Vanloi Chinese Barbecue — Restaurant in Charlotte

Small, take out only store. Strictly meat with accompaning sauce. Chicken and duck are sold by whole bird, pork by the pound. They have two kinds of BBQ pork, whole ducks hanging in window, salt chicken and other offerings (tripe, chicken feet etc.). I came for the salt chicken. They sell whole chicken which you can have them chop into small pieces or not. I decided not to have mine chopped due to some reviews saying they were shorted. The chicken comes with containers of ginger-scallion sauce.

Salt or soy chicken is a dish ive really enjoyed in past in other Chinese bbqs. This chicken by contrast was tough, the skin rubbery, super greasy. Feeding the rest of this $40 chicken to my dogs. The ginger scallion sauce was not what I was used to either - some off putting taste. I make better. So, a disappointment. I might someday try the pork. Or not.

BTW, they charge 2%+ upcharge if you use plastic. They have this posted on the door...

This place is great. They're probably the most consistent with these type of dishes/protein dishes that they offer. I make an hour drive just to come here about 1x a month. I haven't anything from here that wasn't fresh and flavorful.

There's probably only a couple of places in Charlotte that sells this type of food such as roast pork, steamed chicken, roast duck, and etc. People can complain and etc, but there's just not many options especially when it comes to trying to find steamed chicken.

The service here is great though. And the people here are very nice.

The only downsides to this place are the prices. I understand that everything has gone up due to inflation but the prices are pretty high, so expect to pay a...

Buyer Beware

They intentionally cheat you on the portion size. I bought the “whole” duck chopped and when we came home and opened the box, it was majority skin and bones and the best meaty parts were entirely missing from the box. We called back to ask if they forgot a portion of our order at the store but they insisted it was a “small duck”.

From the pieces and scraps they gave us you couldn’t even sew back a whole duck together, it’s missing crucial pieces.

From all the places in Charlotte I’ve been to buy whole roast duck, I’ve never had any stores try to blatantly cheat me and then lie to me about it. It’s a shame that the flavoring is good but it’s not worth being cheated.

Never...