Jubin
In the heart of the Milanese China Town, the Jubin restaurant has been a point of reference for me for dinners with friends for a long time. When Paolo Sarpi was not as we know it today, or when there were no restaurants where it was easy to understand what to eat and everything was still very dark and mysterious, Jubin was a certainty not only for Westerners, but also for the many Chinese customers who they used to hang out with him. A good wine choice completed an already very valid offer.
Unfortunately over the years things have changed and that security of the past has gradually diminished until it completely disappears.
Open since the 90s by the will of the Chinese entrepreneur Zhou Bin, Jubin has represented for the city of Milan one of the most important places to enjoy real Chinese cuisine in a well-kept environment with fast and kind service. It is in fact a rather well-kept and very large place, arranged on several floors. For this reason it has always been the ideal place for conviviality.
The menu is particularly rich, so much so that rather than talking about a single menu it would be correct to talk about three distinct menus that are brought together in a single book: if initially only Chinese cuisine was offered here, over time Thai cuisine was also added (fair) and Japanese (in my opinion, it's always been bad here). With this, Jubin is not a fusion restaurant, it remains mainly Chinese: the customer is simply given the opportunity to choose dishes from three different and clearly differentiated cuisines.
Starting from the staff, the restaurant had a vertical drop. I went back several times to check if the inattention (often resulting in rudeness) of the staff had been an isolated case and unfortunately it was not so. Of the delicious Vietnamese rolls I have only a vague memory, as well as shao-mai. Perhaps, to date, only noodles pulled by hand with garlic is saved. In short, of all that was good (salt and pepper squid, sautéed rice sa-cha, what were once the legendary braised meat dumplings or the many Chinese vegetables off the menu, one more inviting than the other) there is practically nothing left. Food is heavy and roughly prepared.
Today as then, only the very low price remains, but unfortunately it is not enough to justify a dinner or lunch in this restaurant. A pity indeed!
🌎 http://www.jubingroup.com/jubin/index_ita.html#locale
💰 $$