KC Chinese Rotisserie Restaurant

They serve very authentic teo-​chew style Chinese food. My bf and I both hands down to their duck dishes! Try it, you will have no regret. Also, they serve Macau style pudding desserts. Personally, I love their caramel crème brûlée and egg pudding! I will definitely visit this restaurant again when I drive by St Loius next time.

Small business run by a couple from South-​eastern China. If you’re looking for authentic Chinese food in St Louis, this is an excellent candidate. That they don’t speak English does not diminish any friendliness but only adds more authenticity. The only English speaking person is their daughter, who graduated from WashU and now is a dentists. The chef is a nice person, but you may have to know how to communicate with him. I overheard that if you can’t place your order (either by using Chinese/​Cantonese or by finger pointing), the chef he might simply invite you out.
They have the best and most authentic Chinese food. Their food may not be good for the breed that likes sweet sour chicken or broccoli beef. Here you won’t find American Chinese food. The food is as authentic as that you can get in Southern China. Roasted duck is a must-​have.
I once asked the lady why they do not expand their business by recruiting local people and diluting the authenticity (adding some American Chinese food). She told me the chef would rather cook some true Chinese food than reconcile with the reality. I guess it is humiliating for him to «insult the Chinese culinary art» and make profit by cooking American Chinese food, it’s blasphemy to him.
The only complain is cash only.

yum. this place has been on my list to try for FOREVER! Finally, bf and I got around to trying this place because i’ve been too lazy to cook.
You walk in and there’s a counter with ready to eat take-​out type food. I didn’t get any of that. The lady is SUPER nice and welcomed us. I told her it was our first time there so she told us where the rice and congee etc was. All of that comes with ordering dishes.
We sat down and spent a while deciding on what to eat. the bf got a dish that they lady warned use would take half an hour to cook. we decided to get it anyway and waited. TOTALY worth it! Rice and a good amoutn of mix-​ins were cooked in an earthern ware pot. Some of the rice was crispy and there were sweet chinese sausages and a good amounts of soy sauce in all of that food. YUM.
I love duck and so we also ordered the crispy duck. It was AMAZING! The perfect texture and yumminess! I am LITERALLY DROOLING.
The rice adn congee were fine but the self-​serve tea was a little weak — we were some of her last customers so i guess it was more like tea-​scented hot water than tea… but that’s ok. I didn’t need the caffeine at that time anyway.
Next time i come, i’ll have to try the taro duck… and maybe we’ll come for lunch.

Not a fancy place, but definitely the BEST Chinese restaurant, EVER.

I came here to celebrate as a belated birthday lunch with friends who come here regularly for the authentic food and good prices. It was my first time there so they had to explain to me how everything works here. This is a little hole in the wall on Olive and even though I’ve been to the Chinese restaurants on Olive dozens of times, I never discovered this one on my own. The menu is in Chinese and English, and you have to order ahead for some of the entrees on the list.
We ordered the beef pot, oyster pancakes, veggies, and Chao Zhou style roasted duck. The beef pot was my husband’s favorite; it came steaming hot with tender beef and sliced radishes that melt in your mouth. I enjoyed everything but I loved the veggies, which were flavorful and fresh, and the roast duck because it was crispy and well-​seasoned with numbing peppers (not sure what the pepper is called exactly). My friend’s favorite is the oyster pancakes, which are stuffed with oysters and green onions. The texture is different from what I’m used to but I enjoyed the oysters.
After you order, there is a little rice/​bowl/​plate/​utensil bar. It’s a help-​yourself-​type of bar and we got our own rice out of the huge ricecooker, chopsticks/​forks, and plates and bowls.
We finished the meal (with leftovers!) and went to check out the dessert selection in the glass displays. I ended up splitting the mango pudding and so yummy! Not too sweet, and the mango was still fresh. As others mentioned, it’s cash only.
I’ll be back again to try other foods on the menu!

