Chou's Kitchen — Restaurant in Chandler

Overall: 10/10. Food is incredible, better than my mother's cooking (please don't tell her), and GET THE SOUP DUMPLINGS.

Ambience: 10/10. Not too crowded, tables with sticky-note number labeling, clean and homey. It's every Chinese restaurant ever, with red leather booths, framed clippings with ratings, awards, magazine covers, and a splash of random art. It's perfect.

Food: 12/10. Impeccable soup dumplings/Xiao Long Bao/小笼包/Steamed Juicy Pork Dumplings, you absolutely have to try them. If you've never had them before-- wait for them to cool a bit, place one into a large soup spoon, nibble a hole and drink the soup from the spoon, or eat it in a single gulp and burn your entire mouth with hot broth. Either way is fine and deeply satisfying. They're made by chilling broth into gelatinized cubes and incorporating that into the filling, which means that once steamed, the broth becomes a delicious liquid inside the dumpling. If you don't pick it up delicately enough, you may tear it and lose some soup, so if you can't quite get chopsticks to work, just use a hand to pick it up and put it into a spoon. We also had mapo tofu (which has the numbing Szechuan peppercorns-- so it isn't really spicy), eggplant, potsticker dumplings, skewered toothpick lamb, and scallion pancakes (across two occasions). Everything was excellent, no complaints, but of course, the soup dumplings are the stand-outs here. The best part was how cheap it all was-- came out to around $15/person. 10 soup dumplings were only $10.98! An absolute STEAL for the amount of work that goes into them and how delicious they are. They also have an incredible chili oil (more finely ground than 老干妈/Laoganma chili oil) at each table.

Service: 10/10. Service isn't overwhelming (they do not come by every five minutes to check on you), but they are attentive enough to notice when you're finished, and are quick with the check. If you're shy about your Mandarin, you can order off the menu in English or with the menu numbers.

Facilities: 9/10. Bathroom is located in the back, adjacent to the kitchens; the area in the back looks a bit dodgy and dark overall, but I was pleasantly surprised by the bathroom. It was clean, smelled nice, and had a hand dryer that actually dried my hands (a bit like a jet engine, but effective, with a UV light as well). No paper towels, unfortunately.

Overall: I've been here twice now, and it's going to become part of my monthly routine to stop in, particularly for soup dumplings. They are an absolute show-stopper. I think about them at least twice a day and the next time I'll be able to get them. GET THE...

Food is good but the service is terrible, especially the tall girl who always seems mad. I've been here many times because the food is good. However, the service is disappointing. I never got my water on time. I had to remind them to get water when I already got my dish last time. My husband is also a Chinese food lover, but he refuses to go back already because of the bad service two times in a row. He worked as a server when he was in college yeas ago and it annoyed him that the service is so bad and they don't seem care.

A young Chinese couple next table got a soup which is too plain so they asked the waitress if she could add a bit salt in it. The waitress asked them to just add vinegar or soy sauce which are available on the table. The young lady said there is no salt on the table and I don't want soy sauce. The waitress didn't do anything. Instead, when the waiter came over, the lady told the waiter again. He helped them out. While everyone was eating, the waitress talked very loudly with the staff. It was annoying.

I...

I came here for dinner and ordered my food I ordered a chicken dish an egg drop soup and rice. I started eating and found a very long hair in my chicken I picked it up and it was connected to 5 pieces of chicken all twisted up. The lady said she would remake it. I said no thank you as it just ruined my wanting to eat there. I finished some of my soup and left the whole plate of food on the table with only 1 bite eaten. Went to pay and they still charged me for the whole plate of food. I said that it was on the table uneaten and she said I gave you 10% discount. I was totally upset by this I didn’t say anything else I paid left a tip and left. That was the worst service I have ever had at a restaurant. I understand that mistakes happen but to charge me for something that had hair in it that I didn’t even eat is wrong. By the way I have a short hair so couldn’t have been mine. I am 68 years old and have can’t believe they treated me like that over a mistake they made. Cute little place and food looked amazing but the...