Chen's Kitchen — Restaurant in Bourne

Service was fast. Food was ready in about 15 minutes.

I got three things - I will briefly review each.

hot and sour soup: flavor was on point...texture....weird. They used way too much thickener. Not sure if it was tapioca starch or guar gum or whatever but regardless....a clear soup shouldn't be like...gloopy? for lack of a better term. I would have much preferred this soup to have no thickener at all. It was just texturally unsettling. Like I said though...flavor on point and plenty of mushrooms and perfectly cooked tofu.

crab rangoons: not impressive. It was lacking something in the seasoning department, not sure what but I definitely could rank at least three places that I prefer for rangoons in the area. Also they use thin wonton wrappers in the triangle shape if you know what I am talking about? They aren't like little purses and it isnt the thick but crunchy wrapper type that krua thai uses. They are okay but nothing to write home about.

lo mein: best in the area by far. I will continue to go to this place just because the lo mein was so good. I don't like a heavy, greasy lo mein. This was like the perfect balance and they gave just enough meat. Really excellent. The only way I can dock points is because the spicy mustard is in a packet and not that spicy....this seems to be the theme on cape or close to it, so I guess that is normal? Not normal where I moved from...but that is literally the most minuscule complaint ever.

overall I would go back just for the lo mein but would not order the soup again that is...

Saturday Eve, Memorial Weekend 2024. My second time here for take-out. First go-round was decent enough to justify a second visit. Big mistake!

Pork Fried Rice: Rice grains were inadequately cooked and crunchy. The pork was I assume from left over scraps - very dry, tough and somewhat stale to taste.

A signature dish, called "Marco Polo" according to the menu features shrimp and "tender beef".... I have one question: Is any one missing a horse? The meat in a dish like this is usually cut into bite sized pieces or strips. In this case, there were tough random sized chunks ranging from almost bite-size to ridiculously large and requiring a knife. The noodles in the dish were either soggy dry chow mein noodles or undercooked noodles of some other who-knows-what kind. The few shrimp encountered were acceptable.

I must also comment on the Egg Foo Young gravy. While I don't generally expect much from Chinese restaurant gravy, this stuff was obscene! It was a sickly, pale brown color and thick enough to stand a knife up in. Pasty to taste with lots of not so lovely, undesolved clumps of thickener flour or corn starch.

I could go on & on, but I won't. In summary, there was a serious lack of attention and care that went into the preparation of our entire meal. For $66.00 and change this was a big mistake. I'll not be going back......

The food is ok, cooked fast, and they're opened late. We did take out. The customer service was horrible. I went in to see if they could substitute an item. One lady said yes. Another lady said no. Then they decided to belittle me in their native tongue thinking I didn't know Chinese. The boy who was the cashier was just chuckling at their comments and tried not to make eye contact with me. I would've just walked out but I had small kids to feed and they were the only ones opened at that time. So i bit mh tongue and just waited for an answer. Working in a chinese restaurant before, I know how easy it is to even make the substitution and did not think their nasty attitude had to be added with it. I paid them the extra $3 substitute charge and didn't make a big fuss but I'm hoping they see this review and do better on their customer service. If they didn't want to make the substitution, they could have just said no. It was that easy. Hoping they give other customers a better attitude. And mind you, I am a very nice customer. So for me to leave a negative review, your service or food has to suck. And in this case it was...