Salem Lowe

This place has been a staple in my family since I was a kid. Family owned and operated, the same people always giving you fast service and a smile. The chicken fingers are amazing. Low mein, friend rice, onion rings… all really unique and very tasty.

We love going to Salem Willows via the Salem Trolley. We ate Chinese food at Salem Lowe on several occasions.
They are famous for their Chop Suey sandwich. To me, it tastes very bland, and I detect a lot of corn starch.
Salem is hurting for Asian restaurants! We used to live in Porter Square, Cambridge where good ones were abundant. So we are anxious to try and give any Asian restaurant several chances in Salem.
We never found the food to be spoiled at Salem Lowe. So that’s a major positive. It’s so busy compared to another Chinese restaurant a few doors down, so chances are there is constant turn over with the food, and nothing is «hanging around.» Hopefully! lol
For $ 5.33 you can get a complete meal with egg foo young, Chop Suey, and fried rice. The gravy for the egg foo young is mouthwatering, but again, thick with corn starch.
When have you heard of a full lunch special at $ 5.33 today! ok, MacDonalds maybe…
Chicken Teriaki is delicious! It’s $ 7.48. We had that on one occasion.
Another point about their famous Chop Suey Sandwiches: They drip so much, you must get it in a container. It’s really NOT a sandwich!
So, the bottom slice of a Bun is placed in the bottom of a styrofoam container, then lots of Chop Suey on top of the bun, filled with corn starch, then the top of a bun on top of the gooey mess of chop suey.
Corn starch is highly processed, so now we’re wondering how much we will want to go here in the future.
We may try the Chinese restaurant a few doors down next time. Perhaps their food won’t be laden with corn starch.

Don’t look like much, the food is awsome and it in willow park and its Beautiful hear the pepper stake sandwich bean sprout Sandwich to die for try it…

So just walking around the Willows and we were getting hungry. For a place this far out man they can cook. The prices are really reasonable and affordable. This is also the only place that a small rice is priced and sized right, so your definitely not stuck with to much leftovers although that’s never a bad thing. Best Chinese food in a long time.

OK, nobody can be dumb enough to come here expecting some kind of gourmet, beautifully plated dining experience. You might be slightly overdressed if you’re wearing shoes, but if you just want to gobble down some cheap and tasty «Chinese» food then dis here’s da place. The teriyaki steak is actually better than most of the «mainstream» full-​service restaurants I’ve been to, and things like fried rice and lo mein also compare favorably to such places… and then there’s the chop suey sandwiches. Ah yes, it wouldn’t be summer in Salem without the chop suey sandwiches. The truth is, the CSS is my least favorite of the menu items I’ve tried there. My favorites are the tender steak sandwich and pork lo mein.
Yeah, it’s junk food, no doubt about it, but it just tastes good and you can sit on the benches and watch squirrels play, fight off seagulls and watch the less polished folk go about their business while you’re eating. When you finish eating you can play some Skeeball and win the crappiest prizes you could imagine. How can you pass that up? I’ve been going there for over 40 years and probably won’t make it another 10 if I keep eating that stuff, but I’ll die happy. Now take the stick outta your butt and give it a try.

Great chicken fingers and rice. Inexpensive quality food steps from a waterfront view. Plenty of benches and picnic tables outside or eat inside.

Love this place, such good food, wait all year to be able to get tender steaks! Finally open for the season and Salem state is coming in herds! I love the small pork lo mein and peaking raviolis! One of the best things about Salem!

I am a fan of the Chop Suey Sandwich, but, if you have not yet, try the teriyaki beef, you know the kind that come on a skewer, and also the chicken lo mien is hands down the best I’ve ever had and everyone I know feels the same. It’s got sort of like a grilled flavor, unexplainable really, but, it is, IMO, absolutely addicting. I only wish they were open all year round!

Pepper. Steak. Sandwich. This place is a city treasure. They deserve a key to the city. Great location. Nostalgic food. Prices that seem to be frozen in time. Go for the sandwiches. Sit on the seawall. Look out at the ocean. I love this place.

Best chop suey sandwich on the face of the earth! They have a wide variety menu and the prices are very reasonable. I had lunch here the other day and it only cost me five bucks! Best chicken fingers ever!

Oh my GOD, I can’t believe people actually like this place. Have you people never tasted Chinese food before? The chop suey sandwich is literally a slimy beansprout pile on a soggy bun. Oozing tasteless cornstarchy sauce and like one molecule of chicken chopped up in the mix. The peppersteak sandwich has the same sticky oozy sauce but this time it’s black. Nothing remotely resembling Chinese food. I think people from Salem were brainwashed to like it as young children.

