A&J

Great hidden gem, low frills, authentic and yummy inexpensive food. We loved everything we ordered, and already have a list of things we want to try for next time!

I’ve been here twice since my last review and I am still in love with the food, service on the other hand… Yeah, about that.
Let’s start off with the service and work our way to the food.
The shopping center is a little frightening with the parking situation and the other shops here seem dead. A&J is super tiny and from all of my previous experiences, they are bad with service.
A&J is different with its ordering, this is how it works: They give you two menus, one that is laminated and the other is paper. You circle the ones you would like to order on the paper one.
Story time:
My boyfriend and I got sat down right when we walked in, but it was about ten minutes later until someone gave us a menu. At that same visit they forgot my pork dish and it came out when we were half way done with out meal, they gave me a vegetable dish to compensate. Must have been a bad day for them because on that same day our server accidentally dropped a glass vinegar bottle and it slashed all over our feet. Not only that! Our server took my food and I was not done eating! OH NAH. That was the last straw! Minus one star for you.
At our second visit, I guess because it was after the lunch rush but they were a lot better. I did notice other customers got frustrated when the servers didn’t take their order. That customer ended up walking up and giving the server the order instead.
Food time! I always get the pork chops with rice, it never fails me. My potato boyfriend on the other hand is the risk taker in this relationship *cue bad boy music* he got pork dumpling steamed, spicy wonton soup in hot oil, and spicy tendon beef noodle soup.
The pork dumplings are really plain, but that’s the beauty of it. The meat is seasoned so well that you don’t even mind. The garnished ginger gives the plain dumpling a little zing!
I am not a fan of spicy food… But as you can tell, my boyfriend is. The spicy wonton soup was delicious! The meat, once again was seasoned really well. The spicy beef, that was another story. The noodles are chewy and perfect, but the soup base just felt off to me. It was bland but still had a little flavor, it just didn’t match the noodles.
Food was glorious as always, our meal was never over $ 25, but was it worth the service? Dun dun dunnn, until next time on Tina’s reviews…

Just the way I like it, a little hole in the wall place but the food is legit authentic, the service is friendly. They make they’re own noodles here so of course I had to try it. There were four of us so we got several different things.
Scallion pancake-​fried, good with or without sauce
Thousand layer pancake-​almost like Chinese version of a croissant, not a lot of flavor but I could see myself snacking on one while watching tv
Pork dumplings-​very tasty, longer in length than what I have seen before, think they make these too
Ground pork with noodle-​this hit the spot! Lots of ground pork and noodles, served with bean sprouts and I think it was cucumber.
Coming back again to try more! Yes, cash only like the others have said. It was pretty busy on Friday night too. Very reasonably priced, a lot cheaper than some other places I have been to.

I’m honestly not sure why this place has such high reviews for its lackluster food and service. To start off, the food was so disappointing. The xiao long bao — aka soup dumplings — had zero soup inside the dumplings. The scallion pancakes were far from crispy. Communication was another issue here. It was obvious that the waitresses were not comfortable speaking English… which is fine with me, but I was baffled when our waitress got three of our dishes wrong. I had circled the dishes on the menu with the necessary quantity that our table needed. I’m not sure how more clearly I could have given my instructions, but they weren’t clear enough ad it seems.
Please avoid this place at all cost if you’re looking for superb authentic Chinese cuisine. I’ve had much much much better in the past.

I had my first A&J experience. I didn’t realize restaurants existed in this strip.
It’s definitely a hole in the wall. Cash only.
I tried the spicy beef and tendon noodle soup. It was spicy but not salty enough so I was craving salt while eating the soup. The broth was very rich. The meat portions were good and they don’t give a ton of noodles so I was pretty happy.
I ordered their spare rib small portion dish and I think the star anise or all spice they use kind of turned me off. Otherwise it would be a good app.
To top it all off I ordered their sliced beef. This I recommend. It was just right.
I have to come back and try the other soups.

I love this place because I love eating small plates so you can try many things. Of course I always order potstickers, fried chicken, vegetarian bun, seaweed and bean sprout salad, and pork buns. I love the way you order here, super simple, just circle the things you want and they take your paper. Perfect.
Eat here and try as much as you can. Cash only.

Been here many times now and I can confidently say their service and food are awesome ! Not a huge fan of American style Chinese food and haven’t tried too many authentic Chinese dishes but this spot is a great place to start. Although their English is not perfect the wait staff are friendly and do make suggestions if you want to try something new.
The restaurant is small and fills up fast so be sure to time your meal right ! They also have a Togo window for bubble tea if you’re ever in the mood. Reminder it’s cash only !

