Chen's Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Albuquerque

Horrible food. I can only guess a lot of the 5 star reviews here are fake. Unless these customers have no idea of what quality food tastes like. I was told that many years ago this restaurant was doing well. But like many restaurants, a lot of them fall by the wayside due to management either losing their way or just not caring at all anymore. The food was so disgusting most of our pick up order went straight into the trash. We feel that we were taken advantage of for what we had to pay for this food that should not have even been served, needless to say we will not be returning. Sesame “chicken” - was it really chicken? The small, dry, shriveled, overcooked, poor excuse for so-called chicken, looked more like either pieces of beef jerky or cat feces. it was caked and sauce so much so that that was pretty much the whole meal. A good Sesame chicken will be fresh and tasty, with quality white meat. Not at Chen’s. It is obvious this dish has been cooked stored, re-cooked stored again, reheated and reserved numerous times. It should’ve gone in the trash along time ago. It was absolute garbage. Eggrolls - burnt on outside, mushy in the middle, bland, oily. Another food item that has clearly been reheated, stored and reheated again numerous times to the point that it is no longer digestible. Won Ton Soup - smelled like rotten meat. We have a small dog that usually will eat anything, however, he would not go near the soup that we ourselves were not even going to dare to try due to how bad it smelled. The soup had pork in it and was completely rancid. the dough around the wonton meat was so mushy and gooey which again points to this meal having been around for a long time meaning that it was cooked weeks ago and just kept cold until it was time to reheat it and send to us. Absolutely disgusting and very insulting. Pork fried rice - I’ve lived in many states in the US, and I’ve been to many Chinese restaurants in my life, not one of them has ever failed to deliver a decent fried rice dish until my experience with Chen’s. Dry, mushy, flavorless, and, you guessed it, was probably cooked weeks ago stored, reheated and reserved. God knows what the kitchen practices are for this place and I would think a health inspector should probably go take a look around because there’s no way that these products are being stored properly for them to look and taste so poorly. This particular meal made my husband very sick. He only had about 1/4 of it, and we threw the rest in the garbage. Every restaurant has an opportunity to do the right thing and take the responsibility and measures to create fresh, tasty, affordable food for their patrons. Unfortunately, there are many restaurants out there that have lost their way and are no longer interested in what would be best for the customer and instead are just merely going through the motions and serving trash but charging for value. This has been my experience...

My family followed our favorite waitress from the Shanghai Restaurant in the early 80's to Chen's. The 80-90s was the heyday for Chen's. Their food was THE best in town. As the parents started stepping back so did quality. It was still the best in ABQ and could compete with any big city Chinatown restaurant. The past five years the quality has been going down at an alarming rate. My favorite dish Beef with Black bean sauce should have it's name changed to Green Onions with Black Bean sauce with a smattering of beef. So many onions it's nauseating and you end up throwing away half the dish because of the onions. My biggest complaint has got to be the pathetic amount of rice given. Teeny tiny boxes. If you want more rice you must pay close to $3 for a regular size box. Come on guys it's rice for crying out loud! I know profit margins are tight in restaurants but this is ridiculous. Especially when paying $10-15 per entree give a little rice. When I commented about this I was rudely told that Chen's has always done this. I think not. No, I know they haven't. Do you think my Depression era dad from NYC would have patronized a Chinese restaurant that charged for rice. Hell no. I know things change and the new generation has taken over but Chen's is more than a Chinese restaurant it's an Albuquerque institution. Some of us remember what it was and maybe it will never be the same but your job is to at least strive to be even better. Stop being complacent and Chen's can be bigger than ever. You have the repeat customers who still go hoping that this time...

I took my family, wife and daughter, here for the first and last time. Walked in and some guy behind the counter yells at us to sit anywhere we'd like. Not a fan of yelling, especially at me, across a restaurant. We sit to check out the menu. Pretty expansive listing. The decor is not impressive and leaves the impression of uncleanliness. There is an elderly couple at one of the dinner tables working on a literal mountain of peas. Not a fan of food prep in the dining area...seriously who does that? We were immediately served water and there was no more communication for about 15 min...despite me staring at the waiter crisscrossing the restaurant. He finally takes our order after taking the order of someone who arrived after us...again seriously? I was impressed at the speed with which our food arrived. That should've been a red flag. I ordered the Orange Chicken. It didn't look quite right. The chicken looked liked fish in a fish and chips meal. It didn't taste like chicken or really anything...no taste at all. The Orange part of the meal appeared to be some kind of orange marmalade out of a jar. My meal was extremely disappointing as was my families. Hopefully, this was a one off experience but the three of us didn't enjoy our meals...so not likely. I've litterally eaten chinese food all over the world. Sadly, this ranks among the...