One Two Three Express

always pass by this place and wonder if it was good or not. came here on a weekday and it was pretty dead… i only saw 1 worker there. he worked the register and the kitchen as the chef. pretty nice guy too.
ordered orange chicken and beef fried rice. the sauce on the orange chicken was pretty thick and the fried rice was a little on the bland side. its not bad tho for chinese food that’s outside of chinatown…
pricing is pretty typical compare to other chinese restaurants. its not bad to get pick up if you just want to get some quick chinese food to go.

This place is only two blocks away so you can imagine how often we order takeout. Truth is, I’d still suggest traveling the extra 5 – 7 minutes to Chinatown for better tasting food. This is strictly my choice out of sheer laziness. However, I do understand that being across the street from the police station and outside of Chinatown may make them have to water down the Chinese goodness. All in all, great if you live down the street, but take the extra few minutes to Chinatown if you want better tasting food.
Extra points do go to them accepting credit cards

I come here occasionally. The lunch specials are alright, plus you get soup or crab rangoon/​egg roll. For the price paid, the portion is generous. I also like how they take «special orders.» There are off-​the-​menu items you can order, but for an additional charge. They were pretty good.
I’m a picky eater and very particular about flavors and looks. The food can be quite messy (depending on what you order) and might not look as appetizing. What really got me was the fried rice being completely dark and had no flavor. I was dismayed that everything had one flavor. I like picking out eggs from the fried rice and be able to tell it is egg, but it was drenched in the dark soy that made it have no taste besides texture.

Food was tasty, but where was the chicken in the Szechuan Chicken and my chicken fried race. Definitely the best Chinese I’ve tasted in Bridgeport but I think I’ll pay for extra chicken next time. Also, as with most Chinese places I’ve tasted the Szechuan Chicken wasn’t really spicy. If you want it spicy, you should request it that way. Eggrolls were done to perfection!

Twice in 5 months. Everytime I ordered sth with vegetable like brocholi, they are full of stalks. the soup they offered is always tasteless actually plain. Food are greasy and not fresh.
not go back again.

It’s a good place to get a rice box for dinner or for lunch. It cost about $ 5.00 for a rice box and it comes with enough topping and rice to fill up a hungry tummy. You can even share your rice box with another person and still be satisfied. That is if you don’t eat like a pig.
We ordered their Manardin style pork chops over rice and their yang chu chow fun, my (authentic combination fried rice) and it was good. It came with soup and it is located in the bridgeport area down 32^nd and halsted street and it’s great. Go check it out!

This place is pretty authentic IF you order from the chinese menu. My favorites are the Aromatic Beef Stew and Hainanese Chicken. This is my go to place to grab a ricebox if I didn’t bring lunch to work or feeling lazy about making dinner. They give you a lot for the price. I like this place over Happiness because I think Happiness puts way too much sauce in their dishes.
They’re English is not very good, and would sometimes ask you for the item number on the menu if you’re ordering over the phone because they don’t understand the name. They’re nice folks though. The owner often cooks and clerks there, and he would often give me more change back. For example, if it’s $ 5.20, and I pay $ 6, he would give me back a $ 1 change to save the trouble of counting the change lol. Not sure if he will do this for everyone though since I am a long time customer.

This is my go to place for chinese food in Bridgeport especially when I want orange chicken. There was a time when I first moved to the neighborhood that I was going to each chinese restaurant and getting their orange chicken and comparing and contrasting. And this place is the winner. Over Triple Crown, Happiness, Ed’s Potsticker House and the more recent Noodles Phở U. I also like this place for the simple fact that I have never had a problem ordering food from them. No misunderstandings over the phone or in person and the workers are usually all smiles. Of course the quality of the orange chicken and pinapple fried rice, my usual order, does tend to get a little hit or miss at times, but when it’s on it is quite excecllent. This place isn’t the best chinese spot in this neighborhood but when I want something fast, not be hassled by any ordering misunderstanding, and want orange chicken, I come here.
And for fun…
A Quick Bridgeport Chinese Restaurant Guide:
123 Express: Good for take out and of course orange chicken.
Happiness: The quality of the food is decent. Not the greatest. But they make it up in their affordable generous portions.
Noodles Phở U: Great place for Phở and it’s fun they have a variety of asian cultures represented in their menu.
Ed’s Potsticker House: A comfortable sit down place. Great for bringing a large group and sharing a lot of dishes. The menu is a little more traditional chinese fare so having friends that speak the language and know what food is what is a big plus.
Triple Crown: Ho-​hum. No thanks.
Han202: Haven’t been here yet. Hope to remedy that soon.

