China Inn

Note: China Inn recently moved to 11 625 Medlock Bridge Road, Johns Creek, GA 30 097. It now goes by its Chinese name, «Liu Fu.» It has not closed. (
)
China Inn serves a good mix of Shanghai (Northern) and Sichuan cuisine. They have several dishes here you can’t find anywhere else (or are difficult to find) in Atlanta. The restaurant is located in a desolate strip mall on Peachtree Industrial Blvd, not too far south from 285. China Inn doesn’t look like much on the outside, but on the inside, it’s one of the most nicely decorated Chinese restaurants in Atlanta.
On the outside, the restaurant might looked closed, but it’s not. Sometimes, they don’t even bother to turn on the «Open» sign. Inside, you’ll find an aquarium with exotic fish, waterfalls, artfully etched glass separating private dining rooms, large tile flooring, stone walls, fine wood furniture, and an open kitchen where you can see the chefs working their magic. It’s a cool atmosphere and nice change of pace from typical Chinese restaurants.
China Inn has a Chinese menu and an English menu. I think most of the items are the same. I last dined here with one of my good friends and her family. They’re Chinese so I let them do the ordering. We ate:
Soups/​Appetizers:
Wonton soup
Hot and sour soup
Seasoned flounder (cold dish)
Dark fungus (cold dish)
Vegetarian spring rolls
Entrees:
Kung Pao chicken
Mandarin ribs («house specialty»)
Chinese broccoli (kai-​lan)
Steamed sliced flounder fillets
Pocket tofu
Dessert:
Glutinous rice cake with red bean
Note: These are my descriptions of the dishes. The menu might say something different.
In general, the Shanghai-​style dishes are not as flavorful as dishes you’d typically find at a Cantonese or Sichuan restaurant. The flavors are milder and more subdued.
The wonton and hot and sour soups here are typical. If anything, they’re lighter here and not loaded down with too much salt. China Inn serves them with noodle chips like an Americanized Chinese joint.
The cold appetizer dishes are a win. The flounder and fungus are prepared Sichuan-​style and have copious amounts of seasoning and peppers. If you’re not used to cold apps, don’t be put off by it. They are really tasty dishes. The flounder meat turns dark brown from the preparation and is sprinked with bits of sesame seed and cilantro. The fungus is juicy.
The chicken in the Kung Pao chicken dish is chopped and served with peanuts, chopped vegetables, and whole red peppers in a spicy soy-​chili sauce. The chicken is tender and I enjoy eating the red peppers. It really gives the dish a nice kick.
The Mandarin ribs are probably my favorite dish here. The ribs are served bone-​in, sizzling on an iron skillet with plenty of onion. The ribs are just like eating Korean BBQ short ribs except without the sauce. I love Korean BBQ and I think these ribs are even better. That should tell you how great this dish is. Instead of a lot of sweet sauce (Korean-​style), the meat already has plenty of flavor packed in. It’s savory and delicious. A must-​order.
The Chinese broccoli is chopped more finely here than at Cantonese restaurants. You can get it with sauce or without sauce. The flounder fillets are served in a light sauce with slices of red bell pepper, celery, and dark fungus. Not much flavor to this dish, but it’s very easy and pleasant to eat.
The «pocket tofu» is a China Inn specialty. I’m not sure where else you can find this in Atlanta. It’s basically balls of tofu served in a light sauce with various veggies including bok choy and bamboo shoots. The tofu comes out piping hot, so be careful. The tofu has soft, light brown «skin» and an appetizing texture. While not an intense dish, it’s unique, and I recommend it to anyone who hasn’t tried it.
Finally, the glutinous rice cake is another China Inn specialty dish that should be tried. It’s a hot dessert that consists of glutinous rice mixed with red bean paste, raisins, ground peanuts, and sesame seeds. The consistency is a bit pasty. It’s sweet and yummy.
The service is very good and there’s plenty of parking outside.

Sad to report that rent increases have forced the owner to close this location.

