China Express — Restaurant in Arlington

I think the quality of China Express has deteriorated each time the eatery has undergone a management change. Ordered online at 6:25 pm on a Sunday night and website indicated order would be ready in 10-15 min (6:40 pm latest). Arrived to pick up order at 6:55 pm; order not ready and they had not called to say they were behind. Waited and order finally ready at 7:35 pm, an hour and 10 minutes after I had ordered and 55 minutes after the promised time. And they weren’t busy; only two people arrived to pick up orders while we were waiting — both of those people had to wait for their orders, too. I think they are woefully understaffed in the kitchen.

And the food. It was ok but not great. The moo shu vegetables, which we order every time we order from this restaurant, were missing an ingredient. I suspect it was soy sauce. They had very little taste and were much lighter in color than normal. The veggie spring rolls were filled with a vegetable paste, not diced vegetables, and they had little taste. The other entrées we ordered that evening were not very good either. One that had scallops, crab, shrimp, chicken and beef had only two shrimp and no crabmeat.

It’s the closest restaurant to where we live, but I don’t think we will order from...

GREEN PEPPERS in Szechuan Beef?!?

First and LAST time I order from China Express. Ordered General Tso’s and Szechuan Beef, my two standard go-to Chinese dishes. When the food was delivered, the Szechuan Beef dish was over 60% green peppers. Green peppers?!? In Szechuan Beef??? And not a few of them - SO MUCH green peppers that it was the MAJORITY of the dish.

In my 5 decades of eating Chinese, I have never seen green peppers in Szechuan Beef. I double-checked the website to see if they listed this ingredient in this dish - they do not.

I figured this could be an easy fix. I called to get a replacement dish, as I cannot eat green peppers. But their response was that they always put green peppers in it (although not listed as an ingredient on their menu and also as an obscure ingredient for this dish), and in their opinion That is That. Deal with it, customer! Period. She actually argued her point. So much for customer service. A simple replacement dish would have...

I feel like this is one of Arlington's best kept secrets.

Food: 5 The food is FANTASTIC! And it's almost all gluten-free, including their orange chicken and soy sauce! (though they do have wheat in some things, so super allergic people should still be careful)

Price: 5 The prices might look high to some people ($12 after taxes for one entree), until you realize one entree is enough to leave you full for at least two meals.

Service: 4.5 I've only ever worked with the lady who owns the store, but she's super nice. The only potential problem is she's actually from China, so her accent might be hard for people to understand if they're not good at understanding different accents than their own. It's not a super heavy accent, though.

Atmosphere: n/a It's more of a takeout restaurant than a sit-down restaurant, so atmosphere isn't really a thing. However, if you do want to eat there, they do have two small tables you can eat at and they'll...