Chin’s

This place is really cool inside. Definitely a very nostalgic, classic Chinese restaurant feel.
I came with a coworker for lunch. We have worked across the street for over a year and finally decided to give it a try after seeing good reviews here.
Let me start by saying their lunch specials are a great deal, and they’re delicious. They cme with soup, entrée, rice, and egg roll. I had the Kung pao chicken which was very flavorful. My coworker had general Tso, which was interesting because it came with umbreaded chicken. Other than that observation, there were no complaints.
Great service, great atmosphere, and great food for the price. I will definitely be returning.

When walking outside of the building, it looked as if it wasn’t open. When I walked in, it was me and one other person. the décor had a Polynesian feel to me. It felt to me as if I was eating in a hut. It was very dark and hard to see the menu. The server came over right away. She was very friendly. I got the almond boneless chicken and it was very good. It came with soup chinese crunchy noodles, fried rice and egg roll. I believe it was 6.25 and for that amount of food it was a great deal! Although the atmosphere was not my favorite, the food was very good. I will come back in the future.

As far as American Chinese goes this place is pretty reliable. I remember eating here in the 60’s with my family. If they made a different egg roll I would consider 5 stars. We eat in and carry out. Good service either way.

Awesome! Classic, feel like I’m back in the 60s-​70s. The waitresses are great!

Ehhhh, the food was lousy. I didn’t bother getting a carry out box. We had a volcano drink which was fun. Is go back for drinks and the décor, but certainly not the food.

After watching «The Search for General Tso» on Netflix, I went on a search of my own. For an old school Chinese place I remember from childhood– Chin’s.
Chin’s is exactly the kind of chinese food place described in the film. The menu is full of ‘chinese food’ choices that would appeal to timid American palates in the early to mid 20^th century, after many Chinese in California, who were treated very poorly (by Americans there who likened them to nothing more than aliens from another planet) decided to relocate all over the country in small towns where they might have a better life.
We both got classic not-​even-​remotely chinese lunches: me– Almond Boneless Chicken (AKA ‘ABC’) and other half Steve– Chicken Chop Suey. Chop Suey was the dish a long, long time ago that was invented by enterprising chinese restaurant owners to appeal to American diners, who were otherwise afraid of what they might actually see hanging in the kitchen! ABC, is, well, batter fried sliced chicken breast with gravy and a little sprinkling of almond dust. And brown gravy! Nothing chinese about it. But it’s delicious and if you really want an authentic, 1950’s style «chinese» food experience, these are the kinds of dishes you get!
My 5 stars are for the authentic mid-​century experience, including its time capsule interior– a full-​on Tiki bar experience, complete with waterfall (does not work but it is there), Tiki gods, authentic looking décor and rug that looks (and sadly, smells) like it’s been here this whole time. What drinks have been spilled on this carpet… if it could only talk.
It does look like a place from another time, when local Mad Men era businessmen, race track execs and horse owners (the Detroit Race Course/​DRC was right around the corner) and pilots and stewardesses from Metro Airport would come and drink fruity boat drinks and smoke up a storm and listen to island music and dream. You still can! At Chin’s!
****Chin’s is one of only a tiny handful of businesses (on the strip of Livonia on Plymouth between Inkster and Farmington Rds) still standing from my memories of visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Livonia as a kid in the 70’s, it has an iconic retro sign we drove past over and over again. ‘Why didn’t Grandpa ever get dinner THERE?’ I wondered. Perhaps he would have enjoyed a few too may tropical tiki drinks, looking back! Hey, for 10 bucks more, you can have a cool ceramic Tiki glass, just like in the 50’s!***

To sum it up in one word, this place is disgusting. Plus the bathroom smelled like a raw sewage treatment plant. I will never step foot in this dump again!

At first for me, I thought this restaurant was a Polynesian restaurant. Because, the Polynesian totem poles are displayed out side and the interior looks a real Tiki hut bar. I thought that this restaurant was «Chin Tiki grill» in Detroit downtown on «8 mile» movie. However, everything is just Chinese food?! Taste is not so bad but, the taste is so rich and thick. Everything is almost same taste. I’m so confused.

Zero star! The worse Chinese resturent. Service was slow, food wasn’t good as other reviews stated. We order something and we got different order that has pork in it WHICH we clearly told the waiter «make sure that there is NO pork/​ham/​bacon in our order» and he conformed!!! Idiot…

Old School chinese food at it’s best, when they want to make it correctly anyway. Mammasan has been in business over 50 years and makes the good food I grew up eating, not the healthiest but the tastiest. Keep it up mammasan… hopefully jr, won’t change anything too dramatically when mammasan is gone but not forgotten.
The duck sauce has gotten too thin and watery over the years though.

We have been coming here for YEARS! The décor has not changed and neither has the food… consistently fabulous. The egg rolls are as large as the tikis outside welcoming you in. They have the perfect amount of bean sprouts, waaaaayyyy better than cabbage!
The Cantonese fried shrimp is jumbo in size with light and fluffy breading. As a matter of fact, all breading on all the dishes are light and fluffy… yummmmmm. Splash on the sweet and sour sauce and now you’re stomach is smiling!
Happy to report that we carry out all the time and have not had any issues/​mishaps or incorrect orders… just delicious, hot goodness!
Please give it a try and tell your neighbors. Chins is definitely a small business worthy of our community patronage.

