ChinaHouse VS. Golden Buddha

1053 St. Rt. 28 Milford 248-9100 / 810 Main St. Milford 831-9156

Milford has it's fair share of asian cuisine, buffetts usauly rule the roost, however if it's take out your going for you might be suprised at the roll reversals. In the ring we have long time veteren Golden Budda taking on newcomer China House.
First up China House, located at 810 Main St. this china kitchen offers no buffett, takeout and dine in
is all your gonna get. Clean and unpretentiuos if not plain to say the least. Lunch special pricing looked good so we ordered one beef/chicken Lo Mein $3.85 (noodles, beef, chicken and veggies) and one Fried bonless chicken $4.05 (boneless battered fried breast, veggies, rice and browngravy). I have had lo mein from a hundred places and many cities, but I have never seen it served with rice. Suprise! my portion was 50% rice!I guess that explains the prices. However it doesn't account for the quality, or lack thereof.
Not only was my lo mein lacking in size, it also lacked in flavor as well. I love that smokey sauce usually
found in this dish...usually found that is, not here. Soft juicey meat, not here. Crisp green snow peas,
carrot, onion, not here either. In fact most of what was here was rice, sort of fried rice, dry and very out
of place. This lo mein was lo quality. Next disapointment, boneless fried chicken. Commonly called Hong
Kong chicken this dish is awesome, a wholechicken breast, fired golden brown, sliced and served with
chinese veggies, rice and rich brown gravy. China House must have been trying toget us to go veggie,
the entire dish had three meager pieces of chicken...three. Rich brown gravy, no. Strange chemical
brown gravy, yes.While the veggies seemed fresher than they did in the lo mein, it far from a saving grace.
Once again a half container of rice was the mealsbasic bulk. Hey I love cheap prices, but not at this cost of
quality. China House may serve some very decent dishes, but I was not privy toany this trip.
Golden Budda looks its age, from the 70's decor, to the weathed sign, these woks have wok'd around
the block more than a few times. Offering take out, dine in, and a humble buffett, Golden Budda has
tried to keep up with the buffett boom...but isn't quite there yet. Oh well, this is BATTLE Take Out,
not BATTLE Buffett (stay tuned it's comming up next month). Once again I ordered one Lo mein ($7.95)
combo this time (shrimp, beef and chicken), as well as a Hong Kong chicken ($7.95). It was too late for
luch specials and I was really hungry anyway. Upon opening the chinese shaped box, I got a whiff of
that distinctive scent. Good smokey lo mein sauce. Unlike last time, I found that this dish was definately
meaty, flavorfull, fresh, and rice free. I ate it all and enjoyed every skinny noodle to the last scrap. Our
Hong Kong chicken was worhty of the previous praise as well. Crispy breading, juicey chicken, crisp,
colorfull veggies, and yes...that rich brown gravy. I think the gravy is the almost the most important
ingredient in this dish. It was soo good my girlfriend suggested that Golden Budda may be in cohoots
with Sizzling Wok, her favorite maker of good brown gravy. I'm not sure about that, but it's as good
as it gets to us. Golden Budda may look a bit tired, but don't let that let you drive on by.
This BATTLE goes hands down to GOLDEN BUDDA. Golden Budda is definatley our take out champion...
for now at least anyway. There are many more battles to win to say who will take the Eastsidevibe
Chinese Championship Cup. Keep those woks hot, were coming for ya...and when you least expect it!