EPS Corner

EPS occupies an interesting space when it comes to Chinese restaurants, in my opinion. It still caters to the take-​out, cheap Chinese food crowd, since they offer a number of specials/​combinations (more so lunch) that you might see at your neighborhood take-​out place, but it also has a solid array of midrange of options (let’s say $ 10 – 20). Personally, I’ve pretty much settled on one dish that I pretty much always get, which is the Dynasty Crispy Pork.
I was lucky enough to pick this dish the first time I ever went to EPS, and though I’ve tried some other things, I find myself always coming back to it – so much so that I’ve developed a specific craving for the dish that has come to metonymize the restaurant with this one dish. It’s not so much «I want to go to EPS,» it’s more like, «I want some Dynasty Crispy Pork right now.» The dish in question is basically fried pork (with light breading) drenched in a mildly tangy/​sweet, mildly spicy sauce (this is the ingredient that blows my mind a little bit), with a bunch of broccoli on the side. I used to think that it was just me happening to find a dish that particularly matched my taste buds, but I’ve found that a couple of people I know gravitate towards this dish – I’ve definitely been out to eat with people here with more than one people ordering this.
In terms of other dishes, I’d describe everything here as «decent.» I’ve never had anything that I thought was bad here, but other than the Dynasty Crispy Pork, there’s nothing I would feel a strong desire to come back for. That being said, it’s prices are very fair, and the service here is pretty good, especially for a Chinese restaurant. One annoying thing is that they don’t really have a good take-​out system set-​up: you can’t order online (not sure if you can even get a menu online), so you have to call in, and even after that, they might not be the best about getting your order done on time (unsurprisingly, the quality of the order is also worse). I’d definitely only recommend dining in.

Love these sweet people who work here!!! The food is excellent and the outside seating area is beautiful at night! Our waiter went above and beyond and offered excellent customer service! I recommend the steamed veggies with chicken and the spicy feed garlic sauce on the side with a green tea!

Best Asian food on Nassau Street. I prefer Szechuan house or Shanghai bun if I have time/​energy to drive.
BYOB + outdoor seating is nice in the summer. Spicy pot & brisket soup are favorites.
Make sure you specify that you want your food «Chinese style» when you order.

Love this place! Very authentic Chinese food, different than anything I’ve ever tried. The spicy pot was delicious! So was the dynasty chicken (kinda like a general tsos with peanut sauce) and the fried rice.
The owner and staff are very friendly and great at recommending dishes. I’ll definitely be back!

Really sub par, beef with garlic sauce was prepared incorrectly, sweet sauce and then pizza hot peppers. Soup was not good. Avoid this place

EPS Corner is a favorite of college students. The dumplings and wonton soup are fantastic! The restaurant is BYOB and can accommodate big groups, plus they have a big outdoor patio. When it’s crowded the service tends to be slow, but other than that it’s a good place to stop by.

My boyfriend and I stopped here as we were passing through Princeton — it caught our eye because of the outdoor seating (loving this Indian summer), good reviews on Unilocal,reasonable prices, and vegan/​vegetarian options for me. We were warmly greeted and chose a nice corner table outside. We ordered a spring roll and spinach tofu soup to split for apps. They were really tasty and the soup was huge.
For dinner, I ordered the long dong veggies (curry based with tofu) and brown rice, while my bf got the General Tso’s chicken and brown rice. He asked for it to be spicier but didn’t feel it came out spicier — but mine was really spicy so we’re wondering if that was flip flopped. Either way, they were both good (he just put some of my spicy liquid on his dish to spice it up). They accidentally brought white rice out first instead of the brown rice but fixed it right away. All in all, the service and food was good and we will come here again next time we’re passing through.

We dined in for dinner. Here’s the order:
Beef chow fun
Chicken with eggplant
Spinach with garlic
Ice milk tea
Everything was extremely greasy and salty. I know, it’s Chinese food but the amount of oil oozing off the plate and enough to make me gag.
We decided to order ice milk tea. Skip this. Nothing about the drink is what it’s suppose to be – there’s no milk and barely any tea… It’s like a cup of ice and water with a dash of ‘tea’ and ‘milk’ for color… Ugh!!! You didn’t even try!!!
We were super disappointed and wanted to like this place but it’s unlikely that we will return.