Husband loves it, I like it just fine. We get carry out and also dine in, depending on the day. Tonight, I’ll be picking up too much fried rice and too many egg rolls because we don’t want to cook!
I recommend it if you’re in the Livonia area and looking for some classic Chinese food. Egg rolls here are GREAT.

Best thing about this place is their egg rolls and that was about it. Chicken fried rice and sweet and sour chicken nothing to write home about. My sister who’s not afraid to out back some food couldn’t even finish her plate it was so bad. Inside of the restaurant was trapped In a blender with LSD and the 70s

I called for a delivery and when it never came (45 min later) I called back to ask where it is I was informed they do not deliver. This place does not deliver despite the information on there website that takes your address.

I have never had a bad experience here. The food is great, the ambience is pretty cool, and the prices are fair.
One thing I’ve never understood… no matter what time of day, or what day of the week, I’ve never seen more than two other tables full.
It’s a shame. That means a lot of people are missing out

Do you like bean sprouts? LOVE bean sprouts? Then Chin’s is your place because that’s all that was in the eggrolls that came with our meal, which gave them an odd chewy/​crunch texture. My mom had the Chop Suey and she said it was also oddly full of bean sprouts and not many other veggies. I’m a lover of crispy orange beef, so I ordered the orange beef (which is not crispy at Chin’s), but there wasn’t anything orangey about it until my fork scraped the plate. My meal tasted good, but it wasn’t what I was expecting or hoping for. Neither of us were blown away by the food.
Our server was nice and the service was prompt. Prices are fair. My quest for an awesome Chinese restaurant continues…

The décor is indeed cool. Looks like inside of the old Polynesian resort at WDW in Florida. I want the chair — it’s like the kind Mortita sat in on the Addams Family.
The food is below average. Sorry, folks. These glowing reviews on here are delusional. I’ve never had such flavorless food. Avoid the almond chicken — comes with a bowl of tepid gravy with no almonds. The frozen Chinese kits in a grocery store for $ 8 taste better.
Is the AC always broken? I get that it’s 100 degrees out, but a few ceiling fans aren’t cutting it (why I voided spicy Schezuan).

Not by the hair of my chinny chin Chin!
I came here with my best friend on a saturday evening. When we pulled up I noticed the outside of the building looked a little older. The building itself doesn’t look like a place you would stop at on a whim. We pulled up and went inside. Again while walking up to the door and even after stepping inside it doesn’t look like the type of place you would expect to have good food, or even food for that matter.
Once we got in and walked up to the Hosts’ area I was really excited. The inside of the place is so cool. It’s like a hidden tiki hut with colorful art with dim lighting. I lived in LA for over five years and for a minute I felt like I was in a trendy hipster place in Los Feliz. This place is awesome. Just stepping in the restaurant you might not feel like you’re on the beach but you definitely forget you’re in Michigan. There’s plenty of seats and even thought half the restaurant is separated by seating it still has an open feeling. When we arrived there was only one other table, two people, in the entire restaurant. At first I thought, I bet the food sucks.
THE FOOD
Boy was I wrong. The menu isn’t huge but it is a decent size. The American options are brief but the Chinese options are a plenty. They also offer specials so it’s not too expensive. In fact we both ate for $ 35, that includes an app and two drinks. Yeah we be drankin! I ordered a zombie from the short but solid drink list. It was good. I had the sweet & sour chicken, egg roll and hot & sour soup. All were great. The chicken was tender and everything tasted homemade and fresh. No fatty, veiny nasty, mystery meat in my chicken. Just hot fresh white meat chicken. AWESOME. Literally some of the best egg rolls and hot & sour soup I’ve ever had. Nothing unique just solid and fresh in taste. VERY GOOD. Fuck panda express.
THE BAD
I wanted another drink but our waitress was nowhere to be found for most of our meal. In all honesty I think the service suffers because of the lack of people. For instance we got our menus and the waitress asked if we were ready to order before we could even get them open. I wish I was exaggerating but I’m not. Ok not a huge deal. Then our waitress brought us two glasses of water. Cool but the waters were in seriously small glasses and she did NOT give us a refill or even offer one.
We would have asked for one and another drink but after she dropped off the food… she never came back!
The waitress and the business lost out on money because I wanted to drink and I was not driving. I hope they read this and fix it because the service was OK at best. I understand you might not be getting a lot of tables but fuck man offer a god damn refill for fucks sake.
When our waitress did come back it was to bring us the bill.
I will return. However I hope the service becomes good. It’s not bad but it needs some improvement. This place has so much going for it so hopefully we just got a sub par waitress.

Décor is awesome
Service is great
Food is fast and for the most part great-​Agreed w/​the another reviewer about the fried rice.
All in all solid… B+

Sure, you’ll get a mess o’ decent Chinese food. But that is NOT why you go to Chin’s. GO FOR THE DECOR! If you’re in the mood to bask in pure crazy kitschified tiki goodness 1950’s style, this is THE only authentic place I know of left in this area besides Chin Tiki, their former sister restaurant downtown, sitting vacant and in darkness when it’s not being used in Eminem flicks.
Though much smaller, Chin’s is fabulous and COVERED in tikification from the stone figures outside to the lights-​in-​pufferfish fixtures to, well, everything.
You will giggle with delight, lost in moai and bamboo.