Address: 27 Ivanitsa Danchev Str
Tel: 959 10 10,  959 12 12 [www.chepishev.com]

Chinese restaurant Jin Yuan is on Tsar Simeon on a corner about two blocks out from the centre from where Tsar Simeon crosses Opulchenska. It's built into the first floor of an old communist apartment building, and considering that, they've done a good job of making the place look appealing. There's an overhang around the parts of the building used by the restaurant that looks like a typical Chinese restaurant roof, and the door is flanked by two red faux pillars, with red Chinese lanterns. Nothing special, but a nice touch.

The interior consists of one large room with numerous tables and typical Chinese decorations on the walls, and a bar right in front of the door. On the ceiling, there is a large painting of a dragon on translucent plastic (I think), backlit with fluorescent bulbs to look like a skylight. The fact that the whole of the restaurant is in one room means that it's relatively easy to attract the attention of the waitress, who is usually quite friendly (though I should admit that my family has been coming here for quite some time and we are friends with the owner - still, our service does not seem different from that received by the other tables), though unfortunately it also means that the smoking/non-smoking designation is largely meaningless.

The menu is fairly extensive, and given in three languages - Bulgarian, English and Chinese. There are numbers next to every dish, though, to avoid confusion, so even if you don't speak Bulgarian at all, you could simply say or point to the number of the dish you want and be assured of getting it. The English descriptions do occasionally suffer from certain idiosyncrasies, as is typical of nearly all translations done by a non-native speaker but they are for the most part understandable.

I've been eating here for several years, so I have some favourites: pepper spare ribs are quite good (at 7.88 leva one of the more expensive items on the menu, but hardly unreasonable) - usually very juicy and meaty - as is the roasted duck with various herbs (5.18 leva), which is essentially a breaded crispy duck. The beef with Welsh onion (4.98 leva) is also good, though I'm not sure what's Chinese about it. Chicken and cashew is another long-time favourite, and I feel like I should put in a good word for their plain white rice (1.38 leva), which is not only good but quite sufficient for two people to split and take home leftovers.

On this particular evening I decided to branch and try something a little different, so I ordered duck with stir-fried vegetables (4.98 leva). The vegetables in question were carrots, onions and peppers in a very appetising presentation. To my surprise the dish was actually quite spicy - though admittedly someone who is less of a wuss than I am about spicy food would probably find it less so. It cleared out my sinuses in any case, and it was quite good. I will definitely be having it again. I should also mention that, despite my rather excessive appetite, I only got about halfway through it, and what was left was enough for another meal the next day. This brings me to my favourite part about Jin Yuan - you will get enough to eat, and you will take home enough leftovers for another meal at least. Dad also decided to branch out somewhat, ordering a crab and asparagus soup (1.88 leva), and chicken with bamboo and shrimp (8.88 leva). I personally don't care for asparagus, but my father expressed his satisfaction, so I'll take him at his word. The chicken was also quite good, despite the somewhat counterintuitive combination. Mom had a spring roll (1.80 leva) and a rice spaghetti with seafood (5.58 leva), which consists of rice noodles cooked with shredded cabbage, carrots, some sprouts of some sort and shrimp (and possibly one or two other things as well). It's another of our standard favourites, and goes very well with soy sauce.

I do wind up saying this about several of the restaurants I review, but we've never actually had anything bad here. Sure, there are Chinese dishes and certain foods in general (such as mushrooms) that I don't necessarily like, but I hasten to draw the distinction between what is or isn't appealing to my personal taste and the quality of preparation, which is generally high.

Our dinner for three came to 30.30 leva, without the tip, and if you were really looking to save money, you could probably get it down to six or seven leva a person (inexpensive main dish, water and a split order of rice) and still have more than enough to eat, and more than enough leftovers for at least one meal at home. I should mention, too, that they also do take-out, which is quite convenient.