Large Portions Stamp of Bridgewater's China Moon

You don’t go to China Moon for the atmosphere—and most people don’t even dine there. They place their orders, wait for a few minutes and take off with their take out.

Sparsely decorated, the restaurant is located in the Villa Plaza Shopping Center on Route 28, and is lined inside with a Chinese painting featuring egrets elegantly in midair on one wall, and, on the other, a wall-length mirror that helps enlarge space perception. The ceiling has fans moving ever so slowly and fluorescent lighting that renders the room, with an occupancy limit of 48 individuals, somewhat stark. 

An improvement in atmosphere, if desired both my dinner companion and I thought, would begin with replacing the fluorescence. 

Menu boards with scintillating garish photos misleadingly recall fast-food Chinese takeout spots, and this does not necessarily form the best first impression on someone who has been eating real Chinese food all her life, although the experience proved to be of greater authenticity and higher quality than I initially expected.

Opened 15 years ago, China Moon is owned by and staffed with very friendly and nice people from Fujian Province, China. Speaking with each other in a Fuzhou dialect [Fuzhou hua] and Mandarin, the four chefs and a helper speed orders along. Sizzling sounds from a kitchen open to public view become soups, appetizers, and entrees doled out at lightning pace. 

The menu is a piece of paper that, when folded in half, constitutes the size of a regular menu. This is indicative of the variegated choices, and not of the large print section.

And when I chatted with the employees and asked about customer favorites, they mentioned Happy Family, Four Seasons, General Tso’s Chicken, Szechuan Flower Shrimp, Buddha’s Delight, Home Style Bean Curd and Broccoli with Garlic Sauce.    

When I asked in Mandarin what the employees would like the public to know, they singled out the code of cleanliness that is abided in their everyday routine.

My dinner guest and I decided on the Steamed Vegetable Dumplings for an appetizer, an Egg Drop Soup for me, and a Wonton Soup for him. I selected Crispy Shrimp Walnuts from the chef’s specials and the popular Home Style Bean Curd to sample their healthy vegetable selections. 

Meanwhile, my guest chose Lake Tung Ting Shrimp for the Chinese-sounding name and requested steaming the dish and placing the sauce on the side. Everything arrived with white rice, although brown is also available if requested.

The vegetable dumplings had an incredibly thick doughy skin when I usually prefer a somewhat soft and slippery delicate covering.

Luridly sensational in coloring, the Home Style Bean Curd was saucy and flavorful. The glazed walnuts were lightly sweet, while the jumbo shrimps had a freshness that manifested in their firmness.  

My guest said of his Lake Tung Ting Shrimp, “This is a very healthy dish, steamed and tender to the bite, with straw mushrooms, water chestnuts, beans, carrots, bamboo shoots and baby corn.”

China Moon is where you go for fast preparation of decent Chinese food to be shared with fine company—there and for takeout—or you make the experience a quick meal alone. This isn’t where you recite poetry for hours enjoying a candlelit dinner, and this isn’t for sit-in corporate business meetings [by all means, ordering out, picking up, bringing to the office would work]. 

Pricing is excellent, service from genuine folks is incredibly friendly and helpful and the food is abundant in portion with fresh ingredients and endless choices.

The restaurant is open from 11 a.m to 10 p.m. Monday through Wednesday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; and 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday.