China Cafe

Zero stars… Very rude owner and cashier girl here! horrible service they are liars! go elsewhere all the cooks and workers there keep quitting for the past few years because the owner is so mean and now she is the cook and they rip you off! Won’t be returning again

First time and maybe the last … The food was the best part but the service was bad … Please don’t take my foo away before I’m done eating! Like to give you the bill for the food you took that I was going to eat for dinner! Terrible!!!

I just can’t recommend this restaurant to anyone. My coworkers went for lunch, and ordered things like the pork lo mein, curry chicken, etc. We thought we were ordering lunch portions and she brought out huge portions without clarifying first. So we ended up paying way more money than expected. Normally this would be fine but the food quality was atrocious and inedible. The crab cheese wontons contained no cream cheese and tasted awful. The lo mein was not seasoned well and their sweet and sour sauce was watery. Just skip this place.

Nasty, Ordered Chicken Lo-​Mein AGAIN and this time there were bones in the chicken and the chicken didn’t even look like white meat chicken! I don’t actually know what kind of meat it is, Hated it!

I love this place. They treat my family like family. Every time we go in they know what we want. Their food is awesome as well. I’ll recommend them to anyone that wants good food.

This used to be the best I guess I continue to return due to loyalty.

Went for lunch with my family, 5 total. They charged full price per refill — this is not disclosed on the menu, signage, or by the server when she started bringing refills. I asked for it to be pointed out where we might have missed it. She said they don’t share that info anywhere. Apparently we’re meant to glean that magically or telepathically? They charged an 18% gratuity due to 5 in our party. FIVE?! Food was mediocre at best. The scallion pancake could have been a doorstop if they left it in one piece. Save your time and money. They are too precious for a place this dishonest.

Worst Chinese food I’ve ever had! I will not be back and way over priced!

I have called ahead for takeout and ate in for lunch. Both experiences have been wonderful with very friendly service. They are also very fast in prepping the food. Sadly, the food to me is just mediocre. Definitely had worse and better. But for the location and service I keep coming back.

This place was disgusting, i was so starving and they are close to my house so i gave it a try. i asked for lo mien noodles plain. she says we can’t do that so i added chicken. chicken tasted like plastic the noodles were literally tasteless and they give you cheap soy sauce. the cashier seemed annoyed that i was even there. and the place smells, bad.

Nothing Fancy, run of the mill Strip Mall Chinese Food. I liked the Pork I got last time and the Hot and Sour Soup is good too. Good spot if you want the basic Chinese Staples or a quick bite.

I ordered there hottest sauce w the spicy general chicken, it might as well have been mild. The breading tasted like mush and the crab regoons were par at best.

Service isn’t that great. In fact if the food was good, it may make up for it… Unfortunately they were both below par. Ordered Thai iced tea without the ice and when the server brought it to me, it was full to the brim with ice! Apparently ordering something without ice is useless. When I told the server that I asked for NO ice, she responded by saying, that ordering it without ice isn’t something they do. WTF!!!
On top of that, the food is simply disgusting. EVERY single bite tasted of salt and msg, unless you’re big fans of both, than this isn’t the place for you. I’m surprised that this establishment has a 3 star rating.

I was suppose to go to a super bowl party and eat deliciously terrible for me food (bacon stuffed bacon anyone!?) but when a friend’s skiing accident got in the way of our Sunday evening plans I found myself ordering take out from this place.
I’m not sure it was any healthier than the bacon stuffed bacon and it did satisfy my greasy food craving (screw you subway next door!). So it has that going for it.
The woman behind the register was a little more surely than I expected (but I probably ruined her Beyonce watching experience so I should probably cut her some slack). But the food was better than expected. Granted, I expected $ 1.25 a scoop and this wasn’t a scoop-​able situation at all. The menu was more robust than I expected and the noodles I got were pretty darn good. Also, the portion was huge, even for the «dinner» plate which is suppose to be the medium of their portion sizes. It cost about 10 bucks and I got 3 meals out of it.
If you’re looking for takeout after a long day at work don’t let the strip mall entry way scare you, this isn’t a bad option.

I had a craving for some Chinese food and I needed to run to Target so this ended up being a match made in heaven for me. I got greeted the second I walked in and was told to take any seat I wanted. I ordered up some hot green tea since my throat had been bothering me and was given the menu. Whoa, there were so many choices. I have never seen a chinese menu that big. It was tough to decide what I wanted, but I opted with the teriyaki chicken platter.
When I was brought the food, it was brought with rice on the side and an eggroll. I wouldn’t have minded it all blended together, but I’m not lazy. I can do that portion myself. The food was cooked thoroughly and to perfection. The chicken wasn’t as juicy as it is at Purple Ginger, but it was still quite good. The eggroll was cooked perfectly as well. The tea also soothed my aching throat. I’d definitely come back here again.