The ONLY problem with this place is too many of you have found it… all of you — go away!
If you want authentic non-​Americanized (meaning untarnished) Chinese food this is the place. It is rustic, small serving family style and every dish is fantastic. Love the smoked chicken and pretty much every other dish this place puts out. It gets REALLY crowded on weekends and the wait is very long so tend to avoid it on Saturday and Sunday as a result… Really people, go to McDonalds you will love it, I promise!
One thing to know before you go BRING CASH. This is a no check no credit card place, cash only!

I have had a horrible experience the first time I came to this restaurant, but decided to give it a try again. This time, it was definitely much better. The food was okay to me, but exceptionally yummy to my sister, friend, and son. I really liked how fast the food came out because we were on a time crunch. The food are super affordable for the amount you get! The only complaint I have is the amount of MSG that was in the the noodle soup we got.
This is the place to go when you want authentic Chinese food!

I had previously visited A&J for lunch, but this time I came with my boyfriend on a Sunday morning to try some of the breakfast items.
Overall, what you see is what you get. A&J is very no-​frills (as one might expect given its location in an off-​the-​beaten-​path mini mall in Annandale) and the food is very affordable for the area. On the breakfast menu, we ordered the egg cake, baked wheat cake w/​egg, and green onion pastry. Out of the three, I’d recommend the green onion pastry as it was flaky without being too bready and dry like the other two.
On the regular menu, my boyfriend really enjoyed his Chinese style fried chicken noodle soup. The broth was flavorful and the chicken was a nice crisp complement to the noodles. I enjoyed the pan fried beef bun we ordered. Think of a giant xiao long bao — it was juicy and delish. Unfortunately, the actual xiao long bao (steamed pork buns) were disappointing. They lacked the juicy, soupy bite that xiao long bao should have and, instead, were gelatinous and greasy.
Based on this experience, I’d have to rate A&J three stars based on the food. Service was good but nothing special. I’d like to come back to try some of their other menu items though — it’s an expansive and very affordable menu

It’s always a treat to go to A&J. I don’t get to go here often but I love it every time! Chinese breakfast is amazing — Do Jiang (soy bean soup), yo tiao (fried bread), xiao long bao (soup buns), niu ro juan bing (peking beef wrap), etc.
Definitely have to eat it in the restaurant, the ‘bing’ (pancakes/​wraps) are crispy and chewy. They never reheat the same.
Their beef noodle soup (you have to get it with tendon) is flavorful, the noodles have great texture, and it’s a huge bowl.
I recommend ordering lots of food and sharing, they happily provide extra bowls and knives.

This place is alright… We got the Spicy Beef Soup and Fried Chicken Soup with thick noodles plus the vegetable dumplings all for $ 22. Huge portions for a cheap price. It was good but I probably wouldn’t go here again.

This A&J outpost is the Kirsten Dunst of Taiwanese restaurants, one instance you think they are a stunner, and the next you may find yourself questioning why you ever found them appealing in the first place. My head has gone back and forth like a pendulum to be on the verge of exploding so at the time of writing this review, I am stuck on three stars but based on other prior trips, I would say the average is closer to 3.25−3.5.
Make no mistake, having made various trips to the mothership (Taiwan) and various Chinese/​Taiwanese enclaves throughout the US, I am a certified Taiwanese breakfast snob and the casual diner will no doubt find renditions of varying degrees of quality delicious since it’s hard to go completely wrong, but I am not completely surprised by the collective 4 star rating given the scarcity of being able to find any worthy competition in the area and the price point and overall speed is commendable if you offset the vexing cash-​only payment policy and sometimes long wait-​times on the weekends given the small space.
In terms of the food, the cold appetizers are solid, noteworthy items including the bean curd skin with mustard greens and soy beans, sliced pig ears (Western chefs have recently hopped on this train which has been chugging for centuries), and the seaweed and bean sprouts in garlic vinegar sauce. The bean curd/​century old egg is a Taiwanese classic, but I find the presentation both lazy and visually horrifying.
Moving on to the breakfast items, the soymilk and crullers are acceptable but not remarkable. There is a depth of flavor and richness missing from the soymilk which I have no doubt is brought in from an outside source, akin to the difference between store bought and freshly squeezed orange juice. The same could be said regarding the breakfast crullers which again are likely a premade dough so you have the crunch on the exterior but the chewy and flavorful interior is toned down a few notches. The salty sticky rice roll (fan twan) was the most disappointing item since it was missing some bits of cruller or pickled vegetables for added texture and flavor to balance the pork sung and the rice was cooked with too much water so that it resembled more of a tamale rather than the typical toothsome texture of being able to discern grains of sticky rice.
Finally, in terms of the comfort food items on the menu, the noodle soups are are fairly decent in terms of the meats and vegetable components, although the broths could be more aromatic. I prefer the chewy wide noodles over the thin noodles, although a minor first world problem complaint is that the noodle strands are a bit long, making the transfer challenging if one were sharing in a separate bowl. The minced pork over rice hits the spot and is generously portioned and the non-​soup noodle offerings are also solid but not necessarily «grandmother approved.»
All in all, I think this outpost fulfills its role in the area, but its shortcomings also seems analogous to the overall gap in quality of chinese/​taiwanese offerings in northern Virginia versus Rockville, Maryland and southern California, where sister locations of the same franchise exist.

