The Alley Connection

Ketchup mixed into orange chicken concoction… Waitress confirmed
Enough said
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Good food. I loved the crab Rangoon’s and the sichuan shrimp. The egg foo yung is also fantastic. I come here often (about monthly for about 8 years) and have never had a bad experience. This is the first place my family and I recommend to out of town guests. Easily my favorite restaurant in the Valley. Also great for takeout.

Just swung by here for a carry out to date a ridiculous won ton soup craving. Somehow ended up ordering beef with broccoli, egg rolls, and Kung pao chicken as well. The woman who answered the phone was very pleasant and gave me a total, which is always nice. Food was quick — I got there about 20 minutes after ordering and it was ready. The smell of the food in my truck was almost enough to make me dig in immediately. Everything was solid — not the best Chinese food I’ve ever had, but on par with what you’d expect from a good Chinese joint in Kalispell. The only thing that left something to be desired was, surprisingly, the egg roll. Maybe I just needed plum sauce. Overall, I’d definitely go back.

Not authentic by any means. Chicken chow mien was slop on top of instant ramen noodles. Im not sure the owner or workers have ever had any type of Asian cuisine since the flavors were all wrong. I give it one star because the wonton soup was good. And the people were nice.

I always enjoy their wonton soup, and szechuan prawns. I also enjoy their beef lo mein very much, the service is fairly good. The only thing that i didnt care for was their combination rice. But the prices are cheap and the portions are big.

I love this place! I have eaten here since I was little and nothing has been disgusting! If you wondering to eat some delicious Chinese food, eat here!

Just moved here and was looking for a new Chinese place. This one is so good. Quick fast and delicious

Hoping today’s lunch was the exception! It was kind of an Asian take on McDonald’s… Fast (maybe TOO fast) overly sweet, gloppy mess, the rice drowned in the various sauces… BAD. Service was friendly and efficient.

They swiped my CC twice and when I went there to resolve it, instead of saying sorry, the stupid owner told me to get out.
Think twice before going there and if you still end up going there, then you are taking a chance to get insulted by the pathetic owner.

The food was ok, but Ive noticed places in Kalispell like to stuff noodles in their egg rolls which this places does with huge amounts, the foods not the greatest out there at all.

Alley Connection NEVER disappoints! The wait staff has been there since before I moved, even when you’re not a regular they treat you like you are… love that! Today the food was excellent again and always, always have the rum cake with ice cream for desert. This is a staple for good, quick food and a great price!

I have had better food in hospitals… bland Sysco food… yikes… truly cannot understand the other reviews…

«The Connection» as many like to call it, is the place I hear spoken of the most by the locals as the favorite Chinese restaurant in Kali, particularly by the older crowd.
Alley Connection is in a neat old building downtown, which I think is one reason it attracts so many. Parking is difficult when it is busy, but there is always a seat to be found inside. It’s appreciated for its cheap lunch and fast, efficient service. Truly, the waitresses here during the lunch hour are on top of their game.
Alley Connection is a pretty good take on Chinese food, a similar profile as Saigon Garden and Charlie Wong, but compared to the other two, it’s a little pricier and seems to offer less portion-​wise and flavorwise. They’ve also been under seasoning their fried rice lately, but rice is never the highlight of my meal anyhow.
They are über fast for take-​out (10 minutes), have a terrifically seasoned Won-​Ton Soup, and their wontons, both fried and dumpling are the best in town. (You know how the dumpling won-​tons get mushy at some places? Well, this doesn’t happen here. And they must change the oil often, because when they fry won-​tons, they are perfection!!) I have to say I’m in love with with their Vegetable Stir Fry Tofu with crunchy noodles too. OMG, it’s so good! My favorite Chinese in town is Charlie Wong, but when I can’t get on the other side of town and I want quick takeout, I’ll hit «The Connection.»

I have been to the connection a few times, mostly take out as the atmosphere leaves something to be desired, IMO. It’s always good and most items are reasonably priced. Be sure to get the egg rolls and pot stickers if you have room for extras!

This is by far the best chinese food I’ve ever eaten. I was recently in SLC and used Unilocal to find the highest rated chinese food place in SLC. You would think a city that size would have at least one great chinese food restaurant, but no. Alley Connection is much much better than the «highest rated» chinese place in all of Salt Lake. I now live 2 hours from kalispell, and still eat at Alley Connection when I’m in town and get a bunch to go to eat once I’m back home. Their chicken chow mein, sweet and sour wontons, sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, and pot stickers are amazing! Their service is quick and friendly, and prices very reasonable. I love the Alley Connection!

OK food at a low price. Solid college student fare.
AMBIANCE: 2.5.
SERVICE: 3.0.
FOOD: 3.0. OK, and cheap.