I suppose many people think this place is «authentic Chinese» because of the:
–old Chinese couple who actually cook just-​in-​time for each order by themselves in the little dingy kitchen instead of outsourcing to illegal immigrants
–small/​dingy/​exposed kitchen that screams authenticity, along with all the zero fucks given to interior design for the «hole-​in-​the-​wall» feel
–grab-​your-​own dusty mismatching disposable utensils, screams cheap, I mean Chinese, I mean authentic
–international students that eat and speak Chinese here, must be a legit hideout
The old chinese couple who owns this place are nice people (but still rip you off with what they charge). They’re quite flexible if you want to make a request off the menu (like hotpot if given advanced notice).
However, I can get far BETTER tasting Chinese food elsewhere with NICER ambiance and CLEANER/​sturdier utensils for CHEAPER in St. Louis, on that same Olive Blvd.
Or I can just save my money, go home and have my authentic Chinese mom cook me something much less greasy, more flavorful, and with love.

UPDATE: Try the sweet and sour chicken (I’m serious).
KC is hands down THE most authentic Chinese restaurant in the St. Louis area. (FYI, the profile photo is not for this business. It is of Jia Xiang, a smaller Chinese restaurant next door, which also has solid authentic food).
KC and Jia Xiang are the reasons that I haven’t set foot in LuLu (across the street) in years. Both places have been relatively «non-​user friendly» to non-​Chinese speakers in the past but they both have English on their menus these days so if you can’t find a native to go with you, you can always resort to pointing at items on the menu.
KC serves Chao Zhou style cuisine. Chao Zhou is a city in eastern Guang Dong province, which is where Cantonese cuisine originated. Cantonese style food in America gets a bad rep because the Americanized version of it is what every Chinese take out place offers, almost always super greasy, with heavily breaded mystery-​meat and thick sauces. But the real Cantonese cuisine is much more sophisticated, well balanced with complex flavors, and almost never greasy.
Early Chinese settlers in the US came from Southern China. As such, Cantonese cuisine is the first and most prevalent Americanized Chinese cuisine. This is the place to visit if you have always wondered what is the authentic version of Panda Express (although you won’t find many of the same dishes here because they simply don’t exist in China).
I have lived in the US for a long time and have gone to many Chinese restaurants over the years. But I can count with one hand the places I have visited that served truly good food (as in if the chef moved camp back to China, his business would flourish nonetheless). KC is one of these places. Definitely try their stewed/​marinated meat. On my last visit, we got the stewed meat sampler, which was delicious. However, the sampler does include things like intestines, so probably only for adventurous eaters. For entry-​diners, the soy bean chicken is tasty and I always like just simple vegetables dishes here.
There is zero atmosphere and service is often hurried (because the chef often has to take orders himself and cook at the same time). It’s semi-​self service. You grab a bowl from a stack and get rice from two big cookers by the door. One other interesting thing about KC is they make a variety of desserts in the dirty-​looking friges behind the counter. I don’t remember if the names on the frige have English translations or not, but honestly, it’s almost impossible for me to tell which item in the frige corresponds with which name. So order at your own risk as we normally do: P

Solid Chinese food. But there’s a caveat. Stick to the Cantonese dishes (so sweeter dishes, fried dishes, etc.). We ordered a couple Sichuan and northern dishes that night and those… didn’t quite turn out the way they should have. Specifically we ordered the fish-​fragrant eggplant and mapo tofu. When the eggplant was brought to our table, I looked to my left at my friend who’s family background is also from northern China and we literally just gave each other the same questioning look as if to say, «Is this actually the fish-​fragrant eggplant that we ordered???»
It wasn’t a terrible dish (drowned in oil though, which was kind of big turnoff), but fish-​fragrant eggplant is just one of those classic dishes that you want to be done right each and every time that you order it and to not get it that way is a disappointment. Fish-​fragrant eggplant is usually served a little spicy and there was no spiciness in this dish at all.
I loved the atmosphere of the place. And not because it’s some classy establishment with an awesome interior design but because it’s the exact opposite. They have a TV going on in the corner and when we were there, the owner’s family was getting around the table to eat dinner themselves. The place itself is well-​hidden. I probably would have never even noticed this place if my friends hadn’t told me about it. It’s also self-​serve rice and tea. It was just so homey and made me miss China a lot.
Our party of 8 came out to be $ 100 + tip, which is a little more than I wanted to pay. I don’t know if it was just because there were some big eaters at our table that night or what exactly happened. There was about $ 15 of private drinks and stuff that just ended up getting lumped in so for the food itself, it was probably about $ 10…

