Red Door Chinese Eatery

Tried the buffet this week on a whim. Whim, meaning, I needed noodles and a lot of them. Unfortunately, I’m probably not going to try the buffet again.
There were a lot of options on the buffet, some familiar, some not. I tried a little of everything. The biggest issue I had with the food was salt. Some foods had way too much, and the rest of the options were bland. The saltiness of foods on the buffet (the biggest offender being the pepper beef) gave me a throbbing headache afterwards because, not surprisingly, I was dehydrated. Combining the bland noodles with the intense saltiness of the pepper beef actually kind of worked. It made the food more tolerable, at least. The only item I would try again would be the garlic chicken.
The owner was eager to please and exceedingly kind, and the décor was fun and comfortable. No problems there.
I will be trying something from the secret Chinese menu if I happen to be in one of my noodle moods again.

I used to like this place, the buffet on weekdays is pretty good but if you come on a Saturday be prepared to eat cold food or to have very little choice because they do not want to have waste so you have to order any hot food a la carte. The steam table is not the correct temperature is sometimes cold and by that I mean cool not just not hot. In my opinion they should discontinue the Saturday buffet altogether because they do not stock it the way they should. Do yourself a favor if you happen to find yourself at the red door on a Saturday order off the menu. THE SAUTÉED GREEN BEANS ARE AWESOME AND ARE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY ME!

They get five stars for customer service.
There was actually a food prep problem with my delivery order. And since I was only in town for a conference, I wasn’t going to be able to walk in to show them a problem.
After I left St. Louis, I still sought to communicate the problem to their management, and they were eager to make it right!
That’s legit.

Just another regular Chinese food joint. Can’t go super wrong with it.

If I could give negative stars I would.
First off I ordered delivery on a Tuesday night. Took an hour to deliver food in which I live 3 blocks away. I ordered two combination plates. Beef and broccoli w white rice and sweet and sour chicken w white rice. I hate fried and the sweet and sour chicken had came with it. That was problem 1. Problem 2 it seems as if the chicken they used from the lunch buffet they just refry any unused pieces and send them with delivery orders. Most of my order was inedible. 3 When I called back to complain that they had got the order wrong they said they don’t have record of my order. Then I said the order was dropped off a minute ago and then they remember. They continued to blame me and yell at me over the phone that it was my problem and not their mistake.
Never will I ever order from here again. Real pieces of sh. t this business is.

Seeing this place as the de facto dumpling/​rangoon spot got me excited. I wanted a light lunch, so I just got pork + cabbage dumplings, the infamous classic Rangoons, and wonton soup. The Rangoons were typical, nothing special to me. The dumplings were tiny, flavorless, and dough wasn’t that great. The wonton soup was $ 3 (way more than most Chinese takeout places) and the wontons were just dough filled with a sliver of fake meat inside. St Louis has really bad Chinese if this place got 4 stars!

Definitely not authentic Chinese food. If you’re looking for cheap, Americanized, all-​you-​can eat dishes, this is the place for you.

They have a pretty good buffet that includes standard fair Chinese food. The lunch rush is pretty mellow with it picking up dramatically after 12. The spacing is wide enough that you can sit apart from other people but not feel like you’re in a canyon.
Take-​out is always fast, usually ready for pick up in 15 minutes.

Wow this is possibly the BEST Chinese food I have ever had! Great price, great flavor & very nice people! A MUST if you want Chinese around here!

The closest thing to actually taking a flight to China. You would be a fool to order of the American menu. Ask for the traditional Chinese menu!
I had tried the Big Rib Noodle Soup which was fabulous and in a huge bowl!!! The broth had so much depth and flavor.
I also tried tripe. It was in this delicious garlicky pepper sauce! Made me forget what was actually in my mouth.
I would definitely come back for more! And Mr. Chow is so cute and sweet! So happy to tell you about his restaurant and menu

About 3 weeks ago, I was looking for some new places to try around the downtown stl area. I came across the Red Door Chinese Eatery & the reviews were good, so I decided to try it out. I ordered the Hot Braised Chicken with fried rice and an egg roll. The fried rice wasn’t what I’m used too but it was cool. The chicken and egg roll were delicious! I’ve returned a few times since to order just the egg rolls :-)

Well… complicated. I really wanted to love this place. Very nice people. Secret Chinese menu on top of regular one for Americans. Tried one of the hot recommended dishes, Shaoze noodles with pork. Also recommended pork and cabbage dumplings which turned out to only have pork. Added hot and sour soup as a baseline test. My girl got shredded potatoes and peppers. It was good, I’m very full and happy, but a bit underwhelmed.
The pork noodles were tasty, but just kind of on the bland side and unsatisfying. The soup was really unusual, and I think good, but something was missing –I think the sourness wasn’t there. The potatoes were decent, but pretty plain and simple. I probably liked the dumplings the best, even if just above average.
It’s probably a 3.5 in my book, just can’t get to 4.

Delivery is usually pretty quick! Food is very hit or miss sometimes. Recently, we ordered a large amount of food. I ordered garlic chicken (a favorite!) But not as spicy. Came gross and flavorless. I couldnt eat it. I have gotten this many times from other places, always the same way and have been very happy. This, not so much. Other food items were ok. Not great.

The general tso’s chicken was good, but it could of used more white meat and less fried skin. The rice was a tad bit cold but it was the lunch rush hour. The interior décor is dismal and could use a facelift.

