Chinese American

Dirty establishment… and my food was horrible. Got combination fried rice… the sliced «pork» was stale and gummy like it’d been sitting out for days. My egg drop was like water with egg drops… very bland!!! I’ll be sure to stay away.

If you get past the generic restaurant name, hood shopping strip and cluttered interiors. You will get some legit Taiwanese Chinese food. My favorite dish is the pork, eggplant with garlic in clay pot. It’s very savory and I’m not even a big eggplant person but it hits the spot. The salted pork tips are excellent too. Big portions and cheap, a solid hole in the wall.

The food wasn’t that good, it was just alright. Chairs and Tables are old and sticky. It was an OK experience until the short hair waitress/​food runner decided to comment on us for ordering so much food. 2 people 4 dishes, «Wow, how can you possibly finish all that food?» Are you serious? Who talk to your customers like that? Later our waitress stood in front of me waiting for me to sign my credit card and make sure I put tips down. Even though their food was alright but I wouldn’t come back again because of their service.

The food was good, and there was plenty of it. The prices are reasonable. My husband was disappointed by the amount of cashew nuts in his cashew nut chicken. He would have liked to have 3 times as much as they put in. I’m now a big fan of lotus.
On the negative side, the service was poor and the room was very chilly.

Very authentic! Will definitely return with other family members to eat again. The dishes were extremely delicious. Just the right amount of sauce and salt.

With an exterior and an interior that look more like a salon from a Wild West movie far from the Chinatown area where Chinese restaurants are conventionally congregated, Chinese American is unlikely to be a restaurant that you would pass by without making a real effort if you don’t live nearby. However, I suggest you make that effort to not only pass by AND also try out this Chinese restaurant for its hard-​to-​beat lunch special!
Let me begin with the price per dish: $ 5.50
As impressive as the low price per dish, the lunch special is phenomeal! Beer-​battered fried crabs or sweet & sour whole fish (that isn’t tilapia)? I was dubious about these along with other choices in the 30+ choice selection being only $ 5.50, but it’s the real deal! The food was actually delicious and came in a respectable portion!
The fried blue crabs and the fried squid were fried nicely, the whole fish was tasty, the fish-​fragrant eggplant hits the spot… All five choices we made did not disappoint! For a party of three, we even took home a little leftover. Total bill: only $ 30!
You want a cheap authentic Chinese lunch? This is the place. Sure, it’ll take more effort to go here compared to the Chinatown joints, but I guarantee that Chinese American’s lunch special is not to be missed!
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tl;dr version:
1) Far from Chinatown with an unimpressive old exterior & interior
2) Amazing $ 5.50 lunch special with impressive selection
3) Despite the low price, delicious food in respectful portion!

We’ve been coming to this family run restaurant for over 20 years and the food continuous to be delicious and affordable. The fried calamari, seafood hot pot, and fried shrimp are our favorites. Highly recommended!

Definitely my boyfriend and I’s go to spot for authentic Chinese food! The exterior and interior of the restaurant is outdated but it definitely doesn’t take away from the food experience.
We have tried the salt toasted ribs, salt toasted squid, beef and broccoli flat noodles, bird’s nest (seafood version and beef version), ma pow tofu, and so much more. These dishes have never disappointed! The food is always fresh and hot when taken to our tables.
The ladies are very friendly and help with making dish selections whenever we’re unsure with what to get.

Holy Shmagoly! Was I supposed to be looking for Cantonese food all this time when I was eating Chinese? I’ve been looking for a new place to pick up dinner every once in a while so I did a bit of Unilocal searching and came across this diamond in the rough. I was well prepared for the area being run down and have always been a fan of hole in the walls so I called my order in as I was leaving work. When I got there, the front door was propped open. I think they were having a problem with the a/​c but luckily it wasn’t too hot outside.
After seeing what people were saying about the salt toasted pork ribs and seeing the pics, I knew that was going to be the first thing I tried. I also got the pepper steak with steamed rice.
As I drive down the street the bag starts to play this trick on me, you know the one, when it opens up & lets out just enough of the smell of food to make your hunger grow to aching pains! Yeah, it was just like a kid with fries in the bag, or me with fries in the bag, I couldn’t keep my hands out of it! I went after those ribs like a beast and they were awesome! Nice little bites with great seasoning and a perfect crispness. Once I got home I really didn’t have any expectations from the steak cause I’ve been disappointed so many times in the past, but lo and behold, they did it right. Who knew I liked black bean sauce? I sure as hell didn’t. And I had plenty leftover for lunch the next day, which is always a plus in my book. So glad I tried this place and I’ll definitely be back! Mh goi!

I knew beforehand that this was a hole in the wall but long establishment. But with the promise of an authentic Cantonese dishes, It doesnt matter!
We had already eaten a buffet bit wanted to sample a few dishes.
Soft tofu balls: delicately spft tofu lightly batter with a delcious sauce. It is a great vegetarian dish yet resembles fish paste
salted dry ribs: well executed dish but I am a sauch rib girl
Fried calamari: the closest version of our fave family restaurant that is now closed. Lightly battered with garlic, and just need a squeeze of lemon
This little gem will be revisited soon!