In my opinion, this is arguably the best Chinese restaurant in St. Louis. You always hear about how hole in the wall restaurants have the best food and this restaurant definitely fits that line of thinking. This restaurant is Chao Zhou cuisine, which is a type of Cantonese cuisine. While this is not the cleanest restaurant, the food is excellent. I never thought Chinese food could be this good in St. Louis, especially since I come from the Bay Area. For a while, this place did not even have an English menu. The owners pretty much only speak Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese), but now with their new menu (courtesy of a Wash U grad student), you can at least point.
Food:
Very good. This place is definitely catered family style for larger groups, but they have a smaller menu for individual orders (soup noodles, fried rice, etc.). They actually have a special menu that you need to order 24 hours in advance. You can call in, but you need to know how to speak Chinese.
Recommendations:
Chao Zhou Style Roasted Duck, Soy Bean Chicken (sorry paraphrase), Pork Ribs, Salty Fish Fried Rice
Misc: Cash only, but the prices are very reasonable. Helps if you can speak Mandarin or Cantonese.
Bottom Line: If you want good, legitimate Chinese food at very reasonable prices, come here by yourself and with a group of friends (8 max).

Came here with the bf last night. My very first time, & it was good! Most of the dishes were a bit spicy, but it’s Southern Chinese cooking. So, it’s typical. Anyways, the food was delish! There’s a self serve counter for rice & tea. Like the previous reviews said, there is a menu in English. But, if you can speak Cantonese, that would even be better. Cheap & helpful staff. This place reminds me of restaurants in Thailand, low key & no a/​c. Kinda draby in terms of décor, but the Chinese décor makes up for it. It’s a hole in the wall, which makes it thumbs up for me.

I’d like to let it be known that this place has since expanded and now has a menu… in ENGLISH!
How does this help?
I have no freaking clue.
The guy still doesn’t speak any English, and I’d imagine there would be some finger pointing on the menu and some nods and potential for thinking that one pointed at the OTHER menu item…
Regardless, this guy makes my favorite roast duck. It’s on the fatty side and isn’t crispy, but he will take it for a stir fry (Chao Zhou Style Duck?) that makes it pretty gosh darned tasty.
So there you have it. Now you know this place has a menu in English and, hopefully, the guy’s daughter’ll be in to provide any suggestions, as SHE speaks English. Now that it’s getting colder he’s gonna start making that peanut nougat candy again… awesome…

I thought twice about writing this review because I really wanted to keep this place a secret. They get my five stars not because of the taste (that should only be a 4 star) but for being my reminder of home (SF) style chinese food. The cost is really good and we usually order extra so we don’t have to cook the next day.
This is a very casual home style, serve yourself, family restaurant. It is owned by the chef and his family. The chef is from Macau and can make some really good dishes. The problem here is no real menu and just chinese letters on the wall. If you can speak chinese always ask what they have FRESH or what they suggest and accept their suggestions. We haven’t gone wrong yet and we come here every other week.
Our favorites include the soy based marinated foods «lo sui» (duck, tofu, beef, a few other items too depends on what they have), this fried taro dessert that only this chef can make right with a unique coating, pork spareribs with various different sauces (they must braise the ribs forever because they are so tender and tasty), also when they have fresh fish it is really a nice treat. Their clay pot dishes are also wonderful depending on what they have fresh-​always best to ask.
If you have had enough chinese food you would know that «wok hai» = the heat used to cook the foods and the inherent heat retained in the food when it is served is extremely impt to the final product and taste of the dish. KC definitely has that down.
Rumored by some of my friends who come more often, they have a really special menu that if you order a few days ahead the chef can prepare have that ready. We tried their shrimp balls one day — it was some left overs they had for another pre-​ordered dinner, and it was so good it was gone is less than 2 min and we were fighting for the last one.
He also makes this candy that is like a soft nougat and very yummy.