot miss it, it's just before Noone Falls.

Whatever it's name is, the plaza has three restaurants and sadly i'm thinking I should have tried one of the other ones. And I say sadly because I would like to endorse Yen Yen, but the General Tso's Chicken had was like one of those two part tests where one part is worth 25% and the other part is worth 75%: Yen Yen was perfect on the 25% part, but it totally bombed on the 75% part.

When it came to the 25% analogy, all the little incidentals were great. I got there 15 minutes after their lunch special ended, but they let me order it anyway, they turned off a tv next to my booth that was annoying, and the sauce, rice and egg roll with the General Tso's were very good.

But when it came to the meat in the General Tso's, I nearly threw up.

General Tso's is a good barometer of whether an all around American-Chinese Food restaurant is decent. Clearly old style Polynesian American Chinese Food joints generally have bad General Tso's, and I should have known that was what Yen Yen was by the decor, but they didn't make it clear otherwise and I paid the price.

A good plate of General Tso's should have solid chunks of chicken, but these croquets were stringy and had an inconsistent quality that made me wonder just what part of the chicken they got this meat from.

I might give Yen Yen another chance with another dish given the good service, but I will never have their General Tso's again.

Time: 3:30 PM

Meal: Special Combination Plate #9 with Egg Roll

Price: $7.95

In and Out The Door: 30 Minutes