Abu Khalil Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Amman

Ok ok i understand your confusion; how can a chinese restaurant be called Abu Khalil? Well it was owned by a chinese guy 35 years ago, and he named his kid khalil, hence Abu Khalil !

By that info, you deduce that the restaurant is an authentic chinese food experience, and it is!! The food was simply fantastic and halal! Distinctly chinese in flavoring and cooking method!

I came with a friend of mine for dinner. We ordered the spring rolls, the beef dumplings, the seseme chicken, the vegetable noodles, and the chinese tea! All of them were absolutely fantastic!

Lets start with the spring rolls; perfectly fried and served piping hot! (Legit we barely were able to eat them) but good nonetheless! They were accompanied by a sweet and spicy sauce that complimented them nicely. They did need some work on the veggie department like having the carrots and onion slices bigger and sturdier for texture and flavor reasons, but they wete still good so no major complaints.

The dumplings next, or should i say the PLUMPLINGS! big, thicc, and gooy is what i would call them; hearty and incredibly JUICY!! Flavored just right, and accompanied with a good dipping sauce (a bit too much vinager imo but still good). Absolute pillowey plumplings filled with beefy juicy goodness!! A must try in my humble opinion.

Next the veggie noodles.... oh, mi amorè, what can i say about the noodles that will actually do them justice? Should i talk about the lovely chewiness i expect from a rice noodle? The fantastic strips of veggies that were perfectly Al-dente? Or should i talk about the lovely flavors of soy sauce and the WOK HEY !? i asked the manager and he confirmed that the restaurant had legitimate WOKS !! and it shows!! Beautifully smokey and aromatic!! My word, these noodles were amazing! I will try the other protein ones next time for sure!! Though, i am a bit sad that there are no noodle variety there ... but it's such a small complaint as i am rather satisfied by the existing one that i had.

And now comes the chicken. Honestly not much to talk about here. The chicken was normally flavored, and vooked beautifully. A bit crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, with a good sauce to accompany it, but i genuinly expected more after the beautiful dumplings and the fantastic noodles. It's really not much of a criticism as the chicken was good, but it kinda paled next to the rest, but i digress ...

The chinese tea was probably the most delicious, non-sweetened tea i ever had! Not a big fan of green teas, but this one wad lovely, and incredibly soothing. I highly recommend it.

I didn't try any of the spicy options, because my companion can't tolerate any level of heat (such weakness disgusts me XD); hoeever, i intend to come back with other friends that are spice lovers so i can try their other spicy dishes!

My one actual criticism though is the vibe. It felt like an upscale italian restaurant, not a chinese one. They had lobby music ( mainly jazz) playing, and ZERO chinese decorations! It saddens me a bit because i really enjoy the red and gold in these kinds of places ... and ZERO paper lanterns!!! C'mon man i need some china with my chinese food!!

The service was great and the floor manager was very friendly and open!! Great service!! Really nothing to complain about here.

In the end, i HIGHLY recommend checking out this place. Very affordable for chinese food, and a good date...

My first visit to Abo Khalil, Amman's first Chinese restaurant, was back in 2013, and to be honest, I was not impressed. The experience fell short of my expectations, and I formed a negative perception that I carried for years.

Recently, my cousin visited Amman and tried Abo Khalil. When she told me, I immediately said, "Oh, I'm sorry you had to go through such a bad restaurant experience during your short visit!" She was shocked as if am talking about another restaurant, she stopped me and asked me to try again as everything had changed—new management, a full renovation, and a completely new menu. Skeptical but curious, I decided to give it another chance today.

I am so incredibly glad I did. The transformation is nothing short of remarkable.

From the moment we walked in, the ambiance was warm and inviting. The staff were exceptionally kind and professional, setting a wonderful tone for the evening. The food was fantastic—fresh, flavorful, and a world away from my memory of it.

The highlight of the evening was meeting one of the owners, Rakan. I shared my full story with him: my old experience, my cousin's recommendation, and my initial reluctance. He was wonderfully gracious.

This review, therefore, serves two purposes. First, it is a huge THANK YOU to Rakan and his team for their hospitality and for turning Abo Khalil into the gem it is today. My family and I had a wonderful outing, thoroughly enjoying every aspect.

Second, and quite funnily, this is my public apology. I was so wrong to judge the new based on the old. My perception was outdated, and they have more than proven it.

Do not let people old perception fool you. The new Abu Khalil Chinese Restaurant is a brand-new restaurant in every sense that matters. We will definitely be back!

Cheers and let me know what you think after...

Don't go here if you want to eat tbh, this isn't Chinese food and has nothing to do with Chinese food. Fried rice came out white with no soy sauce or even the brown color from frying the rice. Service was non-existent, the atmosphere was classy bar like with no A/C and windows that didn't flow much air (being stuffy and warm). Beef dish was charred and not good, and the chicken dish tasted more like maggi seasoning than soy/asian sauce. Noddles were bland, tbh most of the food had no flavor! I don't recommend going here!

I don't post many negative reviews, and not many 1 star reviews. But I was very very disappointed with this place!

Replying to Restaurant after their Reply:

I ordered fried rice and noddles, the waiter brought two noddles and I told him I didn't order two noddles - I ordered 1 noddles 1 fried rice, he gave me lots of push back / basically called me a liar then came out with white rice, when I asked "is this fired rice?" And he answered "Yes" when it's clearly not fired or has any soy sauce (photo attached).. I believe I gave y'all lots of opportunity to fix something - also no service was provided, we were the only party there, not even asked how the food was! I'm glad you enjoy your version of Chinese food, but I have had chinese food cooked by authentic Chinese chefs and this had nothing to do with Chinese food, sorry to blast your bubble. I wish your business all the best, but it's not for me. As I said I'm very...