One problem with Chinese restaurants is that many of them seem the same. They give you those chopsticks in the red packages with instructions in broken English. They serve soy sauce, duck sauce, and some sort of hot sauce with the entrées, and a fortune cookie afterward. Most frustratingly, they have hundreds of items on their menus, and they all look the same: some variety of meat with some variety of vegetable, stir-fried in a sauce. Although Jimmy Tsang's Chinese Restaurant in Shadyside follows most of these stereotypes, it rises to the top of the Chinese restaurant bunch.

Like many Chinese restaurants, Jimmy Tsang's menu is extensive. However, unlike many restaurants, its menu features genuine diversity. In addition to the "meat with vegetables" standards, Jimmy Tsang's offers a wide variety of cold and hot appetizers, seafood, Korean specialties, and an inventive list of "Tsang's Special Suggestions." Empress's Bird's Nest, South Sea Double Treasure, Thousand Year Old Egg, and Jelly Fish Salad are just a few of the dishes that you won't find at just any old Chinese takeout joint. The menu educates visitors as well by distinguishing between Mandarin, Szechuan, Cantonese, and Shanghai style foods and listing characteristics of each.

With a menu this expansive, how does anyone ever navigate it? Luckily, the Jimmy Tsang's chefs have included a couple of combination offers that give groups a great opportunity to sample their wares easily. My friends and I chose the "Grand Dinner" for four, which included hot & sour or wonton Soup, egg rolls, steamed dumplings, cheese wontons, Double Pan Pork, Chinese Flank Steak, Honey Shrimp, Flaming Chicken, and ice cream. Whew!

The appetizers (hot & sour soup, egg rolls, cheese wontons, and steamed dumplings) were all pretty good, but nothing special. The egg rolls were probably the best of the bunch, due to their crisp consistency. I would probably skip the appetizers if I went there again, just to avoid filling up on comparatively ordinary food before the main course.

As for the dinners, the Double Pan Pork was my favorite. Its peppers and onions gave it a deliciously spicy flavor. The Honey Shrimp were good too: jumbo shrimp lightly fried and covered in a sweet honey sauce. The Flank Steak was less notable, as it also had peppers and onions but compared to the Double Pan Pork, it lacked enough flavor. And the Flaming Chicken, although it sounded and looked exciting when it was brought to the table in a sizzling dish, tasted pretty bland.

The ice cream that was included as part of the Grand Dinner was tasty, as ice cream always is, but of the three flavors we tried, the banana and raspberry were nothing unusual. The ginger ice cream, however, delicately blended vanilla and ginger flavors to create an interesting treat.

In retrospect, the food wasn't spectacular, although it was good. So why do I recommend Jimmy Tsang's over other Chinese restaurants? Maybe it's the décor. The Chinese wall decorations and elegant tables maintain the feel of a "nice" restaurant while keeping its Chinese authenticity. Don't worry, it's not stuffy, though. But I'd have to say the best part about Tsang's is the variety. Between the four varieties of Chinese food and the Korean specialties, I could go there every week for a semester and get something totally different each time.

Restaurant type: Sit-down Chinese
How to get there: Take a 71C from Forbes and Ellsworth to Ellsworth and Negley. It's on the corner of Negley and Center, across Negley from Giant Eagle.
Price for an entrée: $9-15
Rating: 7.4

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