Food is prepared quickly enough which is an important detail of any promising Chinese restaurant in my opinion, but the food here … well, there’s definitely other Chinese dining options in the neighborhood. Hell, if I weren’t so lazy and hated fighting for a parking space, I’d trek it down to Chinatown more often than I do. In the meantime, I’ll have to stick with my go-​to joint in Bridgeport, Triple Crown.

I can’t tell you whether or not to stop here for food, but forget about bubble tea…
I stopped by to pick up 2 bubble teas on my way to Unique. I picked 2 flavors, both with tapioca. First problem, there’s only enough tapioca for 1 drink. OK, I reply, just split the bubbles between the 2 drinks. I got an OK for an answer, but a bill of $ 11. Hmm, doesn’t seem right, as the sign says $ 2.50 a drink (I saw on my way out that tapioca is an additional $ 0.50, so my bill should have been $ 5.50 before tax). I corrected the cashier, who admitted her mistake. I then gave her a $ 20 and got only $ 8 back and no receipt. Alright, something isn’t getting through.
(I’m inserting a pause here since the cashier then took another customer’s order… for 10 minutes.)
As my patience was gone by this point, and I still didn’t have any drinks, I interrupted the cashier, explained the short-​change, and that I didn’t want my drinks, just my $ 20 back.
I wouldn’t go back here based on the service alone. There are other Chinese places in Bridgeport that are more deserving of your time.

This place is authentic as you can get in the bridgeport area. You can trust me on this one, I’ve eaten in just about every single chinese restaurant in chinatown and the surrounding area. It is comparable to some of the best that chinatown has to offer. The service is fast and friendly, food is consistent, and prices are very reasonable. Personally I recommend the beef with chinese broccoli on panfried flat noodles, singapore rice noodle, or the chicken with jalepenos and cilantro. All dishes are tasty and never disappoints. So what’s to complain? Nothing, that’s what.

My main course/​entrée, beef with two kinds of mushrooms, was rather good. My starters/​appetizers, a bowl of hot and sour soup and a «spring roll» (an egg roll, really), were not great.
Lovely people, but I am unlikely to return for the entrees alone. Why do so many Chinese places fall down so badly on starters/​appetizers?

This is some of the best Chinese food I’ve ever had. The portions are plentiful and the price is reasonable. The lunch special portion in proportion to the price makes me feel like I’m stealing from them. A must try if you’re in the mood for Chinese.

Based on my 23 years’ life experience in mainland China and my 5 years’ experience cooking Chinese dishes to feed myself, I think One Two Three’s taste is very close to things you can eat in a normal Chinese family. Some people compare 123 with famous Chinatown ones like Joyee-​noodle. I don’t think they two can be compared. 123 is homemade style. That means, you won’t feel any worse even you eat in their place every meal. They uses relatively less oil, less sugar, less salt which is very different from Panda Exp.‘s style. China town ones, they put heavily seasonings and a lot of oil to make taste impressive. But you can’t eat their food every day. Otherwise, all you eat will become part of your body. No one can deny that different people have different taste preference. And it is a fact that different people groups have certain preference. Triple Delight w Salt and Pepper (S.27) is the one good for all group of meat eating people. People like Panda Exp style may try B13. Beef Short Ribs with Black Peper Sauce Rice. The Combination Fried Rice here is top level. Most other restaurants in Chicago fried rice with a lot of sauce and you can see rice is in brown color. While 123 cooks this dish with fresh seafood and vegetable without sauce. For people don’t like heavy taste, Combination Fried Rice + Won Ton Soup is recommended.