It’s all about the eggroll!…I’m am giving this place 5 stars for the egg roll. This is the eggroll I’ve been searching for since I moved from my home town.
This might be a case of ‘you like what you grow up with.’ So I may have grown up eating a different caliber chinese food in my one chinese restaurant town– as such– My favorite eggroll consists of a big fat roll stuffed with long thin shreds of cabbage and little bits of pork. The fried wrapper is nice and crisp. You’d be surprised how hard it is to find this in my perfect version. Some places totally phone it in with their eggrolls and it’s a total insult. I really don’t like the ones that squish up meat scraps with small bits of cabbage and carrots and make a tiny roll.
I ordered through mobile waiters — so I’ve never been there. My first time ordering I got the mongolian beef, lo mein, and «hot pepper chicken.» I expected the chicken to be a black pepper style of chicken with some chili peppers or something. It looks just like General Tso’s. I was disappointed to receive fried chicken. The other food is pretty standard. It didn’t have a super greasy feel to it either.
One more thing that deserves it’s own star– as I mentioned, I ordered online. When I opened up my eggroll packet, they had included 2 bonus crab rangoons! And supplied me with the good «red» sweet and sour sauce (not a fan of duck sauce packets). AND spicy chinese hot mustard. So much better than Chin Chin. They apparently don’t have sweet and sour sauce and charge extra for «homemade» mustard.

You never would guess this good of a restaurant would be housed in this lame and deserted strip mall. It’s so sad, really.
but the interior is great! A cool view into the kitchen, watching the chefs handle flames and woks with such skill!
I’m only giving it 3 stars cause you have to go with someone who knows what to order in Chinese. It’s pretty useless to order off the English menu.
The food is great… if you get the right things…

This is probably my favorite Chinese food in the greater Atlanta area! A very important note — bring someone with you who can speak (or preferably read) Chinese. There is an English menu and a Chinese menu and in my opinion, the better food is on the Chinese menu.
My favorite dish which I get EVERY time (seriously!) is the Pocket Tofu. It is basically a plate of mouth-​watering tofu balls which are fried with a nice clear sauce. I know a lot of tofu dishes have no taste, but this one does! No words can explain the joy it brings me to eat this! Sad, I know.
On a recent visit, in addition to the above, we got the snow pea tips which was a perfect dish of green veggies (and not on the English menu). I also recently had the sweet and sour chicken which was really good. Dishes were about $ 10 each. In the past, I have also had the bamboo with shredded beef which was cooked well.
Compared to other Chinese restaurants in Atlanta, including on Buford Highway, this place is significantly cleaner (or at least appears to be). There is a large glass window in the back where you can watch the chefs cook your food. nothing to hide.
For all of the above reasons, this restaurant has a diverse customer base — food quality good enough for Asians and clean enough for Caucasians. If you have taken your family to some of those places on Buford, you understand what I mean.
China Inn also has a large room where you can host parties and other large gatherings.
Staff is always friendly.
Definitely a must go!

I used to come here alot for lunch during the week. I haven’t been in a while simply because I have been too busy to take a full lunch. But I was thinking today.MAN.I want Chinese!!! And I immediately thought china inn.
The servers are very to the point and could care less that your a customer haha. but pleasant and prompt. It’s not service with a smile but it’s good service. Which to me is more then good enough :)
The food here is all really good and you can see the kitchen from pretty much anywhere (accept the room with the huge round tables)
Personally this place has the second best fried rice I’ve ever had in my entire life. It’s a clean place with good food. Don’t let the location mess with you. If you want good Chinese with a good atmosphere. Go here.
⁹⁄₃₆₅
#Yelp365

This is a great Chinese restaurant in Atlanta with a nice atmosphere, which includes large glass windows where you can see the chef cook and prepare your food. For those afraid of food-​borne diseases or poor sanitation, you can stand and gawk until your food is ready, to personally verify that the dish was prepared under the strictest sanitary conditions.
NOTE: there are two different menus — an English and a Chinese menu with different menu items.
I came with my good friends because they loved the «Pocket Tofu» here, which someone graciously took a picture of. It’s not on the English menu, and on the Chinese menu, it is actually called «pocket» + «tofu». The pocket tofu was stir-​fried with a clear sauce and a slight portion of vegetables and mushrooms. The pocket tofu itself is a tofu ball (though I believe they mixed something else to give it flavor and consistency), lightly fried, then stir-​fried with the vegetables and sauce. It was a dish that would make me come back again. It certainly has drawn my friends back here, this being the 3^rd time.
We had two other dishes — bamboo with shredded beef (only on Chinese menu), and stir-​fried snow pea tips. The Snow pea tips were prepared with great aroma, not too greasy. The Bamboo with shredded beef was lightly spicy due to the dried chili peppers, but it was very tasty. I felt like this dish had more bamboos than beef, which is usually the opposite at other restaurants. it’s not a bad thing because i love bamboo.
They definitely had some other items on their menu that I want to try, and looking around, the other dishes made me want to have multiple stomachs for the night.
Like a cow.

