Fun Chinese Cuisine — Restaurant in Ankeny

I really like the idea of this place but I don't know if it's well executed. My husband and I got there a little after 7:00 p.m. and it was pretty busy. We ended up waiting 45 minutes for our food. For a sit down restaurant that is acceptable. This is more of a fast/casual restaurant, however, so I feel like the wait time should have been way less than that. They really didn't have enough employees to keep up with the amount of customers they had waiting.

You order at the counter and pay and then someone brings your food out to you when it's ready. The young girl at the counter was nice and friendly but she spoke too softly to hear her clearly. When my husband paid, the girl asked what amount of change he wanted back. We both stared at each other because we didn't know why she asked that. My husband finally told her he didn't know what she was asking and she just stared back at us. He told her he wanted all of the change back. We weren't sure if she was asking us to do the math for her or if we wanted to leave a tip. The whole situation was weird.

There were three other groups of people waiting for their food ahead of us, plus a line of people waiting to pick up their carry out orders. They had two people cooking plus one person putting the orders together. I think they almost needed another cook to keep up with all the customers that were waiting. The other three groups of people looked like they had been waiting for a long time and seemed pretty unhappy about it. There were three tables and the place is pretty small so there isn't a lot of room for people to sit if they want to dine in.

On the plus side, the food was pretty tasty. I got the braised pork and my husband got the braised beef. Mine was $8.95 and his was $11.95 plus $1 extra for noodles instead of rice. After I tasted my husband's noodles, I wished I had gotten them instead of the rice. They had a nice smoky flavor. They also give you sauces to go with your food if you want it. They had five different sauces to choose from and you could have all of them for free if you wanted. I got the spicy garlic sauce and the braised sauce. Both were good but the spicy garlic sauce was the yummiest. The portion sizes were really good.

I thought this was a chain restaurant because I was impressed with how professional their website and packaging was. One thing I was really disappointed with, though, was how much excess packaging is used with their orders. With every order you get a small reusable plastic bag that the food comes in. I sure hope people are reusing those bags so they don't all end up in a landfill. The plastic silverware comes in a sealed heavy duty plastic wrapper, which seems kind of wasteful. I suppose it's more sanitary but I don't know why the silverware couldn't just be loose in containers near the counter so there was less waste.

Overall, I really liked the food for what it was—tasty fast/casual Chinese food. But I feel like they need to do something about the long wait. This place is way out of the way for me, so I don't see myself coming back anytime soon. But if I were in the neighborhood, I might...

You absolutely must come here. But beware, your standards will go through the roof and you may never look at other restaurants the same way

I have eaten here probably over 30 times and counting. The food is delicious and the servings are generous. Do you see how it looks in the picture? That’s exactly what you will get every time, and it will always consistently be the same as you first loved it

The service here started off exceptional from my first visit and has only become better each time. The value for the money you get here will make you feel like how things used to cost in the good ole days

While the staff do a great job, I really want to highlight the owner, Alan. He is so genuine, thoughtful and truly kind. He has gone out of his way several times by his own accord to bring me my food when he saw me pull up to the restaurant and even brought me water when I was eating in my car. One time I placed an order for myself and someone who has a gluten sensitivity, and he made us feel like he took that just as seriously as we did, if not more. He even called me shortly after picking up our order just to make sure to let us know that one of the items was not gluten free just in case. I just can’t say enough nice things about him, and I wish more restaurant owners would adopt his qualities

And lastly, it’s not just the food and service that is exceptional. The to go bag is insulated to keep the food warm. The silverware is branded, hygienically sealed and premium. Today there was another new addition: a thoughtful sticker that thanks you for being their customer and keeps the bag closed. These things come with a considerable cost to the restaurant, but it just shows how much is selflessly invested into the customer.

Every day, this restaurant improves and I love the creativity and playfulness that goes into all of the branding. This is one of my favorite go-to’s and you absolutely need to...

Great food. Everything was excellent from the concept to the menu to the execution to the packaging. Top notch for a mostly carryout restaurant. The owners are the only two employees and they are very welcoming. The kitchen is wide open and spotlessly clean. The menu is simple and austere. Everything I tried was excellent- braised chicken leg quarter, crab rangoons, potstickers, and the braised beef. I went back again for the braised beef with spicy garlic sauce a week later it was so good.

The concept is simple: Braised Chinese-style meats on your choice of starch with fresh steamed vegetables and sauce of your choice. The vegetables and fried rice are cooked to order but very quickly so there is little wait. The portions are huge and quite inexpensive. The packaging is very classy. Even the standard to go bags they use are woven, insulated, multi-use bags that one would expect to be an extra charge. Nope, included standard with every togo order. The disposable cutlery is sealed in branded, sealed packaging, too.

The menu is small but unique for a Chinese carryout restaurant in this region. The food is much lighter and healthier than run of the mill Chinese-American carryout food, too, if you stay away from the fried appetizers. The owners obviously take a lot of pride in their products, and they should because they are serving really good stuff. Don't expect 100 menu items and neon sweet and sour sauce. It's not that place. It's more like the owners invited you to their home for dinner and offered you something they knew was good but was also approachable to your Western palate. Go in with the right expectations or no expectations at all and...