This is a GREAT place for some last minute emergency dinner. Many of the dishes are priced criminally low. My standby, shredded pork and green beans with black pepper, is only $ 4.35 for an enormous portion! I’ve tried some things that have been a little «meh,» but that’s the case with any place of this type. The salt and pepper triple delight (fried squid, shrimp and fish with jalapeño) is really good, if you’re willing to totally embrace the heart attacks of days to come. The stir-​fried pea tips with fresh garlic are also really tasty, and provide a great counterpoint to the salty/​fatty yummyness of some of the salt and pepper preparations. Their hot and sour soup is also no slouch.
I mostly order off the Chinese menu, because that’s what is interesting to me. I did once order some Ameri-​Chinese treats, and I remember the kung pao chicken and egg rolls being competently prepared, but not earth shattering. But that’s not what I’m looking for anyway. There are, I think, five other Chinese places in Bridgeport that specialize in General Tso’s/sesame chicken. Iif you want something a little different, give 123 a try. They’ve really saved the day numerous times when dinner making escapes me. I have always found the staff, both on the phone and in person, to be friendly and competent. I would love to see them get some more patronage so they can stick around to give me many more tasty $ 4.35 dinners.

For me, when it comes to reviewing a new Chinese place, I guess I’m just an overweight American because I judge a place based on their General Tso’s Chicken (or Governor’s Chicken, since they’re synonymous). The sauce has to be pleasing. The chicken bits have to be properly-​sized and properly-​fried. I look for added veggies and their status, and then render my verdict.
Oh yea, and I don’t overlook the whole cleanliness/​décor/​service factors — they’re just not AS important to me as my food.
So I guess I’ll start with all that jazz, since it tends to come into the picture before the food has a chance to (unless I’ve phoned in my order and sent in a representative to obtain that food so I’m not burdened with having to notice those things).
One Two Three Express appears a little fancier attempt at décor than some of the other hole-​in-​the-​wall Chinese joints you’ll find in Bridgeport (which is almost like all the Chinatown that wasn’t fit to be located IN Chinatown). The tables look nice, the chairs are quite decent and pretty. I think there was some random artwork on the wall. Anyway, it all leads up to the giant counter and the kitchen behind it. Everything looked clean to me, and the lady at the counter asked for my order.
Lady: «What you get?»
Me: «Can I get a large General Tso’s Chicken, to go?»
Lady: «Okay, you want General Chicken?»
Me: «Yes.»
Lady: «For here or to go?»
Me: «…To go.»
Lady: «You want small or large?»
Me: «…Large.»
Lady: «Okay.»
It’s not a good sign when I have to think paranoid thoughts of «when I said my order, did I just THINK I was saying those words and it apparently came out ‘laaaahhnnn genererereral chixen fooor gaaaaahhhrrr?’ Is my brain functioning properly, or was she just unable to keep six consecutive words in short-​term memory for the three seconds between my order and her punching things into the cash register?»
It wasn’t that long of a wait for my food, which is good. They also gave me a little box of steamed rice, which I never eat. They gave me two forks, in case I looked either like the kind of fat man who’s sharing one order of food with someone else or I looked like the kind of fat man who needs to shovel food into his mouth with both hands at once. No fortune cookies or sauce packets, though — which is disappointing.
But not as disappointing as the food when I got home. The sauce was thin and bland and it had those annoying little white bits in it that I think are either pepper flake/​disks or seeds from the peppers that were added — either way, they’re a pain to bite into and not palatable. The chicken pieces were tasty, but too big for a mouthful. If you have to cut up the pieces of food in order to fit them in your mouth, either give the customer a plastic knife with the plastic fork or use smaller pieces of food. I’m not a fan of green peppers as an accompanying vegetable (I prefer broccoli) but I can’t deduct points for that — unless they’re the source of those white bits. I do like the baby corn cobs, though.
All in all, the food wasn’t good and the service could use a human who speaks English and can remember six words at a time — but at least I had a lovely place to sit around and wait for my bad food to cook.