China Inn is around the corner from my house… Since my girlfriend loves Chinese food quite passionately, I pick up takeout from the China Inn quite abit.
The food is generally good… high quality standard chinese. The inside of the restaurant is quite appealing and I like that you can see into the kitchen.
Down sides? Last time I went, i noticed the health score was shockingly lown (78 maybe?), and someone had angrily torn that corner of the health report. Weird and slightly troublesome.
Also, they are wickedly understaffed with host-​persons and waitstaff, and sometimes its hard to get stuff or get your order rung up.
But hey, I’m still gonna get takeout from here. :)

This is the best Chinese food I have had at any price. I highly recommend bringing someone who reads Chinese to order off of the alternate menu. The Sichuan offerings are out-​of-​this-​world delicious. There are these tofu balls that are the best preparation of tofu I have ever eaten in any cuisine. The snow pea greens are also exceptional when available.
This is the place to get Chinese in Atlanta. No debate.

Not the best Chinese restaurant I’ve been to, but certainly not the worst. We took an office crew for lunch yesterday. The service was very good. We got seated right away and drinks were on the table in a flash. We all ordered from the lunch menu, which comes with the entrée, fried rice, small egg roll, soup, and a fried chicken wing (under $ 8). Like I said, it wasn’t bad, just not stellar. My Kung Pao Chicken was a little bland, so I used a lot of hot mustard trying to give it a kick. Others seemed to enjoy theirs, but I noticed a couple of them adding spice. I may go back if I need a cheap lunch, but I think I’ll look elsewhere first.

Authentic Schzewan Chinese place that can only be truly appreciated if you order from the Chinese menu.
A friend took me to the place about 5 years ago and it’s consistently been my favorite Schzewan place in Atlanta.
My favorite dishes are hot broiled beef (very spicey and flavorful) and twice cooked pork. Almost all type of dishes are excellent, as long as you order from the Chinese menu. I can’t comment about any of the Americanized dishes.

4.5 for me. If you’re very much into good vegetable dishes, they have a great selection and each veggie dishes are absolutely delicious. Since the person who ordered for us is a borderline vegetarian, most of the dishes we had were greenlys. However, we had a few meat dishes, they were pretty good too.
Very decent and solid authentic Chinese food. Definitely will visit again!
PS For those who didn’t know, a little background of the Owners and Chefs, this is a Christian family owned restaurant. My friend who invited me over to dinner have known the owners for many years. They often hold Bible studies on Monday nights. After it, they cook for them. Cool!

Don’t just a book by its cover.
Those words could not be any more true about China Inn. It’s located in a strip mall and looks like another generic dog crap chinese place. Inside the restaurant though, it suddenly becomes awesome. The décor of this place is really, really cool, and you can even see the chefs cooking in their woks because of the glass window that separates the dining area from the kitchen. A nice little addition to an already cool interior.
The food is excellent. Fans of my earlier reviews will note that I have an obvious bias for korean food. In general, I’m just not into Chinese or Thai places in atlanta because, quite honestly, they taste like crap. This place, however, combines excellent quality food with reasonable prices. You have to order off the chinese menu though, in order to get real chinese food. Luckily, my coworker handled this for me. In the future, I would most definitely demand certain dishes off the menu but demand that they be cooked in the traditional chinese manner.
The only downside to this place is that the service isn’t that great. The waiters do check up with you on water but I found the main hostess lady to be quite rude. Other than her bitchiness, this place rocked.

