Hong Kong Cafe Restaurant — Restaurant in Denver

Okay...here we go. This is the worst chinese takeout I have ever had. We are from out of town, staying in a nicer hotel then we are accustomed to where the room service entrees are 25+. We both had the hankering for chinese takeout instead, a cost effective solution. We ordered online and then picked it up at the store. Right away, it seemed off. There were two wooks (essentially dirty vagrant hippies) loitering right next to the door. They were most certainly on either acid or boomers, tripping hard playing with dandelion puffs that were floating in the air and also blasting cigs. Made it uncomfortable to enter the store because they looked me directly in the eyes, and I also did not want to ruin their trip. Seems like they were enjoying themselves, however Hong Kong Cafe, from a professional point of view it would maybe be best to not scare customers that aren't as accepting. The wifey chose to stay in the car. The interior was beautiful, packed with plenty of locals who seemed to be enjoying themselves. This was very misleading because the food was terrible. School cafeteria level asian cuisine. We got back to the hotel after braving a massive thunderstorm, excited to get comfy and enjoy our meal. We went with our usual order, sesame chicken, teriyaki chicken, side of fried rice, and pork egg rolls. ~40 dollars. Typical. We get to the room, pull out the food, and are shocked. It looks like hot garbage. The "teriyaki chicken" looked grey and rubbery(see attached photo with added sauce). No seasoning or flavor at all. Sauce on the side, not cooked in. The vegetables seemed fresh but hardly cooked. Odd crunchy texture to compliment rubbery, bland chicken. Didnt even eat a third. Wifey's sesame chicken was slightly better, but that's not saying much. The sesame chicken was soggy. Flavorless. Requested spicy, came out sticky sweet. No crunch whatsoever, breading was basically useless because it was so soggy. The entire dish was a one dimensional flavor note, faint sweetness. They provided no napkins, two packets of soy sauce, a half full cup of mustard (see pic), no forks or chopsticks so we had to borrow from the hotel. The lack of sauces provided made it impossible to save the lack of flavor within the dishes. Egg rolls had good, crunchy outer texture but with similar grey paste on the inside. Wifey ended up eating trail mix for dinner. Overall, theres a chance that it is a completely different experience dining in. Maybe the chinese american food is not their best and it would be better to get authentic Chinese and Cantonese dishes. Even if this were true, the disparity between dine in and carry out is absurd to the point where I would not even consider giving this establishment my business. Lesson learned here, never trust chinese carryout when traveling. Stick to what you know and eat you local, trusted take out place (shootout East Garden in Milwaukee). When I return next year for phish, I will absolutely not come here and warn...

I have gotten take out a few times from here. I never order late, but tonight was different. I placed an order for the latest time offered, 8:30Pm. I got a call at 5:37Pm, about 17 minutes after placing my order, because I had gotten the last 2 numbers switched on accident. I really appreciate the food and the service I usually get. I even said so in my note to the kitchen in my special instructions. I will also include that picture in my review. However, tonight I got 4 phone calls before 8:30Pm for my order. I showed up at 8:32Pm. Google says your takeout and delivery is available until 9:30Pm, but everywhere else it shows up on your site as closed at 8:30Pm. That's where it was confusing to me, as I only saw that closing time of 9:30. I'll post a picture of the times listed on Google, and show where underneath that part where the times are different. I am sorry. Again, this was my first time ordering with you this late. I don't appreciate getting the 4 calls before 8:30. If I had known you close takeout when you literally shut your restaurant down, I would have done what I could to get there earlier. Restaurants generally close their takeout 30 mins before their restaurant closes. This caught me off guard. I am sorry I didn't see the closing part properly. I have worked in restaurants all my life, across this country. This, was a first for me.

It may help to update the Google situation to be reflect all the proper times, if you could possibly help fix that miscommunication, it would have made the difference for me. I literally live behind your restaurant in that complex, and was doing laundry down the street. We were there and gone from your restaurant before 8:34pm. That situation didn't make me feel very good. I did tell you, when you called about the card information at 5:37Pm, that I was ordering late due to emergency laundry I had to handle, and I definitely tried to make it worth your time with over a $7 tip. Apparently that wasn't good enough. We are moving at the end of this month, anyways. I guess that's where I'll leave this. Thanks anyways, for the good food. For a dollar shy of $70, that was a bit too much for tonight. I'm...

I decided to branch out from my usual Chinese delivery place. I'm glad I tried something different but I wouldn't say this will be my new go-to. Some things were really good while others fell very flat.

The crab cheese wontons were a winner. Definitely a good crab flavor (not chunks of crab inside but not just basic cream cheese that's calling itself crab) and still crispy even after being delivered. The steamed dumplings were tasty as well. There wasn't a ton of filling in each one, but I still somehow managed to devour them all.

I also decided to try the noodles with beef brisket in black bean sauce. Based on other reviews, it seems to be hit or miss as far as fattiness of the brisket. I would say about 30% of the pieces of brisket had large fat chunks on them. I tried to shred up the brisket and remove the fat before I ate it, but a few pieces slipped by me. The flat rice noodles were a little mushy but the black bean sauce was good.

The shining star of the order was the shrimp wonton soup. The broth was flavorful on it's own and the shrimp wontons were jam packed with tasty shrimp goodness.

Something that really surprised me were the vegetable egg rolls. They had absolutely no flavor. I love egg rolls. I've been known to order just egg rolls and nothing else. But these? Bleh. The only vegetable I saw inside was one shred of a carrot. Maybe if you get them with pork or shrimp they would be better.

My estimated delivery time was 45 min-1 hour and it was delivered in just under an hour. The delivery driver called me when he got to my apartment building and he was really nice even after having to wait for a minute in the snow.

Overall, I'd be willing to try it again but I keep coming back to the egg rolls. The precious, crispy little things I normally love with every one of my taste buds. I could never frequent an establishment that claims to be a Chinese restaurant when I know they have...