It's easy to start off a restaurant review with a disparaging remark about the state of campus dining; in this case, the comparison is actually warranted. Students who keep kosher-and don't have their own kitchens-have two options: Sherman and Sherman. Without discussing the quality of the food, the culinary monotony there is enough for my taste buds to go on strike. Fortunately, anyone with access to a car can get some top-notch kosher Chinese food just 10 minutes from campus.Ta'am China II (108 Oak St, Newton), the sequel to the popular Brookline restaurant, opened last May, too late in the year to capitalize on its closer-to-campus location right away. But, according to my dining companion and Justice Sports Editor Jacob Kamaras '08, so many Brandeis students flock to Ta'am China II on Saturdays that the restaurant now delivers to campus on that night, too.

Is the hype justified? Or is the Ta'am China craze based solely on the fact that it's kosher, "non-Jewish" food?

Jacob and I went Friday, because the restaurant has a great lunch deal: $6.75 for a main course, a bowl of soup, a bowl of rice and complimentary tea. We ordered chicken with garlic sauce and shredded beef with Peking sauce; for good measure, we also got chicken dumplings as an appetizer (six for $5.25). Considering that a kosher lunch at Sherman costs $9.30, the luncheon special is one hell of a deal.

The dumplings were, in a word, doughy. Crispy on top and chewy on bottom, they were great with soy sauce-but not too much. The chicken inside was blended with this delicious spice that neither of us could quite place.

The lunch special comes with a choice of soup: egg drop, wonton or hot-and-sour; Jacob opted for the second, and I sipped on the last one. Jacob said his soup really hit the spot, although he mentioned he was hard-pressed to find any meat inside the wontons. My soup was exactly how I had expected: hot and sour. It was strong enough that I could still taste it when we moved on to the meat.

What struck us most about the chicken was the pungency of its garlic sauce, but in a good way. The minced fowl was mixed with celery, green peppers and water chestnuts, and all the elements of the dish were completely covered by the sauce, which packed a hefty aftertaste.

The beef, however, was a different story. While it wasn't bad, it wasn't stellar, either. The menu marked it as a "spicy" meal, but the Peking sauce tasted somewhere between bland and sweet. I could actually taste the sauce better on the mixed-in celery and carrots. Ultimately, the beef would have been just fine if we hadn't ordered the chicken as well. My eating buddy elaborated: If the sauces had been switched, we would have liked the beef much more.

No Chinese meal would be complete without a fortune cookie. Even though they rarely come with fortunes these days, I thought mine was rather fitting: "Look to your inner being for guidance." Well, my inner being (read: stomach) will guide me back to Ta'am China II very soon.