We were out of town visitors seeking a good Chinese meal in the Princeton area. Unfortunately, EPS was a disappointment.
We ordered their scallion pancakes, seafood tofu soup, and house special lo mein.
Although it was late on a Wednesday evening, and there were only a few customers, the food was very slow in arriving. No crispy noodles or other accoutrements were provided while we were waiting. The soup was watery and tasteless, except for being a little bit spicy. We expected chunks of tofu and pieces of seafood. However, it was all pureed.
The scallion pancake was decent, though small and somewhat greasy.
The lo mein was ordinary and adequate, like something you could order from any cheap takeout place.
It was a pleasant summer evening, and we did enjoy sitting outside and watching the passersbys on Nassau Street.

Very authentic Chinese food, well if you stay away from all the broccoli chicken orange beef parts of the menu…
My favorite dish there is dynasty pork, which is just deep friend lean pork cutlets cooked in a sweet-​sour peanut butter based sauce. So good!
Also their spicy fish is really good too! There’s a lot of fish and it’s not too oily either!
My singing group usually have group dinners there, they accommodate large groups and as long as you order your food in advance, everything comes really fast!

I came here for lunch today. The hot and sour soup was excellent, and the Singaporean Mai Fun was great too. The reason I only gave it 3 stars is because there was not any sign saying that there is a minimum charge of $ 15 for credit card. I was informed only when I was ready to pay. I didn’t have cash on me, and I explained to the waiter I was from out of town. At least the manager allowed me to use the credit card. I will make sure I bring cash next time, but I really think that there should be a clear sign alerting potential customers at the entrance about the credit card policy.

Tied with Hunan (its sister restaurant) for best Chinese in Princeton. Solid vegetarian options that are actually vegetarian (and don’t secretly have ground pork or something in them). The service is usually pretty good, although I once had a terrible experience where the food took an hour — ¹⁄₂₀ visits, so not that bad.
Favorite items:
Vegetable dumplings (fried)
Eggplant in garlic sauce
Wealth tofu
Vegetable fried rice

I give this place 4 stars for being the best place for Princeton students to get Chinese food without having to jump in a car or bus. If I rated it on the basis of all Chinese restaurants everywhere, then it’d probably be a 2.5.
I’ve tasted the spicy pot, ma po tofu, house spicy vegetables, and a couple other dishes. Nothing too special but it really does satisfy any Chinese food cravings I have while at school. The food is generally pretty greasy and a bit too salty and teetering on the edge of super Americanized Chinese food.
But the service is super fast (sometimes they rush you though) and I enjoy the décor, even if it’s a bit over the top. It’s also BYOB, which makes it a nice option for celebrating birthdays with a large group of friends (much better than the Thai Village alternative)!

Great food and warm people! I have been here a few times and almost everything I have had here has been very well prepared and served. Kudos to the team. Especially love their eggplant dishes!

I’ve frequented this place three times in the past week — which is perhaps excessive, but testament to its unique situation at the crossroads of not-​too-​greasy and ‘affordable for Princeton’. EPS is run by genuine Chinese staff; you can hear them chatting in Mandarin as you walk in. Service is frighteningly fast; no matter what you order, it’ll be at your table within 10 minutes at the most, 5 if you’re lucky.
Regular prices are quite reasonable — think $ 10 for a chicken dish and rice. Weekdays at lunch, the meal specials represent an extraordinary value: for $ 6, you can walk away sated. I brought my friend here (who is originally from China), and he was pleasantly surprised at its authenticity.
High marks for the Kung Pao chicken, the Szechuan Beef and the String Beans. If you’re intent on ordering General Tso’s chicken — it’s probably edible, but you’re doing yourself a great disservice from not being a bit more adventurous. Sundry other delicious options abound.

