China Cafe

Another solid lunch served with a smile! Love this place, the employees are so friendly and happy to have repeat business. Today I enjoyed the sweet and sour chicken, and the tempura batter was crispy and very hot still when I picked up lunch and brought back to my job. They had a nice crowd in the café but didn’t slow the service which I really appreciate, since I have to bounce over and pick up quickly and get back to my job. I recommend this place to anyone looking for a quick bite of traditional Chinese takeout!

I am shocked to see so many positive ratings, because this is the worst delivery experience I have ever had in my life. My boyfriend and I ordered our food online at 12:30pm, and didn’t end up receiving it until after 2pm. We called an hour in to the wait wondering how long it would be, and even though it was extremely hard to understand anyone we came in contact with, we were able to gather that he was apparently on his way.
Once he got to our complex at 2:05pm, he called but we couldn’t understand a word he was saying so we had to go and walk through the complex to find him.
We had ordered General Tzo’s chicken, some kind of pork and shrimp dish, chicken lo mien, and crab ragoons. The General Tzo’s chicken was decent, and was the only saving grace. The pork and shrimp tasted like it was cooked a week ago and pulled out for our order, the chicken lo mien had no flavor at all, and the crab ragoons were so rubbery I almost couldn’t tear it with my teeth.
I understand Saturday afternoons are probably busy for them, but there is no reason why we should have had to wait over an hour an a half (with no call letting us know it would take so long), only to have the worst tasting Chinese food either of us have ever had.
Please, please, please read this review and take it in to consideration before deciding to go here, especially getting them to deliver to your house!

China café just wasn’t for me, but if you want decent food quick and affordable, you should visit this location. There is one dish that I would order from here repeatedly that is very reasonably priced and pretty tasty. However, I wouldn’t recommend the General Tso or Beef w/​Broccoli.

My fiancé and I have been coming here for years and this is, by far, the best place for Sesame beef and General Tso’s chicken! The sauce is thick, the chicken is crispy, the beef is perfect, and the bite is spicy! I prefer to dine in because the chicken does lose its crispy-​ness during the trip, but I love how they do deliver out to me! Although, it has been a while since I’ve dined here, it hasn’t lost its flare, flavor, nor hospitality!

I’m in love with the food here! My family’s been eating here for years because it’s literally some of the best chinese food you’ll ever have (if you order the right dish). I’d recommend the general tsos chicken with light sauce, the salt & pepper shrimp, the kung pao chicken without peanuts, and the combination fried rice. Every dish comes out piping hot and like 2 minutes after I order!
The owner, Linda, is also fabulous! She’s the short, cute curly haired asian woman with a huge smile. She literally knows my order by heart and always asks about how my fam’s doing.
The restaurant gives off a very casual vibe but it’s cute for a quick lunch. I’ve always loved the koi fish mural. I didn’t know this for years, but Linda and her husband also have their first dollar earned hung up on the wall under the specials sign!
Obviously I’m somewhat biased because I’m spending my time writing such a detailed review, but the food here is honestly great. Linda’s so adorable and I felt like the negative reviews online don’t reflect the restaurant well. Hope my review helps convince some people to give this restaurant a try!

My family has been going to this restaurant for years and we have always been satisfied with their food and service! The staff is friendly and always makes sure we enjoyed our meal before leaving. Once I dropped my (delicious) shrimp spring roll and the staff kindly offered me another one. My favorites here are their chicken w/​vegetable and chicken lo mein. I would definitely recommend eating here.

Great food, portions and prices. Best among the standard Chinese take out fare. Very friendly staff.

The owners seems distracted and unprofessional. Food was sub-​par. I ordered the lunch special beef and broccoli, which too much sauce. The menu specified that there was going to be fried rice, but in reality it was just flavored rice without any veggies or anything. I would not recommend this place. Complete joke.

My go to for carryout Chinese food when I’m in the area. Been going here for over 15 years and never leave disappointed. I always get their General Tso’s and it’s the BEST. Crispy and the sauce is excellent. The restaurant is always very clean and the people that run it are very nice.
The review below on the General Tso’s seems odd, I’ve never had a bad experience with their General Tso’s. It’s always meaty and crispy, which is how I like it. I hate biting into soggy General Tso’s chicken, and you never get that here!

This is our family kitchen. If you want to enjoy a nice quick meal and avoid cooking and cleaning at your own kitchen, just come here.

Update: I found out recently that this restaurant is under new management, and I haven’t been there since the changeover. The review above was for the previous restaurant.

This is my family’s go to local Chinese food. They have been open for as long as I remember and the food is very very consistent. Ordering by phone and picking up is incredibly easy. The ladies that work here are also very polite on the phone. Food is ready in about 10 minutes and piping hot. If you dine in, they have complimentary tea and water available.
Try it, you won’t be disappointed.

I enjoy the tofu dishes, especially the kung pao bean curd.
I wish I could order online for delivery or takeout to this place instead of having to call in to order.
Also would be nice to tell what the hours are.

I will be generous and give this place 2 stars as I got my food to go and it may have congealed a bit on the five minute ride back to work. There was a large Asian clientele in the establishment, so I thought they may have it down, but what I got for General Tso’s tasted like McNuggets in sweet-​n-​sour sauce with 1 red pepper flake mixed in. If I do return, I would eat there as the food that came out looked better than what I got.

If I could give zero stars I would. This place should be ashamed to call itself Chinese food. Nothing about my order was good. Sweet and sour chicken should taste like sweet and sour sauce not ketchup. Horrible. horrible food good luck eating here.