One of my favorite bargain restaurants around town. This place has my 5 stars from when I first moved here and will have me as a life-​long customer. This is a taste of home, every time I come here, I’ll order the Beef Noodle Soup, the Braised Pork over Rice, and the marinated spicy cucumber dish.
The beef served with the beef noodle soup is tender and delicious, better than steak you’ll find at a steakhouse, it melts in your mouth tender and meaty flavor, probably pressure cooked. The noodles are served either with thin or thick noodles, I usually order the thin noodles, because I don’t want that much starch in my dish.
You can never go wrong with the braised pork over rice served with a delicious egg. This is truly a dish that kids and adults will all like, not spicy, cheap eats, and most importantly delicious.
The cucumber is a standard appetizer dish I get here, it really helps balance some of the flavors in the rice dish and pairs well with the dishes they have at A&J’s.
There are a ton of standout dishes here and you honestly can’t go wrong with a dish on their menu. Must go, and a must try. It’s really cheap and delicious, what’s not to like!

I’ve been a fan of A&J for at least the last 10 years. Never disappoints.
If they took credit card, I would definitely give it 5 stars.
My favorites:
Beef noodle soup with tendon
dan dan noodles (beware very peanutty)
fried dumplings
thousand year egg with tofu (eaten with porridge)
trust me, if you get these, you won’t go wrong.
price point is favorable (I’d say ~$ 16 – 18 per person depending how much you eat. for example the above is ~$ 18 per person all in for 2 people and you will have leftovers)

Recently decided to give this place a try. This is not the place you are going to find the normal Americanized Chinese food dishes. Instead this is a place you go for something warm. Our favorite openers were the green onion pancakes although the fried dumplings were also good. After seeing what others were ordering I think on my next visit I will try the fried chicken. On the soup front we tried a hot beef and peanut soup. Both were good and left us thinking about which ones to try next time.
I ordered a ribs and yams dish I will avoid in the future but that is OK because there were many other good sounding options and between the soups and fried chicken or pork I think I am covered.
When ordering they gave up a paper menu to mark which was nice and cut down on any chances of misunderstandings. The staff was very friendly and eager to share with us dishes to try next time.
We appreciated that when we picked items with peppers denoting heat we were served hot items, no one assumed we must have been mistaken. I cannot tell you the number of times I have been disappointed on this front. But here I did not even have to say anything special, we picked a couple soups with heat indicators and received hot dishes.
As many folks have noted this is a cash only location so be prepared. These are good inexpensive warm eats. I see myself visiting again as the winter gets colder.

So had a craving for something spicy and something soup like other than my typical Phở spots.
So decided to hit up A&J and I have mixed feelings about this place still .
Service was fast but food was ehhhhh ok I guess.
So what was ordered you ask?
Well here it is. …
Pig Ear
Fried Dumplings
Soup Dumplings
Spicy Beef Soup
Fried Chicken Noodle Soup
So for starters we ordered Pig Ear/​Fried Dumplings/​Soup Dumpings
The Pig Ears were pretty tasty but needed a lil bit more flavor, not sure exactly what but they were good.
The Fried Dumplings… ehhhhh they were very greasy and they were ok … nothing to write home about.
The Soup Dumplings were a fail … no soup inside of it and the skin was pretty much hard on the top … and did I mention missing the soup inside??? it was basically a pork dumpling with a strange sour taste to it… not sure if its supposed to be like that or it was going bad…
The Main entrees Spicy Beef Soup and Fried Chicken Noodle Soup… dun dunnn dunnnnnnnn
Spicy beef soup… hummmmmm broth was basically beef broth with a ton of chili oil in it… not much too it. not complex or flavorful at all, the beef inside the soup was actually good. very tender and tasty. thats all I can say was the good part of that dish. I was kinda disappointed with it other than the beef …
The Fried Chicken Noodle Soup was the saving grace of this review.
The broth was ok. not to complex or flavor to it… which seems to be the ongoing thing here. but the Fried chicken was pretty good… a lil greasy but good. I may order this on rice next time. its served with sour minced up greens which was good and gave it some flavor…
Overall this place is good for cheap eats

