Kansas City Blog

  

Two General Tso's battle it out for carry-out supremacy

​Two popular Chinese restaurants -- Bo Lings at 4800 Main Street and Kin Lin at 314 E. 51st Street -- are only an eight or nine blocks distance from each other, but in many ways these two restaurants are worlds apart. Bo Lings is well-established, glamorous and not inexpensive. Kin Lin, adored by UMKC and Rockhurst college students and families in the surrounding neighborhoods, is modest, tiny and cheap.

Both restaurants do a terrific take-out business, but which one scores the highest in Fat City's "Battle of the Dishes?" We compared General Tso's Chicken, because it's one of the most popular carry-out dishes on any Chinese restaurant menu. And crab rangoon for the same reason. Here's how the two carry-out meals stacked up:

Availability and ease of parking during the 7 p.m. dinner rush:

Bo Lings: Very good

Kin Lin: Fair

Time between placing order and receiving it:

Bo Lings: Five minutes

Kin Lin: Five minutes

Price

Bo Lings: General Tso's Chicken, regular size, $10.95; Crab Rangoon, six, $6.25               

Kin Lin: General Tso's Chicken, regular size, $7.30; Crab Rangoon, six, $4.95

Crab Rangoon

Bo Lings: Six moderate-sized wonton purses, very light and crispy, filled with a savory cream cheese blend flecked with bits of crabmeat and chopped scallions; the order includes sweet-and-sour sauce, hot mustard and soy sauce.

Kin Lin: Six large, golden, crispy wonton purses filled with a sweet cream cheese; no evidence of crab; the order includes neon-red sweet-and-sour sauce.

White rice

Bo Lings: Light, fluffy, petite portion.

Kin Lin: Light, fluffy, large portion.

General Tso's Chicken:

Yes, there really was a Qing Dynasty general named Tso, but his namesake dish is purely an American invention. The dish was reportedly invented at Peng's Restaurant in New York City.  It is traditionally pieces of battered, deep-fried chicken slathered in a shiny, mildly spiced sauce of garlic, ginger, rice vinegar, soy, red peppers and a bit of sugar.

Bo Lings: Beautiful presentation in a flat plastic box with steamed broccoli on one side and the juicy chicken -- which is sauteed, not fried (or breaded, for that matter) in a light, piquant sauce made with bits of dried red peppers.

Kin Lin: Hunks of white meat, heavily breaded and deep-fried and drenched in a sweet, not particularly spicy brown sauce, slightly gingery. Because the chicken pieces are crammed into a tiny pasteboard take-out box, the crispy crust is a little soggy by the time we got the box home.

Fortune Cookies:

Bo Lings: Light, crispy cookie with this fortune: "You have a charming way with words. Send an e-mail to a friend." 

Kin Lin: Light and crisp, with this fortune, "You are going to take a trip to the seaside."

The winner? Close call, but Bo Lings had a tastier if more costly product.