China Hut III

Well… here we go. This is my first review and I’m gonna hit you guys up with more in the future. WARNING!!! I’m brutally honest! I was born and raised in Columbia and I’ve seen a lot of places come and go. Mostly, I miss the China Garden in 5-​Points, Sesame Inn, and two other places on Two Notch Rd, which are long gone. It wasn’t that long ago when you went to a Chinese restaurant, it was an event. Places had white table clothes, bright decorations, and music playing softly in the background. Depending on how many people were in your group, you’d order an entre from group A and group B, soup and an eggroll, or order ala carte. So sad that they’ve all been replaced by Wing & Rice places in concrete block hubbles that sell over cooked, tasteless, and fried from frozen eggrolls. Now, where can you get real Moo-​Suze Pork with the wood-​ear mushrooms, Cantonese Boneless Chicken with stir-​fried veggies and a thick brown egg-​foo-​young gravy and fried wontons that won’t require dental work the next day? Here’s the deal folks… I used to eat lunch here two or three times a month because they had the best Ham Fried Rice in town. If they had added a bit more scrabbled egg, it would have been perfect. The rice was served hot at your table with a close to perfect balance of onion, bean sprouts and cubes of smoked ham. The wings are flavorful, but always overcooked, even when I asked them not to cook them to death! This is the main reason I haven’t been back… The owner of this place will talk on his cell phone, yelling at the top of his lungs, for every single minute you’re there. And if you happen to visit here during the summer when it’s 100 degress outside… it may take up to twenty-​five minutes for you to get a cold beverage. It is a shame that over the past couple of years that the quality of the food and the customer service has really gone down hill.

This place is culturally challenged. It’s very confusing to figure out what to order. They literally have 5 menu’s at the tables and then there are specials and a board at the register with DIFFERENT menu items. I’m assuming you can order any of the items on any of the menu’s but I just found this super confusing.
I also question restaurants that can’t decide if they want to serve chinese food, japanese food, thai, or american food. I understand wanting to serve the local clientele but this was just too much!
The food we ordered was good and came out fast but it was confusing to order.

I go to this place at least once a week. It is convenient to downtown Columbia and generally has fast service.
I have tried many, many items on the vast menu. Easier to say the things I didn’t like.
I did not like the fried wontons. They were fried to a crisp and not in a good way. I couldn’t believe they’d served them to me. I sent them back.
A friend ordered a chicken dish that seemed like it would be like Cantonese Boneless Chicken, but it tasted bad, like the chicken was old. She sent it back and got the Pepper Steak.
They change the specials menu too often for me. Keep it the same, folks, please! On the menu now, the two with the shrimp rolls are good. The Papaya Salad special is great, but I would not want to eat only that. It is very spicy and is great to split with one or two other people as a side dish. Very interesting flavors.
Crispy Chicken is good, but sometimes a bit overdone and too «crunchy.»
Friends love the Pad Thai. The pork chop special is excellent.