At the corner of 19th and J St. the Plum Blossom serves traditional Chinese cuisine that features soups, appetizers, chow fun, chow mein, fried rice and various vegetable, beef, chicken, pork and seafood stir-fry.

Each main dish such as the chef’s specialty Orange Chicken or the Szechuan Beef contains mainly meat with not very many vegetables, but the portions are very generous ?” definitely enough to share.

The prices range from $6.50 for spinach sauteed in garlic sauce to $13.95 for Sizzling Prawns with Lemon Butter.

All dishes are served al a carte, but steamed rice, fried rice and chow mein are available to accompany your meal ranging in price from $1.10 to $7.75.

Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. until 2:30 p.m., The Plum Blossom serves a combination plate which includes the soup of the day and your choice of entree from a list of ten items along with Chow Mein, Fried or Steamed rice all for $5.25.

For the single eater, rice plates are available everyday from 11 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. and feature an entree served over rice ranging in price from $5.50 to $6.50.

In addition to the traditional Chinese inspired cuisine, The Plum Blossom serves a variety of baked goods including our server’s favorite, the Ham and Cheese bun, a Hot and Spicy Beef Bun and the Pineapple bun of your choice for .75 cents.

The seating inside is quaint with smaller tables and simple place settings. Outside features about six patio tables and cushioned seats with no place settings whatsoever.

We went on a Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. The restaurant was pretty slow at that time ?” only two tables finishing up outside and one eating inside. We chose a table outside which turned out to be a big mistake.

A swarm of flies just would not leave us alone. It became very annoying having to brush flies away from our face and our food the whole time we were there.

An order of Cream Cheese Wontons, a Teriyaki Chicken Rice plate, Shiitake Mushroom chicken over rice and an order of Vegetable chow mein came to $27 including tip.

The portions were huge ?” too much to finish for three people. However, none of the dishes we ordered were very impressive.

The Cream Cheese Wontons were not bad, but they were too greasy and the sweet and sour sauce they were served with was not good.

The Teriyaki sauce on the chicken teriyaki was very tasty, but the chicken was tough and the vegetables basically nonexistent. Our server told us that the entree had vegetables, but it was pretty much just raw cabbage.

The shiitake mushroom chicken was probably the worst item we ordered. Although this dish had a nice balance of vegetables and chicken, the sauce was bland, and the mushrooms tasted funny. On the other hand, the chicken in this dish was more tender than the other.

The vegetable chow mein was probably the best dish we ordered. However, there were hardly any vegetables and way too much oil. The noodles were not the traditional chow mein noodles ?” they were smaller, but tasty just the same.

For dessert we decided to try a freshly baked Pineapple Bun. Once again we were disappointed. It’s not necessarily bad, it’s just not anything special. It was a large “roll” of bread topped with a slightly pineapple tasting icing that crumbles and falls off when you try to eat it.

Another disappointing factor was the lack of alcoholic beverages. There is nothing better than a glass of Sauvignon Blanc or blonde beer to accompany Chinese cuisine, but apparently the Plum Blossom does not share my view.

However, the fact that the Plum Blossom is open until 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday and midnight Monday through Wednesday is very convenient for all of the night owls sick of the regular fast food joints.

The lunch specials are also pretty reasonable and the service is very fast so the Plum Blossom might be a nice lunch destination if you are in the mood for greasy Chinese food.

Overall I was not very impressed. It’s typical Chinese cuisine ?” definitely no better than what you could buy at the mall and at prices that are almost double in some cases. Save your money.

Rating: 2 Stars

All of Liz’s dining and nightlife reviews are held to this rating system:

1 Star: Stay at home.

2 Stars: Not worth the gas money.

3 Stars: If there’s nothing else to do –

4 Stars: Better than most.

5 Stars: Proves that Sacramento is more than just a cowtown.