I love Man Chun Hong, but I was craving Mu Shu, so decided to venture out. I had high hopes with all the raves, but did not find China Inn to be worth the hype.
Mu Shu was tasty but not stellar. Mr. H got Kung Pao (ya, I know, whitey style, but it can be good), and it was bland. Hot N Sour and Won Ton soups were lackluster. The filling in the dumpling was strangely hard and chewy, but it did have a decent flavor.
Also had «issues», but might have been the ½ dozen roasty chilis I ate…
Not going back.
Cheers,

This place is consistently very good. Great sizzling rice soup and good potstickers. Entrees from both the more Americanized and more authentic menus have all been solid choices. It’s never a disappointing meal here. And when you go ask for Tony Sexy Wong to take care of you…
4

A solid four stars for China Inn… when I lived in this neighborhood, this was always our go-​to spot for quick Chinese take out and before I got on my plane tonight it was what I was craving.
You can’t go wrong with the Mongolian Beer or Cashew Chicken — both served pipping hot and go great with a side of fried rice. Check out the rest of the menu for even more treats. Enjoy!

Authentic Sichuan and Hunan food. Delicious! Definitely order from the Chinese menu, which has authentic items that are not listed on the English menu. My Emory professors in the Chinese dept treated the graduating students at this fine restaurant, and I was very impressed by the quality of the food, in spite of not liking northern Chinese food in general. My professors ordered approximately 20 different dishes, and everything was excellent, perfectly cooked, and very flavorful. I liked all 20 dishes, much to my delight and surprise!
The décor is gorgeous, with deep brown woods and stone everywhere, a refreshing and classy deviation from the cliché of red velvet and gold in most finer Chinese restaurants in America.

I should’ve written this a long time ago. We’ve been here numerous times, but I’ve just been lazy.
Anyway, China Inn is a place where you can get consistently decent northern Chinese dishes. One minor gripe I have with this place is that at least 50% of the time we’ve been there, they lacked both kong xin cai and do miao. Basic fresh vegetable options that most places have. Boo.
The dishes we’ve gotten most often have been the hui guo rou (twice cooked pork), the shui zhu yu (fish filets in chili oil), and the liu fu xiao chao (fried tofu stir fried with anchovies, peanuts, chilis, and chives).
The twice cooked pork is typically decent, although sometimes the sauce that covers the meat turns out a bit too sweet. The spiciness is at a decent level– doesn’t blow off your taste buds. Score: 3.5
Their rendition of the fish filets in chili oil while tasty, doesn’t seem to be authentically Szechuan. The liquid is rather thicker than usual, and there are not many Szechuan peppercorns. Not to knock it because it’s tasty, just that it’s not what I would’ve expected. Score: 3.5
Their «6 blessing stir fry» used to be really great– textures of the fried tofu contrasted that of the peanuts, the chives, the anchovies. Now the fried tofu is not crispy, and there just isn’t that ‘love’ in the food that it used to have. Score: 3
The prices here tend to be on the high end in comparison to other Chinese places– but the taste of the food is relatively consistent. With several other northern/​Szechuan options closeby, I would lean towards the other options, given the overall decrease in «love» in the past year or two. Overall: 3.5