Delicious food! Hot, fresh, and great service! If I don’t feel like going all the way to Columbia Falls, I go here!!! Great on the wallet and my kids will even eat it!

I can’t tell if some reviewers are being cruel, or are just too ‘foodie’ for their own good.
My wife and i are from a major city in Canada where we have a huge Chinese population, so we eat a lot of Chinese food. Every year were in eat we visit Kalispell we always eat here and always leave satisfied. The ginger chicken and potstickers are fantastic.
It’s not fine dining, but its not pretending to be. Just great food and friendly service.

A lovely woman named Carol served me a delicious chinese dish: Long island scallops with vegetables. I ordered the combination rice and asked for it to be extra spicy. I got the veggie roll appetizer which included a sesame hot mustard sauce. The price was reasonable and the service excellent. I will be back soon

I am not sure where to begin, one I trusted you Unilocalers and can’t believe so many people gave them an above 2 star. They got a two star because they are so damn nice to you in Montana, even when they are serving you a plateful of some flat flavored food.
The town of Kalispell closes up shop at 6pm, so a handful of restaurants are still open. We had their menu from the hotel, checked Unilocal to see what we were getting ourselves into, and then walked the few blocks to get there. They had people in there, good sign. The soup of the night was hot and sour soup. My meal was $ 11.95 and included it, my husband got the family style kung pao chicken, for $ 8.95, they charged him an extra $ 2.00 for soup and another $ 1.00 for what they called fried rice, which had nadda on the flavor.
I was starving to death, so I thought going over there, no matter how bad it might be, it won’t be that bad due to imminent death if I don’t eat in the next five minutes. However, if it was as good as the reviewers said, then Chinese heaven was waiting for me on the other side of that glass door.
The wait staff is friendly and service was good, as I said. The hot and sour soup, she warns us is WAAAAAYYY spicy. That’s fine we tell her we can take it.
The soup was obviously microwaved or it was sitting a long time, it was gelatinous and room temp at best. It reminded me of that Chung King you used to get in the can in the 1970s, mixed with something. It was completely flat, no spice at all, not even the standard vinegar bite you get with hot and sour. I could not finish it, that right there told me it was bad, I can tell you for a fact, I have choked down some mediocre food.
Okay, still in a good mood, the egg rolls look pretty and promising. They had those little rice noodles in them that you see in the Thai wraps, interesting. It would have been really good had there been some kind of flavoring to it. I do not eat hot mustard sauce, and I ended up dipping it in that for flavor. I don’t like bringing the bad mojo to the table, so I was not going to say anything to my husband yet, I didn’t want to influence his dinner. I gave him the other egg roll and he asked me if mine had the flavor since his didn’t.
While we were waiting for the main dishes, they seated a table of three older guys next to us and I heard of the guys tell one of them there was no way he could finish that soup it was so bad, so they brought them the same sad soup.
Our food comes out pretty quickly and I was happy to see some big pieces of chicken for the sweet and sour. The chicken chow mein had big pieces of white meat in it, which might have been good, but they were so dry I got the hiccups. I had two bites of it and it was so soy sauced that I couldn’t finish it. Then the sweet and sour chicken was going to be my saving grace so I didn’t die from starvation right there and then, no it was the same dry chicken, only in a ball form with that same flat sauce I had for dipping the egg roll. I have never left so much food ever, There was no saving it with anything, the chicken was just so dang dry.
Now, my husband is always going to be more diplomatic about bad food than me, and he took a couple of bites off his kung pao and I said, why is it sitting in the dark sauce? He said it was like they poured soy sauce all over it. We were done. That I can tell all you Unilocalers is a FIRST, we are food junkies and both of us have choked down bad food analyzing it with every bite where they cook went wrong, but we could not get this down for further analysis, sorry.
He immediately started looking for another place on Unilocal to go eat, but I was not up for dropping another dime on dinner out, which is tough when you are holed up in a hotel with no kitchen to go home and raid. So, here I sit low blood sugar and experiencing one of the first times of leaving plates of food.
Then it did strike us on the walk back to the room, they had sat us practically on top of this lone guy eating. He asked for his check as they were seating us and he left almost as much food as we did. I can’t get my head around the four and five stars, except maybe there is nothing else around to blow them out of the water. I don’t know. There is a Chinese buffet up the street but we didn’t want that experience tonight, and then there is a chain Mongolian grill up the street about 5 miles or so and we didn’t want chain.
I am glad I got to try something new. I can eat authentic Chinese, complete with sea urchin, which we do at home in Oregon, or I can eat the complete-​candy-​apple red– Americanized sweet and sour chicken. I’ve had it all and I am open minded, but to have no flavor and flat soup that is room temp and reminding me of canned 1970s Chinese food, is where I guess I draw the line? Now I know where the line is, I have do have standards for food, who knew?