Desert Jade

We had a good dining experience at Desert Jade. Our waiter was friendly and attentive. We decided to order Sweet and Sour chicken, Mongolian beef, chicken fried rice, and House Chop Suey (recommended by our waitress). I was looking for Hong Kong style chow mein but they didn’t offer it.
The food was pretty good. Hubby said that its one of the best compared to his recent Chinese dining adventures. I really enjoyed the chicken fried rice. What I love about most Chinese establishments is that you always leave with a doggie bag, which of course we did. For around $ 50, our order would of fed 4 or 5 people (good value). We left full and satisfied.

I love this place, fresh clean and yummy. Not a fan of Chinese food, but this place is SO good!

We like to pick food up from here and it’s fast, convenient and delicious! We like to eat at the restaurant, too and always receive excellent service!

Always greeted with a SMILE (and a HUG)! Desert Jade is truly a Chinese jewel in our AZ desert.
Great family owned restaurant that really cares about their customers. They remember their regulars by name and ask about your family members and/​or friends (especially my mom awwwww). They are genuinely heart warming & sweet.
I have been coming here for almost 20 years. Wow that’s a while! So I must really love this place & the family that runs it. Plus they are funny & they joke around with me for years about my lack of driving & taking cabs there unless with family or friends (must have my cravings satisfied haha).
Some of the servers have been there a while so they know I like my food spicy & no carrots even if I might forget to say. I don’t like to waste food. So they will make most of their dishes to your preference since it’s made fresh. Just ask.
Great Food! Great Service! Always fresh ingredients and no msg. Always consistently delicious! Simple Chinese food done well!
PS
Earlier this year: Wow!!! The family of ‘Desert Jade Restaurant’ (one of my longtime fave restaurants especially for Chinese) was celebrating one of their son’s birthday when they saw me & had me join them for dinner.
They treated me like family! Sharing their food & hospitality. How sweet!!!
Thank you from my heart!

Recommended by a local. The food was meh. I had lemon chicken which was sitting in a sickeningly sweet sauce and bland fried rice, M. had beef and broccoli which was chewy and fatty. The broccoli was nice and green and tasty. The hot tea was meh. Overall, meh.

Best sizzling rice soup in town! The place is a bit dark and parking might be a little stressful. The staff is weird?! Cleaning cart left in the middle of the restaurant and the hostess was not the best… If you don’t care about that, you might be in a good spot
My soup was good.

Drove almost 30 miles because of the Check Please AZ spot. Burn!
When we arrived the owner, we recognized her from the show, was sitting at the hostess stand reading something and never looked up to acknowledge us standing there in front of her waiting for the hostess to seat us. On the Check Please episode she carried on about how much she loves people and her customers. When my family dines at Flo’s, even when they are hoping busy, the owner, Flo makes a point of making some contact with every customer every time. By the way when we left the owner, still sitting at the hostess stand reading her phone or whatever, never said goodbye or thank you as we left.
We started with the Hot and Sour soup (and the Egg Drop soup) and pot stickers. The Hot and Sour soup had nice shrimp and pork in it although it was more Sweet and Sour. My son said his Egg Drop soup was o.k. The pot stickers looked home made, but not a lot of flavor. just meh.
For our entrees we ordered:
Sauteed Shrimp (Highly Recommended), $ 13.25
Shrimp w/​a light egg batter, deep fried & sauteed w/​green onions
*The batter on the shrimp was not crisp and was not sauced or seasoned. I WOULD NOT recommend this dish to anyone.
Mongolian Beef, $ 9.25
Sliced beef marinated in a brown sauce, sauteed w/​green onions
*The meat was tender although the sauce was very thin/​soupy and not much flavor.
Spicy Eggplant w/​Garlic Sauce, $ 7.95
*Although the portion was generous, this dish was neither spicy or garlicky.
BBQ Pork Fried Rice, $ 6.95
*This was adequate.
So disappointed because of the great reviews given on Check Please AZ. We ordered some of the same dishes featured on the show too. Guess it was all for the show… burn!

Great food great service.
Sizzling rice soup is THE Bomb!
Potstickers are top notch. And they will change anything anyway you want it. So win win.

Wonderful food and staff! I cannot believe I haven’t been here yet. New local favorite for sure!

I have been dining here for about 12 years.
My wife’s family for about 20+.
1^st thing is know here in the states the «Chinese» food is not the same as China.
Having said that — this not your take out /​delivery style food.
The staff is very polite and accommodating.
The food is fresh and cooked to order.
Those talking about long waits — there is a reason — people love this food.
Long waits usually mean lots of customers — usually means the product is great.
In this case it is.
We get the Bo Bo plater — basically a sampler — great.
Sesame chicken is the family favorite so they order double.
I love the mu shu pork.
They also do take — takout orders.
I am literally on my way to pick up my order once I hit submit.

Great Old School feel to the place. Clean, precision service and the sweet & sour pork was very good. Not the best I ever had, but very good. This was my first time and will go back again to find my favorite dish at the Desert Jade.

Okay food, not the best but definitely not bad. Service was good.