Okay definitely more of just 2.5 stars, even for Princeton.
Other stuff I’ve had since my last review:
Cashew Chicken — Ehhh. It’s your average Americanized Chinese food. My American friend liked it. My Chinese friends not so much.
Spicy Boiled Fish — I can’t handle spice, but this was mild enough that I didn’t mind it. Which I liked, but for someone who is looking for something numbingly spicy, this may not be what they want. It was probably my favorite of the dishes we had, but that’s not saying a lot.
Shanghai Bok Choy — They were very generous in their use of cornstarch, which made this kind of a goopy dish. I found it to be somewhat overwhelming in the use of cornstarch to be honest.
Tofu, salted fish, chicken casserole — My friend loves this dish but I found it very average. The tofu doesn’t taste fresh and the entire casserole is just a bit gloopy. The salted fish is way too dry.
Flowering eggplant — probably my favorite EPS dish of the ones I’ve tried. Very oily but the eggplant goes well with the savory ground meat.
All in all, an average place and I don’t think I have much of a desire to go back any time soon. Also, they charge for tea. I’d rather order delivery from Yao’s or take a Über to Shanghai Bun. The menu here has some «authentic» dishes, but they’re poorly executed, so they still end up tasting Americanized.

Wow I have never had worse Chinese food. Even when General Tso’s chicken is soggy, it’s not as bad as the so-​called General Tso’s chicken at this place was. The chicken itself was terribly bland, it was overcooked but the outside wasn’t crunchy, the sauce tasted terribly weird and off and it was just not a pleasant chew.
The orange chicken had more flavor but the sauce was also very odd and the chicken had no crunch at all although it was not overcooked.
I was starving so I ate but it was definitely not a meal I want to remember.
We live in the area and so we will eventually try all of the restaurants but we won’t return to this one.
The service was very pleasant I’ll add. Good jasmine tea.

:/​EPS corner is something that I have not descended to returning to even though it is basically the only Chinese restaurant within walkable distance of the university.
The portion size is ungenerous; they seem to be trying to get away with giving as little as possible before reaching the line of actually ridiculously stingy. Most bad chinese restaurants have the good grace of heaping food into their container and onto their plates, so that even if the quality suffers, at least you are getting a good deal. Not so with EPS; you could reasonably still be hungry after a meal from them
Now on to their food– their chinese is hardly much better than what you would expect from a west virginia strip mall. there are enough chinese restaurants in drivable distance that there is no reason to frequent this location. their «legit» chinese food has no character and doesn’t seem to focus on one locale (Think if an american restaurant tried to specialize in TexMex and Seafood at the same time). Their americanized chinese food is greasy and their meat is low quality and anything breaded may as well be bread.
Usually, I don’t care about the ambiance, if the food is good. However, things are at a dubious level of cleanliness and their food doesn’t come close to making this place a respectable hole in the wall. Princeton, please give your students and residents a chinese restaurant that even reaches medicore!

My whole family loved this place! We went for dinner one night during Princeton Parents’ Weekend and all ordered different things. All of our dishes were equally delicious, flavorful, fresh and spicy.
I personally had the string beans with tofu in garlic sauce. It’s a dish I get often at Chinese restaurants and this place made it best. Again, everything just so flavorful, and brought out quickly.
The ambiance leaves a little to be desired. Bathroom was filthy and the seating was cramped. But we thought it was the best meal we ate during our short weekend trip to Princeton, and would highly recommend it.

THE WORST. THE WORST. THE WORST.
Let’s evaluate based on the two prongs of any restaurant: food and service.
Food: I ordered the flat noodles with beef. It was drenched in oil and surprisingly not enough sauce. The beef was also not as chewy as it should’ve been. There weren’t many things in the noodles. Other than wiping off a gallon of Canola from my face after I ate, I felt ripped off by the lack of things in the dish.
Service: AWFUL. THE WOMAN WAS SO RUDE. We had a rather large party of eight, so I asked at the beginning if we could split the check by dish. She refused (which is fine). But she refused with such a rude attitude and talked to me as if I were stupid for asking. Um, excuse you! At first, I was wondering if maybe she misunderstood, so I spoke in Mandarin to be more clear about my request that the dishes be on different tabs. She replied to me in ENGLISH (which is ridiculously rude and uncalled for) and spout some bullshit about how it’s impossible because she wrote one dish down on the check. DON’T BE RUDE AND LIE TO ME AND EXPECT A TIP. WORST.
I’m never coming back again. Ever. I hope they go out of business.