Rose's serves up best Chinese food near campus

Down at the bottom of the hill and just one door over from the shrine of late-night food and regrets, also known as Helen’s, is Rose’s Chinese Restaurant. For all intents and purposes, the inside is a carbon copy of Helen’s with an open kitchen in the back and tables arranged in columns in the front. The only real difference is that Rose’s has a sushi bar where Helen’s would have its third column of tables. Where Rose's most similarly rivals Helen's, however, is as a place for college students to get a cheap, quick meal. 

Rose’s is run as an "eat-in & take-out" place, according to its website; all of its utensils, plates and bowls are disposable. Food is brought to your table, but only after it is ordered at the counter. Rose's wastes no time giving you your food -- often, it feels like it arrives practically still in the pan. One order of egg drop soup was so hot when it arrived that it was untouchable until the meal was practically over; at that point, there were legitimate concerns that the soup had melted its plastic container. The wait, or the burned tongue, is always worth it, though. For a slightly less scalding, but just as excellent option, the hot and sour soup packs the perfect punch. The soup is loaded with enough ginger to open up the most allergy clogged sinuses and features the perfect ratio of broth to tofu, along with other goodies like mushrooms and julienned ginger. Perhaps most impressive is Rose's ability to get food delivered nearly as fast as they bring it out at the restaurant, with the food hardly a degree cooler than it would have been ordered at the counter.

The menu has the usual Chinese take-out classics and favorites: sweet & sour chicken, lo mein, fried rice and whatever else might be found in a Jewish home during Christmas. Unfortunately, though, Rose’s is incredibly, bafflingly, aggravatingly inconsistent. The same dish can be either wonderful or unpalatable depending on who happens to be in the kitchen. For example, on most nights, the chicken with broccoli ranges from good to great, but on one night it arrived as a pile of blanched chicken and vegetables sans sauce and seasoning, setting it squarely as one of the most disappointing dishes ever passed off as restaurant food. Other dishes, such as the beef with string beans, have been far more consistent.

The orange sesame chicken (usually two separate dishes, but at Rose’s combined into one) is one of the standouts on the menu, and it has never deviated outside of its upper-tier range. On the best nights, the orange sesame chicken is borderline heavenly: The juicy, succulent chicken is just barely coated in a scant layer of breading with a sweet and tangy sauce. The only place that can match Rose’s orange sesame chicken at its best is La Caridad in New York (a Cantonese-Cuban restaurant on the upper west side).

Everything is reasonably priced at Rose’s, although only combos come with rice. Portions are generous, too. Even the sushi is cheap, undercutting Yoshi’s on price (sometimes cheap is too cheap, however, so patrons may be warned to err away from the sushi menu). Diners should definitely expect a difficult time walking back up the Hill after a full helping of Rose’s -- the best strategy may be to roll oneself back up to campus.

In the grand scheme of things, and compared to the other food options around campus, is Rose’s amazing? No, but it sure beats other options for Chinese food near campus (if anything, it trounces Golden Light, which may be damning with faint praise).

Rose’s is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 3 p.m. through 11 p.m. on Sunday. You can find it at 321 Boston Ave, Medford Mass., 02155, right next to Helen’s. Take-out orders from Rose's can be placed via phone at  (781) 395-8885, (781) 395-8882 or online.