I’m no Chinese food expert but I enjoyed the dinner.
I Unilocaled Chinese restraints in the valley and this had good reviews (and my friend also suggested it). Made a reservation, didn’t wait at all once arrived, and got a booth (booths are the way to go).
Ordered the fried wantons (they were pretty light on the cream cheese filling maybe they got overlooked too long), desert jade chow mein with thin noodles (very good and the sausage tasted amazing), finally the chicken lettuce wraps (very fresh and very very good!). Also the meal comes with tea which was very relaxing. It has great service and atmosphere. I would recommend it to any of my friends. We will be going back once we get the Chinese food itch again. Enjoy!

Only eat here if you have a reservation and are staying to eat in the restaurant. The kitchen is very poorly managed. Takeout orders take well over an hour.
The food is good but only because it is being prepared in Phoenix and there is nothing else to choose from. Not really.
If you choose to come here. Just know it will be a very long wait.

Food was pretty good! Had the house noodle soup (not on the menu), was good, a bit bland for my taste but it wasn’t bad at all. Had shrimp, chicken, and beef. My son also ordered the shrimp and lobster sauce lunch special (he’s 9), and he LOVED it. He went on and on that it was the best Chinese he has ever eaten. That’s why I gave it 4 stars instead of 3 which I would have given for my food, because I did try the shrimp and lobster sauce… it was very very good!
All in all I would say it was definitely a good experience and I would go back and explore the menu again.

My family has been going to Desert Jade for over 24 years 3 generations in total. We love everything about this place so I will list some of our favorites:
Chicken chow mein with pan fried noodles, sesame chicken, lettuce wraps, veggie fried rice, egg foo young all flavors, hot & sour soup, egg drop soup, soup with sizzling rice, bobo platter, war shu gui and the list goes on — stellar service family owned and operated and always stellar service. Definitely an A+

Plenty of parking space
LUNCH Specials 11−4pm
Big portions, fast, clean, and friendly service

Given that I was hesitant to try this place, I’m not surprised with how things turned out. My husband won a bet so it was his choice — enough said.
The service was fast and friendly. Not sure if this was per usual or just because the restaurant was dead. We arrived just in time to take advantage of the lunch special which was nice.
We ordered the wontons and they came only with cream cheese and plum sauce (similar to sweet and sour). I was hoping they would have had a little flavor, but they did not. Green onions would have made a huge difference!
The tangerine chicken was good. However, there were inedible pieces of orange peel and whole chilies on the plate. The sauce was very sweet with very little flavor. On a positive note, the chicken was all white meat and was large in portion.
My husband really liked his Singapore noodles. He even enjoyed the egg roll that came with my lunch special (I thought it was burnt and too greasy).
Overall, our experience was OK.

I have been coming here for about 15 years, and every time the food is pretty consistent. I don’t remember a time when it was not good. Now understandably, this is not «genuine» Chinese food, but rather very decent «americanized» Chinese food. You will find the old take-​out standbys here: Mongolian beef, lo mein noodles, hot & sour soup, etc. The décor has remained pretty much the same with its velvet red booths, dim lighting, and large mirrors. I wish the fireplace worked for those cold nights (wait, what cold nights?!? you know what I mean), and that they ran a duster over the windows. You receive free tea with your meal which is always a plus. I can’t really comment on too many dishes as I only really get the Mu Shu which is delicious and they prepare it for you at the table.
The only bizarre thing I experienced here was when we ordered a large bowl of sweet and sour soup for the whole table but we couldn’t finish it all, so we requested a to-​go container for it. The waitress said they could not give it to us as a take home for some bizarre confusing reason we couldn’t make out. Then she wanted to argue about it even though were were just going to let it go. It was like someone telling you that you can’t take home buffet leftovers (which is understandable for obvious reasons), but this was not a free refillable menu item and we had paid for an entire large bowl. So we couldn’t figure out what they were going to do with the soup, pour it out? Overall, I’ll probably pop in here and there, but I will finish my soup next time! I recommend the hot pot, everyone loves cooking food at their table! The service, except for that one time, is always excellent.

Sadly, I have not been impressed with the Chinese food offered here in Phoenix.
I had high hopes for Desert Jade and was hoping the food had improved from Gabi’s 3-​star review back in 2009, but I was not impressed and it seems that the reviews range widely here.
The three food items we tried tasted fresh, but were seriously lacking in flavor.
The Wor Won Ton Soup came with a generous serving of shrimp, pork, and beef pieces and vegetables, but the wontons were dense balls of dough that, as another reviewer mentioned, tasted more like gnocchi rather than meat-​filled wontons.
The Beef with Broccoli came with the thinest sauce I’ve ever had that had the flavor and consistency of beef broth. The beef was a tad overcooked and the broccoli was limp from being overcooked.
The Chicken Chow Mein was the biggest disappointment as I was looking forward to the big, fat soft noodles that I have enjoyed and every other Chinese restaurant I’ve ever dined! The lady on the phone said «Pan fried?» when I ordered, which I guess I was supposed to know meant, «Be prepared for thin, vermicelli-​type noodles.» Again, no real flavor to the chow mein dish, though the chicken was tender.
On the plus side, the service was friendly and the food was ready quickly. I just wish the food was up to par with the service.