China One — Restaurant in Flint

So let me start this out by saying I understand there is a bit of a language barrier involved here, and I would not presume to know more about Chinese food than the people who themselves make the food, I am but a simple white girl. But after this last experience I'm left feeling a little more than confused.

I have eaten here maybe a dozen times, I'm honestly not that into Chinese food, but my friends and family are, and this is a very close location. For me, the food has always been... well, just about average. Never had anything that stood out to me in particular as being all that interesting, but my best friend loves the sweet and sour from there. So that was what we decided to get for dinner. But then we decided maybe to try something else, just to be different. Chow mein, y'know, that noodle stuff they have at Panda Express (which I know is not a great point of reference for authentic Chinese food, but if you've ever had Panda Express you know what I'm talking about). We see there's chow mein and lo mein and we're not sure what the difference is, so we google it, like most people would. They are both stir-fry noodle dishes, but chow mein is a dry noodle, while lo mein is cooked in a sauce. Okay, sure, makes sense! So we ordered the chow mein.

Now, on the phone, I was asked if I meant lo mein, I'm assuming they must not get many orders for chow mein (especially considering what 'chow mein' is at this location), but I did specify, no, I wanted the chow mein with the noodles. The conversation ended, we picked up our food.

Once returning and checking everything out we notice that... the chow mein... well, it's not at all what we expected. It was... just chicken, celery, onion, bean sprouts.... maybe some cabbage? Not entirely sure. And what they will refer to as a "white gravy", really it just... kind of tasted wet.

We mull it over, on whether to call about it or not, but it's really just... not even edible, so we figured it was worth a shot. Now the woman I spoke to, again, there's a bit of a language barrier here, I try to explain that I had wanted the noodles with the chow mein, and she explained to me quite... curtly, that chow mein is not noodles. Which I found strange... because if you google chow mein... it... well, if you just look at the definition here "late 19th century: from Chinese chǎo miàn ‘stir-fried noodles’" it literally means stir-fried noodles. So... okay. That didn't really make sense. Now if she'd said that their particular style of chow mein did not come with noodles, I'd have maybe been a bit more understanding. Sure, people make recipes their own all the time, but she quite specifically said chow mein "is not noodles". So, I thought huh okay and I started to say that on the menu it had said you had a choice of hard noodles, but she cut me off and said... there was no menu, which also confused me. Ultimately she told me that if I wanted noodles I needed to order lo mein, and that I had ordered the wrong thing, and that basically that was my bad. And if I have trouble remembering to ask for "chicken and noodles" and they would know what I meant.

So, ultimately, I just... said okay great thanks bye and that ended the conversation. I've wasted money, and time, and more or less been treated like I had no idea what I was talking about.

A solid two stars for having edible sweet and sour chicken that my best friend enjoys. But I certainly won't...

Food is 100% garbage! I am so disappointed. All of the food i ordered was HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE! The egg roll, the shrimp roll, the crab Rangoon and egg drop soup was the worst Chinese appetizers I've ever had in my life. Seriously! HORRIBLE! HORRIBLE! HORRIBLE! Everything smelled awful and was hard as a rock. I am so disappointed that I wasted my hard earned dollars on a sack of GARBAGE! I think this is the first time I've ever had Bad Chinese food. I am giving this review to help someone else spend their money on something better. Down the road at Court Street and Center Rd. The restaurant is Empire Wok. It's in the same lot with T-Mobile and i think there is a Lowes, too. it's right across from the Mall. If you like delicious and fresh Chinese food, go...

I regularly order the Szechuan Beef dinner and crab cheese rangoons. And there's a reason for it. It is always made very quickly, hot, and freshly cooked; it's not premade and thrown together. It is consistently amazing.

It is a great portion for the price, I usually get 2 meals out of it. The meat and ingredients all taste fresh and delicious. The sauce specifically is so tasty. The free side egg rolls are pretty big, always crunchy, and again taste fresh.

And always, no matter how busy or how rude people are to them, the staff are always very smiling and friendly. I encourage anyone in the area to give this place a try, I've not been disappointed by anything on the menu, especially anything with shrimp, but I always go back to my true love the...