Food (7.0/10)=China Inn (CI) is one of the few Chinese restaurants in Atlanta serving non-​Cantonese fare. While CI specializes in Northern Chinese as well as Sichuan cuisine, CI’s Chinese menu is dominated by the latter. During my years in Atlanta (2001 – 2006), I made frequent visits to CI. Below are some thoughts on the dishes I had during my most recent visit (July 2008):
*refer to my pictures of the menu
1)H2-Smoked Fish=Since this dish was not on the menu the last time I visited CI in 2006, I had to give it a try. The fish is served cold and has a very light flavor. I’ve had better smoked fish before, and I think CI’s smoked fish is overpriced ($ 7.25). Definitely would not recommend this dish to anyone visiting CI, but it seems like it’s a popular dish based on observations on what other diners were ordering that night.
2)D9-Camphor Tea Smoked Duck (Half)=Everytime I see a restaurant serving this Sichuanese dish, I have to order it. When prepared correctly, 1) the meat is soft and juicy, 2) the skin is crispy, and 3) the aroma of the duck permeates around the table. CI’s duck fails at all but characteristic #2. Overall, the dish is still good, but it can be a lot better.
3)D29-«Liu Yu Pian”=In addition to «D31-​Shui Zhu Yu Pian,» CI often recommends this Northern dish to diners who are interested in a fish dish. Slices of fish in a light-​garlic sauce are served with Shanghai bok choy, bamboo shoots, and «mu er» (wood ear = fungus that grows on trees). The fish is definitely not fresh, but it’s uunderstandable considering that CI is located in Atlanta. I always prefer bold-​spicy flavors and would’ve rather ordered D31, but one of my friends dining with me that night really liked this dish. I think this dish would’ve been fine if the fish had been fresh.
4)K6-Walnut Shrimp=The quality of this dish has suffered quite a bit since my last visit in 2006. The texture of the shrimp wasn’t as crispy and the sizeof the shrimp seemed smaller. In 2006, I recommended this dish to all my friends visiting CI. I went as far as stating that CI was the best in Atlanta in preparing this dish. Now in 2008, even if CI was still the best in Atlanta for this dish, I would never recommend it to anyone.
5)K36-«Kou Dai Dou Fu”=This dish is very unique and you won’t find this anywhere else in Atlanta. In fact, I haven’t seen it in Boston, New York, Toronto, or San Francisco. Tofu is mashed up and formed into «meatballs.» Then it’s fried and finished off with a light-​garlic sauce (similar to the sauce of «D29-​Liu Yu Pian») served with Shanghai bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and red bell pepper. This dish was also one of my favorites before, but I felt the quality of this dish has gone down since 2006.
6)G35-«Tang Cu Li Ji”=This dish wasn’t anything spectacular. The texture of the pork is definitely different from what I had two years ago. The meat is no longer crispy and piping hot like it used to be. The sauce is still the same though (sweet and sour).
***check out my uploaded pics of the dishes***
I’ve had a lot of the dishes from CI’s Chinese menu and would’ve recommended many of the dishes before. However, given my most recent experience, I cannot comfortably do so anymore.
Ambiance (9.0/10)=CI’s décor is a lot more beautiful and elegant than the usual Chinese restaurant. The dining tables and chairs are of higher quality than the usual, and the walls and ceilings are well decorated. Towards the back of the restaurant, one may also view the chefs masterfully create the dishes in woks over the roaring gas stoves.
***check out my uploaded pics of the restaurant’s interior***
Service (7.5/10)=Service is basic. However, I was very surprised that the Shanghainese waitress (who has been at CI since I don’t know when) still remembered me after I had been away for two years. Her personality is quite energetic, and she is friendly in a unique way. Our waitress was very attentive to our tea pot even if we hadn’t opened the lid (the way guests can signal to waiters/​waitresses for a tea refill).
Overall opinion=CI was my #1 Chinese restaurant during my years in Atlanta. However, I feel like the quality of their food has declined since my last visit in 2006. During my most recent visit, I did not recognize any of the chefs that were working that night. This may be a reason for the decline in food quality. If I had written a Unilocal review for CI two years ago, I would’ve given it 4 – 5 Unilocal stars. However, after ordering my long time favorites during my most recent visit, and being disappointed with almost all of the dishes, CI only deserves three Unilocal stars at most. Unlike my other Unilocal reviews of Chinese restaurants where I’ve given 1 – 3 Unilocal stars, I cannot offer an alternative to CI, that is also in Atlanta and also serving Northern/​Sichuan cuisine.

Despite having been to this restaurant many times over the last 3 years, this is actually the first time that I’ve written about China Inn. The interior is actually rather nice for a chinese restaurant in the US, with good woods and a view of the kitchen from the main dining area. The space is open, with moderately dim lighting throughout. The cooking quality is a bit variable, with certain days yielding truly a sparkling experience, though other days are quite a bit more lacklustre.
I don’t know the chefs individually, so I haven’t the foggiest idea why this discrepancy exists. That said, there appear to be 3 sichuan choices in Atlanta at present now that Tasty China is off the map: Here, Little Szechuan, and China Master. Of the three I prefer this one slightly.
And yes, the Chinese menu has a lot of things that don’t appear on the English menu. While that might grate on some, there really aren’t standardized translations for the more exotic dishes, which makes it really hard to know how to present the dish, I fear.