Decent. Pretty good. I’d order from them again. I have better and worse. Kung Pao Chicken could have been a bit sweeter and spicier. It’s a «breadier» chicken versus other Kung Pao Chickens. Shrimp rolls were pretty good, but I wasn’t wild about the (un)sweet and sour packets (not restaurant/​home made); they had little flavor. Normal amount of food. 2 dishes total and 2 rolls was ~$ 22.50.

$ 20.90 for two people getting a dinner dish with a drink. Not horrible. Portions are large and the food taste just the way American Chinese food should. I got the Kung Pao Chicken after reading a review, and my brother got the orange chicken. Very normal orders for a Chinese place. They both tasted better than our go to place in the past which went out of business.
The orange chicken was very sweet, and my brother loved it. I would have want less sweetness and more spicey like the orange chicken I grew up on. However my brother disagreed and swore it was twice as good as the one we used to get. I thought that the Kung Pao was amazing. Spicey but just the right amount, and the peanuts added a good flavor and also added to the texture.
I will come back again for lunch. All the combo deals at lunch time are under 6 bucks! Come try this place.

I feel as if it’s not even worth the time to write this review given my most recent experience. I suppose most of the readers on Unilocal base their opinions on not only the quality and value of the dishes and food served at establishments, but also their overall experience with servers, ambience, etc.
We’d probably all agree that Chinese take-​out establishments pride themselves on serving food to please the Western palate with speed and efficiency in mind. So the folks at China Café have this concept down.
So, onto my review!
Seems trivial, but I like this place mostly because of their fried chicken wings. By themselves, there is nothing particularly amazing. But, pair the wings up with chili sauce and YUM! Which brings me to my next point:
Today’s takeout experience consisted of: crispy beef (reminds me of General Tso’s chicken, only beef), vegetable lo-​mein, steamed dumplings and fried chicken wings. So, I requested some chili sauce with my order. The cashier gave me two small containers and I proceeded to ask her for another. She brusquely replied: «You only order two main dishes, so I give you two. One more cost you 30 cents».
Really? It’s not about the money at this point is it? Well, maybe it is since «cheap» comes to mind. I realize this type of establishment survives on volume and number of customers. I GET THAT. But, really? Counterintuitive — you’re slighting me for 30 cents, but you probably lost me as a customer.
So, I may as well comment a bit on their food. Yeah, it’s okay and in a pinch this place is fast. Portions have gotten smaller over the years and prices have gone up, but hey we’re living in a tough economy.
Well, Young Chow Café —- you can count on me visiting next time we get the rumblings for Chinese takeout.

I wouldn’t know authentic Chinese food if it bit me in my fat American face. I enjoy Sichuan Village’s buffet even though another reviewer called it an «insult to Chinese people.» Well, the Asians who eat there don’t look too insulted. Granted, I don’t know how many of them are Chinese, but it’s a popular joint. Too popular; I went there for dinner last night, and as I parked and got ready to head in, TWO bus-​loads of Asians streamed in (incidentally, they didn’t look insulted either). Wanting to get my Kung Pao on but not wanting to beat back hordes of little old ladies, I decided to once again pick up that oft-​abandoned quest, to find GOOD Kung Pao.
Like I said… No clue what it’s «really» supposed to look or taste like. All I know is that I grew up on the Kung Pao from Foong Lin in Bethesda and was totally in love with it.
Little did I know that everywhere else in the country, Kung Pao is brown. MY (and Foong Lin’s) Kung Pao is a glorious, smoldering red. Only a precious few places make it that way, and since I’d moved to Virginia, I couldn’t find one. Until last night.
A Unilocal search from the parking lot for «Kung Pao» turned up China Café. I’d never seen it before. I’m outside their delivery area, so I never got their menu on my front door. (By the way, am I the only one who believes that kind of «advertising» is really littering?) But a previous reviewer glowed about my sought-​after dish, so, famished and rudely denied at the buffet, I fired up the GPS and went hunting.
For those of you who are as directionally challenged as myself, a word of warning: TomTom isn’t all that helpful in finding this place. It dropped me equidistant from three different strip malls. Oy.
Anyway, find it I did. Try it I did. Love it I did. I sampled two different Kung Paos (chicken and shrimp), and picked up a combo lo mien, which I’m now eating for breakfast. All were/​are delicious, and GLORIOUSLY RED! ok, the lo mien isn’t red. It’s normal tan. But it’s definitely yummy. My only complaint is that the Kung Pao shrimp was more water chestnut than shrimp. I figured it wasn’t going to be solid shrimp since it cost basically the same as the chicken, but I’m not a big fan of water chestnut. Next time I’ll get one of the combos with shrimp and see if I can improve the ratio.
Anyway, as long as China Café is open, my quest is complete!

The quest to find a decent Chinese restaurant around here has failed once again. I had a bad feeling about the place upon arrival, (the front door was held open by a pile of old phone books in 90 °F weather, which means they can’t afford A/​C). The place looks dingy, faded plastic menus behind the registers, walls that need repainting…
We ordered the Kung Pao chicken from the lunch menu, and sweet and sour shrimp. According to someone’s review, the Kung Pao chicken was supposed to be the best, better than 5 star restaurants. Boy, was I disappointed. I guess people really do have very different tastes. The first bite of chicken tasted stale, and the Kung Pao sauce was salty, not spicy, I could taste the sweet bean sauce they used to cover up the staleness of the meat.
On to the sweet and sour shrimp… the sauce looked like fake blood. Poor hubby looked like he was eating a small animal in a bad horror movie. That sauce seemed redder than all other sweet and sour sauce I’ve ever seen, it was also thick and sticky. The batter was very generous, so even though you get 5 huge shrimps, they’re pretty much just deep fried fluff.
I was amazed though, this place was very busy during lunch hours. I think it’s mainly due to the low prices. Or maybe I’m just too picky :/