Lee Kitchen — Restaurant in California

When they first opened we tried several plates and weren't happy at all. We got a bland oily and many were a cold mess not even luke warm. We had gotten some noodle dishes and some dishes with rice. Mongolian beef and such. Was not expecting cold oily food. We ordered a lot of normally safe dishes. Mongolian beef, chicken chow mein, orange chicken, broccoli beef, and others. A couple years goes by and we decided maybe that time was just a bad day, so we try it again, and it's still not something we'd recommend. The broccoli beef... normally a favorite ...the broccoli tasted like raw fish and some of us got sick. A long time many months go by and we decide to try it A third time. Someone close to us recommended the egg rolls and so we got them and broccoli beef again...The cabbage was spoiled in the egg rolls. And again fish contamination on the broccoli. So these 3 times we rated 1 star.

Fast forward years to current times August 2023...we've gotten food twice in the last month...

One time my husband picked up food and Surprise! Everything was hot and delicious! We didn't encounter any fish contamination or cold oily bland food. We're very happy with this 4th try. We had one spicy dish that didn't have spice. The pork friend rice was hot but not very flavorful it was probably a 3 star dish because it was just ok. But everything else was very tasty.

The second time this month, on our 5th try of Lee's Kitchen, we ordered home delivery and door dash delivered this week.

We had two dishes that were oily and bland one was chicken chow mein the other was a sauteed vegetable that was coated and floating in oil. One star maybe a 2 star for the vegetables because they were tasty, but the oil was so excessive it was nauseating.

We also ordered mushu pork, while tasty by itself, it was missing a key component to the dish: No Plum Sauce in the door dash delivery. Mushu pork is always coupled with crepes and plum sauce. The plum sauce brings the final element of flavor to the dish. So no plumb sauce, so we didn't use the crepes, the plumb sauce is not only flavorful , but it also helps the mushu pork stick to the crepe for rolling the crepe like a mini burrito. The other dishes were very good and we were very happy with them. Orange chicken is very good. Chicken curry was also good. I especially liked that the food was hot and not cold on delivery.

The order my husband picked up recently I would've given 4 stars there was even an eggplant dish that I liked and I normally don't like eggplant even though I'll eat it. So I'd recomme6y6nd this dish and I'd eat it again. The kung pow chicken wasn't really spicy as expected. It was tasty but we missed the spice.

The door dash order Is 3 stars because 2 dishes that were a 1-2 star and 3 dishes that were 4 stars, but one was missing part of the dish so it was incomplete.

I'd love for the times we had really good dishes to be more consistent. This place...

I'm assuming they changed cooks during covid. Every time I order, the food is bland. I even ask for extra spicy with hot peppers added and get no flavor.. or any visible peppers added. I started eating orange chicken because the sauce had good flavor and was made with real oranges. You could see the orange peels in the sauce. It was citrusy & delicious. Now the sauce is comparable to sweet & sour. It tastes like it came out of a bottle. It has been this way the last year I've ordered. Trader Joes frozen mandarin chicken is a better choice from now on. I keep trying different dishes, but no luck getting something I want to reorder. I usually have to add ingredients at home before eating. Really sad because this was my favorite restaurant for 5 years. I'm convinced they lost a good cook in the last few years. And would not be surprised if they use some premade sauces where they use to only use house...

I placed my order online, and the staff was polite over the phone, which was nice. They told me it would be ready in 25 minutes, which seemed reasonable during the dinner rush. However, when I arrived at the restaurant nearly 30 minutes later, things went downhill. There was no greeting or acknowledgment, and I ended up standing at the counter for over 10 minutes without anyone checking on me. When I finally asked about my order, they said it would just be a few more minutes. After waiting almost an hour in total, I finally got my food.

The price was okay for the portion size, but when I got home, the order was completely wrong. I was too tired from all the waiting to go back, so I just gave up. On the plus side, the food itself was really good, but the service and organization were frustrating. Hopefully, they improve on wait times and staff...