Old Li‘s Restaurant — Restaurant in Charleston

Thank Google for selecting me to do this review! I was so excited to come here today. When looking at the menu items, it was esthetically pleasing. The one criticism that I have about the menu, is that they need descriptions of the food. Putting a picture up there can be misleading. For example, if I order Sweet and sour chicken, describe it. Breaded chicken fried in sesame oil and glazed with sweet and sour sauce. Comes with white rice or doesn't come with any rice. I rate the menu a 2.5. it's esthecially pleasing, but it lacks description (written) so the buyer knows and does not assume what they're getting. I had ordered the Drunken Pork Ribs (spicy), Hot and Sour soup, and an Egg Fried Rice. The Drunken Pork Ribs were a 3.0. They were okay Honestly, I was expecting them to taste a lot better than what I tasted today I didn't realized that it would be supplemented with diced potatoes. I thought the whole entree was the pork ribs, but that isn't the case. 1/4 of the of it was diced potatoes about the size of the pork ribs. My first bite was a rib that still has flour on it. I tasted flour. So, I'm assuming the restaurant fried the ribs first.... Needless to say, I was a little disappointed. Hot and sour soup was a 3.5. it was good. I had Hot and Sour soup from other establishments that felt like a warm hug. This didn't, but it still satisfied me. Hot and Sour soup is an acquired taste. Egg Fried Rice was pretty good. I rate it a 4.0. I purchased this because I wasn't sure if white rice came with my Drunken Pork Ribs. I had to purchase this separately. I wish they had the add on rlFried rice for this like they have for some of their other options. My rice wasn't 'over egged' and it suited me. I don't like eggs unless it's boiled. Adding a little fried egg doesn't take the flavor away from the rest of the veggies. Before I forget, the back that my items were placed in is soook cute! It's functional and not just cute! It keeps your food warm. Finally, I will try another item menu ( probably Sweet and Sour Chicken) and if it's good, then I will be a...

DO NOT ORDER THE HOT AND SOUR BEEF SOUP BY YOURSELF!

First time customer here. I made a huge mistake and ordered that. I saw it on the menu and was like sure Ill take that. Looked amazing. Maybe I didn't read well enough because what I didn't realize was it's meant to be SHARED. They come out with a huge bowl of soup and I mean HUGE bowl of soup. This is enough soup to feed a family of four. The guy that served it to me looked at me funny. It was at at that moment I knew I messed up. However. I am not one to back down from a challenge.

I dived into the soup. Ladle after ladle of soup I drank and ate my heart out. After damn near fifteen minutes of eating the hot and sour beef soup, I noticed I barely made a dent. I had gave it my best shot. I fought the good fight. But in the end, the soup won. In fact I have a massive container of it at home with me still waiting to be eaten, there's so much I feel like it will go bad before I can even eat all of it. The pictures I saw on the internet made it out to be an average bowl one person would eat from. It was not.

If I could give it a 10/10 I would.

But in all seriousness though, it was very delicious. But if you come here, be careful of what you order. Maybe bring a friend, or five as...

Finally a good Chinese restaurant in Charleston. There is no other Chinese food like this in town.

The quality of the ingredients and preparation are high. The people are pleasant and accommodating. The restaurant is clean.

Saliva Chicken and the soups are wonderful. Can’t wait to work my way through the rest of the menu.

*July 2023 update * We ate at Old Li’s again last night. The soups are a big part of the menu. They are really large and very good. Each soup is a unique dish rather than a generic broth with different proteins.

They have changed the name of the Saliva Chicken and added a large format menu with pictures.

We also ordered the Fatty Intestines. I don’t care what you think you like, order these and eat the whole thing. Intestines can be funky if they are not cleaned well. These were super clean and in no way an acquired taste. We will be ordering them again.

The restaurant was very kind to our child too. Most of the menu is prohibitively spicy for a baby but they do have chicken wings and dumplings; everything a kid could ever want. The entire restaurant family was there and their kids helped entertain our kid. The owners were very kind and friendly despite our child squirming around and...