Chinese
1413 Grandview Ave
Columbus, OH 43212
(614) 824-4657
In the former Grandview location of two short lived businesses – Yogi’s pierogis and Yi’s Bento Express – a new Chinese restaurant, Jie’s Good Tasting, has opened. They have 24 seats for dining in, though due to the cramped accommodations and chaotic, disorganized service, they’re probably best suited to take out.
Despite these caveats, there is a good reason to visit Jie’s, namely homemade dumplings that are easily some of the best in town. Ignore the menu and ask which flavors they have, as the menu is not necessarily representative of much of anything if our visits are any indication. On our last trip there were four types available: San Xian (our favorite so far – a mix of pork, shrimp and chive), pork and napa cabbage, pork and pickled cabbage (our number 2 pick) and pork and celery. 16 come to an order, they’re priced in the $7-8 range, and are served with a pleasant soy/vinegar dipping sauce. What makes them good is the thick but tender wrapper and the juicy and flavorful fillings. They go quickly.
Also worth ordering are the dumplings in hot and sour soup and the spicy dumplings (smaller portion of 8 dumplings) pictured behind.
The pan fried pork buns seemed to be popular with the large groups of Chinese students frequenting Jie’s but we found them a little too chewy and thought that the bread to filling ratio erred too far on the bread side.
The menu offers a lot of the standard American Chinese take-out dishes (General Tso is present and accounted for) and a few more interesting choices. We enjoyed both the cumin chicken and the cumin beef. Both dishes are moderately spicy, fragrant with cumin and comprise chunks of meat with fried potatoes. Steamed rice must be requested separately.
The za’ jing noodles, similar to Korean jajagmyun noodles, are boiled noodles served with a black bean sauce and here with your choice of tofu or shrimp.
The tomato and egg soup claims to be made with homemade noodles but on the day we visited we were skeptical of the claim.
If you love dumplings like we do, then a trip to Jie’s is worthwhile… just set your service expectations low. On both visits we found them to be more or less unfamiliar with diners basic expectations (flatware, water, bowls for soup etc).
alt.eats.columbus 
I finally had a chance to try this place yesterday. As you reported, the San Xian dumplings were very good. And i also agree that the service leaves a little to be desired. Maybe a third person would help. I’ll go again though as long as I’m not in a hurry.
We have been there on 2/28. Horrible is an understatement. Service nearly not existing. Plain vinegar as dipping sauce. We tried to order a soup and we were told that only two people ordered it and therefore it was no longer available. I had the dumplings in hot and sour soup with dumplings and egg drop soup. The difference between the broths was in the end a good portion of vinegar. Both tasted burned. I was advised (halfway I went through the dumplings) that hot oil and sesame oil would were missing.
My wife had the vegetable dumplings which tasted bland.
The dough was pretty good – fluffy and light – but the filling (in both cases) was not seasoned well (or better at all).
Service: Table was sticky, pop cans and water still on it. The patrons were busy discussing with each other (or with other chinese . my mandarin is less then basic) instead of taking care of the customers.
I mentioned the lack of available items on the menu (this was the second time we have been there; first time also items were missing; we gave chinese new year the fault).
All in all this was our last visit.
Jie’s has a new updated and smaller menu and service was much improved on our last visit.
Based on other reviews I went at 3pm the other day. Because I was by myself I only tried the Spicy Dumplings and Yu Xiang Chicken. Both were ample quantities and good renditions although it would have been nice if the chicken dish had doubanjiang to give it some extra kick and another layer of flavor. As is my custom, I ordered hot tea to go with my meal. Seeing as it was $2.50 I thought it would be a better quality variety…I was wrong…but it was just a so-so loose-leaf jasmine green. I will definitely go back around the same time with someone else so we can feast on the larger portions of dumplings and one of the cumin dishes.
delicious dishes