Great place for Chinese Food! I highly recommend it. They delivered right to our hotel room downtown in good time. The food was warm and of course it tasted great!

The buffet part is standard. ORDER FROM THE CHINESE MENU. I’m talking real Chinese, not the American Chinese stuff (think General Tso’s and sesame chicken) everyone has come to identify as Chinese fare. The portions are generous, and the prices are actually surprisingly good considering the restaurant is located downtown.
Recommended: Shaoze noodles (noodles with a spicy pork sauce, contains diced green peppers and scallions), cold Sichuan noodles (spicy!), ma po tofu. I haven’t tried anything else from the menu but will update the list after a few more visits.
The owners are really adorable and sweet too.
[08/​13/​2015:] Got the X1 (Pork & Cabbage Dumplings) and Dan Dan Noodles to go, and they were great, especially the dumplings. The dipping sauce has just the right amount of (what I think is) rice vinegar. The dan dan noodles were not spicy like I was expecting them to be, but I think I was supposed to specify. Still tasty!

Went here for the first time tonight. Ordered online for pick up. It was empty in there at 7pm. Literally. Not a single person. Kinda weird I thought, but then again, there was a baseball game just starting, so everyone was probably there.
I got a vegetable deluxe combo with plain fried rice and crab rangoon, and the tofu and vegetable soup for 2. The fried rice was good, better than most fried rices I’ve had. Crab rangoon was also better than any other I’ve had. Vegetables included celery, peas, snap peas, broccoli, carrots, and bamboo shoots. It was also very good. I’ve had the veggie deluxe at other places, and it was just as good as any I’ve had.
The tofu and vegetable soup was awesome. Loved it. Had tofu, peas, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots in it. Broth was nice and salty. It says «for 2», and it definitely is when you have it with other stuff. I love soup though, so I would eat all of the soup as a whole meal. This was great soup. I’m not big on eating «junk food» such as Chinese food very often, but I will absolutely be back for this soup again and again. I couldn’t be happier that it’s 3 blocks away.

UPDATE: I originally gave Red Door one star based on the uneven quality of its food. I have upgraded the rating to two stars, because after the owner read this review, he reached out and tried hard to make it right, presenting me with several options, which makes him a class act in terms of customer service. I hope Red Door can consistently achieve high standards with its food in the future and I wish them the best!
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This place is too uneven in quality. Although some dishes are executed well enough, I can’t recommend it.
I ordered the orange beef one night and was happy with that. The beef was tender and moist, yet lean. The portion size was generous, and the beef was only very lightly dusted with a starch coating, making it crispy but not doughy.
The orange sauce was an intricate balance of sweet, tart, spicy, and bitter with lots of shaved orange peel. Steamed broccoli was included, which is always nice with a dish that is otherwise fairly heavy.
I ordered from here a second time and that experience was not good at all. They were out of the pork dumplings I ordered, so I opted to replace them with beef. The beef dumplings actually smell and taste *rancid*! They smell horrible. The rancid odor of beef that has «turned».
The General Tso’s is listed on the menu as «white meat chicken». What I got was all dark meat. It was fatty, and heavily coated in thick breading. I couldn’t bring myself to eat it past the second or third bite.
This place is very uneven in quality, so I won’t be ordering from them again.

+ Fast delivery, food arrives piping hot
+ Good variety of Sichuan offerings
+ Satisfying and reliable
Finally a Chinese delivery place close to my area (Lafayette Square) that doesn’t make me feel guilty for eating. By feeling guilty, I mean that post-​Chinese-​takeout MSG-​thirst and body-​hating guilt that I inevitably feel after eating takeout from other places in the area. I appreciate not feeling like my body is shriveling up from having the water sucked out of my cells from ingesting too much salt or MSG. I could not find on their website or anywhere else whether or not they use MSG so this will have to be a future review update once I do some additional sleuthing.
The food itself is very satisfying. It’s not the best but it’s definitely worthy of ordering for dinner on a night of exhaustion after working an excessively long 13 hour day. Food generally arrives for delivery within 30 minutes, which is much appreciated because who wants to wait an hour for food when you’re starving and didn’t have the advanced planning skills to order food BEFORE you reached starvation hangry status?
I liked that the menu has a nice variety of things to choose from, with meat options ranging from chicken, pork, beef, to seafood, in main dish/​fried rice/​noodle choices. There are your classic Americanized Chinese dishes like Orange Chicken and General Tso’s Chicken and there are also more authentic Sichuan dishes like braised spicy choices, cold noodles, etc. The combo choices are very affordable at $ 6.45-$ 6.65 and come with fried rice and a choice of crab rangoon or a fried egg roll. I’m not a huge fan of crab rangoon but they are nicely sized and come with 4 in the combo. The egg roll is all sorts of fried goodness but do expect it to be oily and not good for you lol.
Re: ordering from GrubHub if you have promo codes to save money — the menu on GrubHub is much more limited and doesn’t include their Sichuan menu.
The delivery guy is very pleasant and polite and will kindly call you instead of ringing your doorbell/​knocking because you have a golden retriever who freaks out and takes his job as faux guard dog very seriously when the door bell rings.

Uh, ew? Service was fantastic (hence 2 stars), but the food wasn’t any better than what you get at any other Chinese restaurant hole in the wall.
The lunch buffet was just alright. I dunno why anyone would give this place 5 stars.