Chong Fah Restaurant

I’ve been coming to this place for years, it was my parents and spot for Friday family night. They have the best chinamen ever, the people are so friendly, and the service is great. I highly recommend this place. They just need a take-​away menu.

Easily the best «Chinamen» in STL. No more needs to be said. Best rice, best crab Rangoon, best everything. Amazing soda selection. Good service. It is indeed in the «hood» which is why it’s so good probably. Wouldn’t go after dark lol just kidding. Lived there my whole life, no problems.

I’m from stl and black. This rice is good.
You can call in orders except for right before close.
My order: whole order special fried rice with no shrimp.
It’s stl rice.

People who talk down on «cheap, American-​ized» Chinese food don’t know: this is some of the best food you could possibly eat.
I think part of the problem is that people are going to the wrong places. As a rule of thumb, the sketchier the area, the better the Chinese food. You go to a Chinese food restaurant in a nice area and you get rice that tastes like it could almost be healthy, with peas and carrots and shit in it. The main ingredient in fried rice at a hood Chinese restaurant, other than the rice itself, is grease, glorious grease. The only real vegetable to speak of is onions — and if you notice, because you had to sit around for a while, because you didn’t call in your order, almost everyone who orders fried rice from a hood Chinese restaurant orders it without onions. Hardly anyone doesn’t have some sort of special order or request. That’s because people who live in less fortunate areas don’t have very sophisticated palates.
Never go into a restaurant and order something without onions.
I went into Chong Fah and ordered a half order of pork fried rice, a shrimp St. Paul sandwich and an order of crab rangoon, all of which came to just shy of $ 10. So much for cheap! Granted, this was quite a bit of food. The bag weighed roughly a metric fuckton. It was nothing for me to put down, but then I’m somewhat larger than an NFL linebacker, if not quite as athletic. Still, if I were you, I would order all three of these items and, if necessary, split them with somebody or save some for later. Because all three I think qualify as «essential.»
The fried rice pretty much speaks for itself. How are you going to go into a hood Chinese restaurant and not get fried rice? The only person who could possibly have an excuse is the city health inspector. I go with pork, because pork is arguably the best meat there ever was, and because I don’t feel right paying a surcharge for shrimp when it’s not the best quality shrimp, straight from the oil-​soaked Gulf of Mexico. But I do get the shrimp in a St. Paul sandwich, because I find it to be delicious. Something about the cooking process leads the shrimp to taste more like actual seafood than it does in the fried rice. A St. Paul sandwich, in case you aren’t familiar, is essentially egg foo young between two pieces of white bread. As far as I know, it’s a St. Louis original, as is any other Chinese dish involving Wonder Bread, e.g. fried rice with gravy and a side of white bread. It sounds gross, but so does any number of other things I’m sure you’ve enjoyed…
Crab rangoon might be Chong Fah’s one real weak spot, other than location and clientele. A deep fried won ton can only ever be but so bad, which is what keeps me coming back, but the filling is not the best in the world. I actually enjoy the more cream cheese-​like filling at some of the aforementioned «nicer» Chinese restaurants than the paste-​like filling they use at Chong Fah. But what are you gonna do?