My Chinese parents and friends treat this place as their go to, so we went on a busy Sunday morning. I think they keep coming back because these items are hard to find in the area, but a lot of the dishes lack flavor. Below are some that stuck out:
— Guo Ti (Pan Fried Pork Dumpling/​Pot Stickers) — Pretty lackluster in flavor.
— Suan Bao Niu Jin (Beef Tendon with Garlic Sauce) — Would recommend, but I can see how the rubbery texture would freak a lot of people out.
— Niu Ro Shao Bing (Chinese Sesame Biscuit with Sliced Beef) — Flavorless and very dry, I tried dipping these in any bits of sauce left on my plate– still did not help.
— Zhua Bing (Thousand Layer Pancake) — Nice and crunchy but no flavor.
— Cong You Bing (Scallion Pancake) — Would actually recommend these.
— Hong Shao Niu Ro Tang (Spicy Beef Soup, Szechuan Style) — Had flavor but a slight bitter aftertaste, beef was tender.
Also, they ONLY ACCEPT CASH.
I will probably be back– because family.

I am definitely a fan of this place. I recently brought my girlfriend for a bday breakfast. If you haven’t had a Chinese breakfast, you must try it immediately! Why are you waiting to try this outtt.
Let me just go down the line and explain what I had.
1. Scallion Pancakes: When it comes to asian pancakes, I’m use to the ones at Korean restaurants. This one was definitely thicker than I’m use to, but it was full of flavor and they bring it out nice/​hot. I like Korean pancakes better (bias bc I’m Korean) BUT eating pancakes is better than not eating pancakes right?!
2. Thousand Year Egg with Tofu: This is one of my gf’s favorite things to eat. I will try everything once, but I won’t lie to you. I was kind of nervous to try this. I think I wouldn’t be as scared if the egg came out… um…white. It comes out BLACK. But although it looked scary, it was delicious. Don’t forget to mix it up with the tofu that it’s sitting on. Don’t be scared to try it!
3. Pickled cucumbers (isn’t this just called pickles?): It is refreshing especially when you’re eating the other Chinese dishes. It’s a perfect compliment to the thousand year egg. Make sure you order a bowl of it.
4. Spicy Beef Noodle Soup: Do you love spice? Do you love noodles? Do you love soup? Do you love meat? If you said yes to all of these then you must try the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup. It was stupendous! There was so much flavor as I slurped up the delicious noodles. The meat fell apart and was amazing. If you’re feeling even more ballsy then order it with tendon too… YUM. Order it… DO IT!
5. Pan Fried Dumplings: I can never go to a Chinese restaurant without ordering some dumplings. It’s like going to a Mexican restaurant and not eating chips/​salsa! These were a little different then what I was use to, mostly bc of the long shape instead of the mandu shape. Nonetheless, it was delicious especially when you dip it in that soy sauce :)
I will definitely be coming back here.
PS. IT’S CASH ONLY!!! (If you forget there is a Bank of America across the street and there is a gas station there too.)

Honestly I was a little bit disappointed after reading all these rave reviews! I’m Taiwanese so I love my beef noodle soup. While A&J’s version satisfied my craving, it also left me wanting. The noodles (I had the wide noodles) were waaaay too thick and heavy, I almost felt like I was eating bread. The meat was tender, yes, but also tasted a bit off/​old. The broth was the saving grace, very flavorful and not too spicy.
My friend and I also ordered the wontons szhechuan-​style (by mistake. we actually wanted pot stickers), and they were just okay… the flavor was fine but there was barely any meat.
The place was definitely a hole in the wall, and thus had a quite apparent lack of cleanliness (there was a spider on the windowsill next to our table…). I wouldn’t mind this if only the quality of the food made up for it… At least it’s cheap. And perhaps A&J shines in other dishes. Unfortunately I probably won’t make the trek back to Annandale to find out.