Salem Lowe is what it is. Fast, WICKED cheap, a bit greasy, tasty Chinese-​American food. Zero stars for amibience … the place is a dive! But three stars for the tasty, though uninspired, fare. And laid-​back owner, Dave Yee, gets the fourth star for just being his pleasant, laid-​back self!
One of our traditional ceremonial rites of spring, is to dash over to Salem Lowe for boneless spareribs and chop suey when Dave re-​opens at the end of March after the long winter hibernation.

Salem Lowe is the greasiest, most Americanized Chinese food I have ever had, and I love it. Maybe it is the childhood memories associated with it, maybe it is the Jew in me. If you take it for exactly what it is, you will be happy. I mean, come on, what Chinese place do you know that sells chop suey sandwiches or pepper steak? I get the same thing every time — #14. For $ 4.65, that is a heaping portion of pork lo mein, chop suey, and chicken fingers. It tastes the same, summer after summer, and prices do not change much either. And this is why I need to walk to the Willows.

If you’re from these parts or you just happen to go to the willows, make it a point to go here and try the CHOP SUEY SANDWICH.
It’s $ 2… get one, if you like it, buy another.
The tender meat sandwich with cheese is another amazing and cheap item you can get here.
My wife HATES the buns here, but you can order the Chop Suey as just a box instead… it’s just as good and it costs a few cents less.
You can come here and get a meal for a family of 3 for under $ 10
Service is surprisingly fast
Don’t miss this staple of the North Shore.
You can’t call yourself a real native of the North Shore if you haven’t had the chop suey sandwich.

Salem Willows is many things. Old time arcades where you play skee ball. Hobbs popcorn. Pigeons all over the place. Gross bathrooms. Amazing views of the harbor. And the Chop Suey sandwich. No it’s not pasta with red sauce and beef. This item is bean sprouts, a little bit of chicken, gooey sauce all shoved inside a hamburger bun served in a Styrofoam container for $ 1.80. Yeah you can fill your belly for the whole day for less than 2 bucks. After you eat this thing you become like a beached whale. It’s not that it looks like it is going to sit in your stomache like a pile of lead, but it does.
But it’s a right of passage to the Willows– to summer. It’s a Salem-​thang. We all know what chop suey sandwhiches are.
4 stars for the value and expierence. Good luck if your stomach can handle this more than on an annual basis.

Okay, I only had the grilled cheese (WOW!!! $ 1.40 !!!) and the egg roll, so take it for what it’s worth, but this place is quick, cheap and tasty… do you know how rare that is?
Amazing Grilled Cheese!!! Lots of cheese, some sort of roll for bread, but they come out awesome on their grill!
The egg roll is amazing, and $ 2 is pretty reasonable for this delectable app. I will be back…

If there were a Nobel Prize for food stuffs, one would surely have been awarded to the culinary genius at Salem Lowe that created the chop suey sandwich.
Forget radiology, penicillin and world peace: this deliciously salty sandwich has done more for humanity than those things combined.
The rest of the items on the menu are your typical chinese take out fare, though generally cheaper than most other places. There’s a few thing on the menu that don’t fit, like the grilled cheese sandwich, but I have no problem with it as it’s tasty and only $ 1.65 or so.
And for those of you that think the chop suey sandwich was created at Coney Island: go ride your little Cyclone and get back to me when you’ve read up on your early 20^th Century culinary history.

It is not fancy by anymeans but it sure has people waiting in line to get some. It has very different options not just your boring chicken fingers and spareribs but tender steak sandwiches. I have been going there since I was a kid. Its a must have for any out of towners just to see this place is great. I can’t wait to bring my kids there.
The chicken fingers are awesome :]

There’s a lot on this menu to explore, and the prices are all about as good as they can get, but the one thing that draws me and friends here every year (other than the obvious attractions) are the chicken chop suey sandwiches served on a simple white bread bun.
They’re still only a buck eighty-​five! And they’re awesome! Not enough to fill you up but two, plus a drink should do the trick.
What more do you want? If you want fine Chinese cuisine, or a place that’s all plush inside, PLEASE, there’s like a million other places…

The first annual visit to «ghetto Chinese» is an absolute rite of spring. Sometime around early April I get the hankering for willows Chinese food. That’s where Salem Lowe comes in.
Everyone raves about the chop suey sandwiches and pepper steak sandwiches. I’ve tried the chop suey and it’s not bad. I usually go for the chicken fingers and boneless spareribs instead. The chicken fingers are almost sweet, as if some of the coating is actually powdered sugar instead of flour. It may not sound good, but it is.