A fellowe Unilocaler once said that you can immediately judge the quality of a Chinese restaurant by the type of soy sauce they give out wit their orders. If it’s Kimlan, you’re good to go. If it’s Panda or something even more obscure, it’s most likely going to be crap.
They give out Panda soy sauce here. And sadly this place is not an exception to my friends’ rule.
I feel even worse about this experience because I got this Chinese food beacuse it was my dad’s birthday and he wanted Chinese. We had just gotten done with a movie up north and this was the only Chinese restaurant on the way home. I should’ve just suggested Szechuan because this place was pretty bad.
I had some hazy memory of it being good one day when I was younger. But today wasn’t that day. The sesame chicken I got here may have been the worse I ever had. It basically consisted of chunks of overfried chicken bites (not dissimilar to small McNuggets) coated in a sickly sweet sauce and drizzled with maybe a a dozen or so sesame seeds (I found it odd that the seeds weren’t t in the sauce already). The Kung Pao shrimp was better. It at least had s surprisingly generous number of shrimp with it. Though the sauce was kind of plain.
We also ordered those big fat Chinese dumplings which were OK. They were pretty big and fat, which is more than some places can say, but the dumpling skin was really weak and would basically fall apart after even touching it. Szechuan Chinese definitely still has the best dumplings I’ve had so far.
The quality of the food would be more acceptable if this place was cheaper. But two entrees and the dumplings set me back more than $ 20 so it really isn’t that great of a deal.
The couple who owns the place are pretty nice though and the seating and atmosphere has been much approved since the spartan surroundings I remember this place had as a kid.
But the food isn’t that great not even drenched in cheap Panda soy sauce.

Terrible, awful, disgusting, tasteless, horrible… just one step up from something I can’t legally say.
Stay clear of this place, for the health of your family just stay away!

China Café, you don’t look a day over 18. Let’s see some ID.
Joined my best friends for dinner at China Café tonight, my first visit this year – love the new look! Have you lost weight? As a long-​time patron of this Edgewater favorite, I have to say, it was about time. The place has never looked better. Featured attractions:
Partition on the door
New dinner specials (!) posted on outside windows and menus alike
Fancy-​schmancy ‘Reserved’ signs on the tables*
New tables, tablecloths, and wall art
Now serving Coke products instead of Pepsi
*really, people reserve tables at a place this casual? what will the Subway next door say?!
Generally speaking, I’m not one to be easily won over by a simple facelift. Good thing I’ve been a fan of the place, in any incarnation. The food hasn’t changed (although they are offering a lot more dinner specials on the menu), and the waitresses are as prompt and pleasant as always. Really, the nicest part about the new digs is that the nave is finally as nice as the communion (not to mention the service). The sermon remains the same, I’ll just be back to worship more often now on.

The thing about places like China Café is you have to kind of know what you’re getting yourself into before you actually get into it. Not to suggest setting the bar so low you’ll go chow down at Casa Bonita and actually be content (or even «not mind it so much»), but to expect China Town out of place in a strip-​ish mall that’s next to a Subway and across from a Target, well, no doubt you’ll be disappointed.
HOWEVER. To open your eyes (and stomach) and embrace that you’re about to pay like seven bucks for entrée, rice, AND soup, well shit, son, this bargain just got a lot tastier. And, to second John H.‘s notion, you’d pay about the same at Panda Express yet probably receive less food and it would be even further from China Town (P.E. is glorified dollar-​a-​scoop and you know it). A common theme in many of my reviews is «bang for the buck»; I’m willing to settle for a little less in terms of quality (as long as it’s not like… health code violation material) if I at least get my money’s worth and feel satisfied at the end.
Nothing against small plates and tapas, but homey don’t play that way until I graduate and get a real job…
Anyway, while China Café isn’t my favorite hole-​in-​the-​wall (see Sidewok Café), it is close to my house and on the cheap. The hot and sour is most acceptable; the veggie dishes I have tried have not disappointed. 4 out of 5 dishes have been a little overly saucy for my tastes, but that in itself works out because I can take home the leftovers, and add more veggies for another meal.
Yeah, their delivery system (or lack thereof) is a little wacky, but I don’t even bother with it. Maybe I’ve just missed the «peak» times, but every time I have been in there’s been a table and my food has been brought out quickly and piping hot. Service is pleasant, décor is… well, strip-​ish mall Chinese restaurant next to Subway and across from Super Target décor. You’re not paying $ 7 for ambiance, people. You’re paying for a quick meal, that is consistently «pretty alright».

Sorry, China Café, but I had to downgrade you a star. I usually get the shrimp or chicken in garlic sauce, which is delicious! Full of veggies, flavorful, good. Today I decided to try the sesame chicken and was incredibly disappointed… frankly, I was nauseated.
The sesame chicken is cooked like the chicken in sweet and sour chicken– in the more fluffy, heavy breading, instead of a thinner batter/​breading that just coats the chicken. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by huge, delicious morsels of chicken at Heaven Dragon, but this just didn’t cut it. Too bad, too, because it smelled delicious! I could smell the hoisin and garlic and goodness. But the chicken was too puffy and it was too dry– not enough sauce to coat the chicken, so the taste of the not-​so-​fresh, almost-​rancid oil came through. Double ick.
Not to mention the fact that fairly early in the meal, I bit down on something that definitely wasn’t chicken (bone? gristle?). In my previous review I mentioned my weariness of trying new Chinese chicken… and I see that was warranted.
If we order from here again, I’ll stick with the Shrimp in garlic sauce… and nothing else.