Grossssssssssssss!!! They have slow business, so they reheat old food! Rice at least a week old, chicken wings horrible. Wonton soup yuck

Food is great that’s all. My family always goes to this place when we have a party or family reunion cause the food is good and relatively cheap for big groups. They been ran by the same family for quite a while now. Just don’t expect good service hahaha. Definitely reccommend for larger groups

So maybe I ordered the wrong thing (spicy chicken and crab puffs) but OMG I had to throw it away it was so gross. I didn’t care about the décor I’ve ate at plenty of hole in the walls with great food. But I could even eat this it was so gross. First I’m very picky but I like white meat chicken especially when it comes to Chinese food this chicken had gristle and fat. The spicy sauce wasn’t spicy. The list goes on. I got white rice so you can’t go wrong with that.
To add insult to injury however the cream cheese puffs were gross. The cream cheese filling had a sour taste to it. SMH how can you mess up a cream cheese puff??? How sway? How?
We need answers.
The moral of this story is just don’t do it. So maybe I need to try one of the pork dishes because all the reviews with high scores here are mainly those but if your like me and pork isn’t your jam then STAY AWAY.

Don’t judge this place by the outside!
Cute little Chinese restaurant. Food here is really authentic if you order from the Chinese side of the menu.
The décor is pretty old and rustic, but it has a warm family feeling to it.
The two waitresses are so nice and friendly! They really take the time to help you if you don’t know what you want.
I ordered the Soft Shell Crab & Spinach with garlic this time. The crab was really good & fried just right. You would expect it to be a salty and greasy dish, but it’s really not. Their spinach is excellent. I’ve seen them actually spend time picking out the bad parts of the spinach out, so customers won’t eat it. I tried this dish at plenty of other places before, & they never do.
This is definitely worth your money. It’s such an inexpensive place to eat, yet the portions are always huge!

As Ahma H. stated, this place is not for those with delicate sensibilities. I’ve been to many Chinese restaurants in San Francisco Chinatown and Flushing, NY. I know what to expect. Most Good Chinese restaurants are only for the food. Don’t worry about the décor and service.
This was my first time here since we recently moved to Houston. We’ve been eating mostly in the Chinatown on Bellaire, but my in-​laws wanted to eat somewhere different. They warned us prior that the food is great, but there’s not much décor. They weren’t kidding. Even being a seasoned vet of Chinese restaurants, I was a little off put when we pulled in.
First the name of the restaurant is probably the most generic name for a Chinese restaurant. The neighborhood it was in was a little dicey. My in laws asked if I wanted to drive my car. I was surprised when they asked since my car is older and doesn’t have the best a/​c. It made sense when we pulled into the neighborhood since they didn’t want to drive a nice car there. However, the restaurant is definitely very dated. A broken Coke refrigerator is used as storage. The chairs are the old red chairs in Chinese restaurants. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it.
Now with all that aside, the thing that really matters is how the food tastes. Definitely go with someone that speaks Cantonese otherwise you’ll be ordering from the «American» side of the menu. The food was delicious and was some of the best Cantonese food I’ve had. Additionally, the service was great. My father in law commented how one dish was a little too salty and the waitress took it back right away and had them recook it. I’ve never had that done at a Chinese restaurant without some attitude from the staff. Additionally, we were the only table dining in at 6pm on a Sunday, and the whole staff was sitting around the front area just talking with us like we were regulars. It did get busier when we were finishing, but it is definitely a clientele of regulars. A lot of people were ordering take out, but I think that was the more Americanized version of the food.
Price wise, this is a very affordable. They had a set menu for 10 people that includes lobster and all the usual for only $ 120.
All in all, great food. I’ll be back.

You are here for only 1 thing. Traditional cantonese food. Everything else is crap.
If you don’t know what you order, you’ll have a bad time.
if you order something that can be found in panda express, you’ll have a bad time.
if you think pei wei is tasty? you’ll have a bad time.
for those that are left.
order the normal dishes that chinese people would get.
salt and pepper pork
black pepper and onion steak
lobster or crab sauteed in garlic sauce
family tofu… i don’t know what it’s called, but it’s lightlfy fried tofu stir fried with veggie and chinese bbq.
again, you are not here for the ambience. a tip is, look for the big table of chinese people speaking in chinese, and order what they order.

I haven’t eaten here over 15 years but went to eat with my kids on Mother’s day. I forgotten how authentic the Chinese food here is. It was reasonably price with huge portion. On top of that, it was super delicious. Look pass the décor and the outside appearance and it’s all good. :)

Have had take-​out here for lunch. Excellent lunch prices and the portion is enough for two meals if you don’t over eat.
Location is in a strip mall that looks like the owner stop caring for the building 30 years ago. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Also the inside has room for improvement, but the food is what your going.

Authentic Chinese food for a great price. My second time visiting here and although it’s kind of in the ghetto, I still found myself coming back.
I recommend going with one of the preset meals, they have them for 4, 6, 8 and 10 people if I remember correctly. My family went with the 6 person meal for $ 40.95 and also ordered a peking duck 3 ways. The duck soup was surprisingly really good, probably one of the best I’ve had. The broth was thick and not too runny like other places. In addition to the duck soup, I really liked their salt & pepper shrimp dish.
I came for a birthday dinner and they do this cute thing where they play the Happy Birthday song in Chinese and English when they know you’re about to cut the cake.

