Not sure how best to describe this restaurant. Lets go with "an experience" Having read the reviews here, we were prepared for what was to come - lots of small dishes of tasty food, with waiters that don't speak English. And that made it so much fun. We had no idea what was being served half the time, so we could only concentrate on the food. The spicy beef was incredible and I could have eaten it all night Well worth it, but go with an open mind and having read the reviews here!

Chef Nei Chia Ji at Jai Yun is a marvelous artist with food. Jai Yun doesn't offer a printed menu listing food choices. The menu is the food that the chef finds at the market that morning, so all ingredients are fresh. (That's also why the restaurant wants reservations, not drop-ins, so that the chef has an idea of how much food to buy.) The only menu choice is the price--do you want the $65 dinner, the $80 dinner, the $98 dinner, the $125 dinner, or the $168 dinner? (Those were the prices the last time I ate there. Prices do not include sodas, beer, wine.) I ate there at least 7 times over the years, and I always left thinking that I just ate a most extraordinary dinner. The meal begins with a platter of about 12 small cold dishes. Then another 12 or more hot dishes will come one by one. Each dish is for the table to share. The chef is a magician who works with many ingredients, some familiar and some unfamiliar and named only in Chinese. The familiar ingredients include cucumber, tofu, radish, celery, edamame, shrimp, duck, fish, pork, beef, chicken, Chinese broccoli, noodles, and mushrooms. Signature dishes that I always eat there include a subtle and delicate abalone with egg whites, corn and peas stir fried with fish, and crispy eggplant. Other dishes change from one visit to the next. The crispy eggplant is the sweetest eggplant I ever tasted; it usually is the last dish brought to the table, and it can double as a dessert. The meals I ate there have been exquisite in both presentation and taste. The artistry of the chef is unsurpassed. (And it's all about the food. The look of the restaurant is very plain. The service is very friendly but is not the best. Sometimes it can take several requests to get a refill of water or tea. Sometimes the dishes come out from the kitchen too quickly.) The meal is a feast, and you should plan to be there 2.5-3 hours. The chef speaks hardly any English. Sometimes a server speaks some English and sometimes not. I once asked a s

實在太令人失望!!! Server blamed our food allergies for the slow service claiming that the chef has to retool the dishes when in fact, they secretly didn't serve us the food. (I'm actually from China.)

Besides being one of the best Chinese restaurants in the U.S., it is also the quirkiest. praise tends to come from true food fans, while criticism from the less sophisticated. Nothing like it in US.