Northern China Eatery, Doraville GA

When Marie’s mother came to spend a few days with us, we knew that we wanted to take her shopping at the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market, where she was certain to enjoy looking at the aisle of Dutch foods, and also have a nice snack of poffertjes from their food court. While she isn’t especially fond of either spicy foods or, bafflingly, barbecue, she does enjoy Chinese cooking, and there are several Chinese restaurants along Buford Highway that we had not yet visited. Since Northern China Eatery has so many fans, we decided to give it a try.

It’s located below and to the side of an optician, and almost invisible from the street, and serves up some of the tastiest and most authentic Chinese cooking in town. This is a great place to pass around various dishes, family style. We selected five entrees and everybody really enjoyed what they tried. Our server was not in any hurry, but she was attentive, and helped Marie decide which kind of buns that she’d most enjoy.

We shared an order of chicken with a mild plum sauce, and a spicier Chong Ching chicken, crispy and with flakes of red pepper and other seasonings. For those of you curious about the hotter selections of Sichuan (western) Chinese cooking available at Gu’s Bistro who haven’t worked up the nerve to have your tongue set ablaze there, this is a pretty good selection because it’s reminiscent of what they offer at Gu’s at a lower spice level.

We also enjoyed some pan-fried pork soup dumplings, which were excellent, some cold noodles with a thicker plum sauce, which was pretty good, and some absolutely divine lamb skewers. Most of our friends and fellow hobbyists – see the list below – have been raving about this lamb, and with good reason. It’s cooked perfectly and puts the competition to shame. And I really liked the skewers at Te Wei as well! For the record, however, Marie did not enjoy the lamb skewers as much as I did, but that’s okay, as she liked the dumplings more than anybody.

This is absolutely a place to visit with friends and family. Don’t spoil the experience by having a solo lunch here. Get together with some buddies and order lots of things to share. It’s a real treat and you’re certain to leave happy and full.

Other blog posts about Northern China Eatery:

Eat Buford Highway (Dec. 31 2008)
Blissful Glutton (Jan. 15 2009)
The Cynical Cook (Sep. 13 2012)
Creative Loafing Omnivore (Jan. 21 2013)
Spatialdrift (July 30 2013)
ATL Food Snob (Sep. 11 2013)

You can see all the restaurants that we have visited for our blog on this map, with links back to the original blog posts. It’s a terrific resource for anybody planning a road trip through the southeast!