If you find yourself near Chinatown but don’t actually want to eat at anything along Bellaire Blvd, then Chinese American is a decent alternative.
I went fairly late at night, at least after the sun had gone down. The interior is pretty chill — tables everywhere in a single room. Unlike many other popular restaurants, at the time when I went, Chinese American was hardly crowded. Maybe half full, but even then it felt quite empty and spacious. This is a positive if you find yourself unable to handle busy environments.
The food is good, but nothing to really write home about. It’s neither very good nor very bad, and with that said, is worth the cost. Service is also decent, as a person would come by periodically to check if we needed refills on my water or not.
The interior itself is generally tidy and clean — the tables were not excessively sticky or anything else that would be considered a negative. However, the actual location of the restaurant can be called into question. Not being a native, I was caught off guard after exiting the restaurant and being approached by a person asking for spare change. The restaurant is good, the food is good, but the fact that you have to drive a little out to a more questionable location might be a deal breaker for some.

Not for the uninitiated. This is real Chinese Cantonese food. And this place is NO WAY frequented by unadventurous. This is real community food. And great tasting. And it’s reminiscent of food I enjoyed in Hong Kong. YUM! I have been here for quite a few banquets with an average of fifty people each time. This eatery is high rated in this first gen crowd. Wait staff speaks little to no English.
The group I’m with sings spontaneous traditional Cantonese Chinese opera. Really. No, really. The whole restaurant joins in and sings.
It’s an over 50 thing. And all the teenagers are embarrassed. La La La
Too bad.
So, it’s dinner and a show! See my pictures. Come w friends. The stuffed eggplant and tofu w shrimp paste is fully and totally delicious! Don’t share it!
BTW the strip mall looks like a bombed out section of the Bronx. I give the landlord ONE star. How crazy bad is it? I feel like I’m in the Bronx.
The outside of this restaurant looks no better. If there were bullet holes or even a car on blocks to compliment bars in windows we would be in Beruit.
So my Unilocal friends, Beware of the parking lot. Don’t bring your best car.
Got it?

I came here after reading excellent reviews and multiple friends recommend I try it out. I drug my unwilling colleague here for lunch one day and he was actually pretty impressed. The exterior and interior are pretty run-​down to say the least. But the food is what I come for and it really hit the spot. I ordered the Roast Pork with mixed veggies, which was one of the approximately 30 items on their lunch menu for 4.99. It you just want fried rice, it’s only 4.25. The server didn’t ask me what type of rice I wanted, I guess she assumed I was a typical white guy and wanted fried rice… who knows. The only weird thing we encountered is they charge 60 cents extra if you want wonton soup. Still though, $ 5.60 is dirt cheap for a lunch that fills you up these days.

I’ve been here 3 times now. I am happy with the consistency of their dishes, the quality of their food, their prices, and service.
The food: I love the toasted salted pork ribs. They are like pork chops, their probably the same thing. There is a garlic, jalapeño, green onion drizzle on it to cut through the greasiness and makes it delicious. This is a fried product not toasted, I’m just saying.
My kids love calamari so for them I ordered the squid. They really liked it till they came to a piece with the tentacles still attached. They didn’t want it anymore because they felt like they were eating Squidward, in their words «that’s not cool». Gotta love the kids.
I have also order beef with flat noodles; spicy chicken; my kids ordered sesame chicken which is not on their menu but they brought us something (the kids didn’t really like it but it was good, I think it was spicy chicken without jalapenos and sesame seed sprinkled on top); we also had the honey lemon chick this is battered and deep fried with a sauce on the side, reminiscent of sweet and sour chicken with a different sauce; and chicken fried rice. These are over our 3 visits not all at one time.
Each entrée is enough to feed 7 or 8 people. I made 2 or 3 meals out of the left overs. The food is good quality and the prices are more than fair.
The interior design leaves a lot to be desired, it reminds me of restaurants when I was growing up. I would bring a date here if they were understanding. It’s not a place if you want to impress someone but if your date prefers food that taste good over style this is a place I would go.
Service is great, the first time I had to ask the waitress for a refill on my water but now she is very attentive to make sure everyone has water. They are very helpful when ordering and they come to check on us. There are 2 ladies that work the dining room and I give them both 5 stars. One kind of grimaced when my kids went and rubbed the Budda’s Belly. I can’t control them all the time, but I have told them not to do it in the future. Maybe it’s inappropriate I still don’t know. I heard one lady complaining loudly that the hospitality in the place was horrible because her receipt was written in «Chinese». I didn’t even notice on my receipt I just saw that the numbers were correct. I think that customer just felt uncomfortable in general and didn’t really want to be there.
I give waitressed 5 stars.
Food 5 stars
Quality 4.75 stars
This place for me in total 4.5 stars. This is our new Chinese Restaurant, they’ve won us over. I’m only taking away half a star because of the building. But I have never had trouble parking.