Mr Chen's Authentic Chinese Cooking — Restaurant in Hoover

Bad Customer Service. My husband and I ate here over a year ago and swore we would never come back because after I finished eating my meal, I noticed there is a long black hair on the plate. On the plate, not on/in the food, but under the food and on the plate! Which means that someone in the kitchen grabbed the top plate from a stack, saw the hair, and still served food on it. How hard would it have been to just grab the next plate off the stack? Anyways, I ate majority of my meal before I saw the long strand black hair that was hidden under my food. We showed it to our server and she immediately apologized, but dropped off the bill and offered no additional service, discount, or replacement for the uneaten portion of my food. She came back later to let us know they were closing and asked us to pay for the meal. We said forget it and paid full price for the meal, but swore we would never go back.

Today: My husband called a few restaurants to order some take out, but almost everyone was understandably closed for the Christmas holiday. Finally, he called Mr. Chen’s in Hoover, Al and places our order. They said the food would be ready in 20 minutes and it was sitting on the counter, ready to go, before I even walked in the door. Unfortunately, I was not aware of the full order that my husband had placed, so when I said I was picking up for our family the man at the register sifted through a stack of receipts, matched it to our order, and nudged the bag towards me as he told me the total. I payed in cash and said that I didn’t need any change. He pushed the bag towards me again and I took the hint to grab the order and leave. They were busy, but they were also over staffed. I said thank you and left.

When I got home, my husband asked me about his drink. I was confused because no drinks were handed to me when I picked up the order. I reviewed the receipt that was taped to the bag, the one that prints out in the kitchen and not from the register, but there was no drink listed. My husband calls the restaurant on speaker and asks about his order. The employee had an attitude until he realized the mistake and told my husband to drive back to pick up his drink. At this point, we were both very annoyed but also kept in mind that today is Christmas and this restaurant is obviously incredibly busy. I took a few bites of my dinner and headed back to the restaurant to pick up my husband’s drink.

After arriving, I again had to wait in line. When it was finally my turn to be assisted at the register I said I was here to pick up the drink missing from the order, but I also wanted to order a tarot slush for myself. The cashier was apologetic and all too eager to help until I said I wanted to buy a second drink. He apologized and said he did not have time to make the second drink. He then walked away and made my husband’s drink. Two other servers just stood there, silently off to the side of the register. Again, yes they were very busy. There wasn’t an empty table in the restaurant, but if two of your servers have enough time to just stand in place while your cashier is too busy to sell and make a 2nd drink, couldn’t one of them have taken over the register for a brief moment or made both drinks while the cashier continued to help the next guest? What about the other customers who were dining in? Were they there without the ability to purchase a beverage either?

I know a lot of people are rolling their eyes at this review, but it’s not like I demanded (or even asked) for a discount or free item. I ORDERED a second drink while holding out my debit card. I also don’t see why it was such an imposition when the cashier had to step away anyways from the register to make the original drink. We’d already paid full price for the original order and tipped them cash on top of that. I just wanted to treat myself after having to make two trips to the restaurant because of a mistake they made.

My advice is to skip this location and to order from the Homewood location instead. The staff there is much nicer and...

UPDATE for 3-16-2025 meal. I thought long and hard about what to say about this meal with my wife and mother on Sunday, March 16, 2025. I have eaten at Mr. Chen's since they opened. I have eaten at least 100 meals here. This particular Sunday was an epic failure for ALL THREE of our meals which I still cannot believe.

My mother ordered curried chicken stir fry. This dish came out golden yellow and LOOKED perfect. However, there was not one molecule of curry in this dish. How can something be advertised as having curry when it was non-existent in this dish?

My wife ordered chicken dry pot which is indicated on "one pepper hot". She can handle more heat but did not want it. However, her meal came nuclear hot. She could not eat it and they took it off the check.

I also ordered chicken dry pot, the nuclear version. The wait-staff all know I like it super spicy and can eat it as such. However, someone in the kitchen must have taken this as a challenge. My dish had so much Chinese peppers that it was crunchy. So hot I could not eat it.

I complained to the manager about all three failures. We have NEVER complained about the food here. He did not seem to care since he did not say anything. I am going to take a year off and try one more time on or about 3-16-2026. And I might not even do this....

For you folks that like to "eat the heat", try their S2 dish. Fish, seaweed, bean sprouts, cabbage, Thai Peppers, Szechuan peppercorns and other veggies in a luxurious broth. We order it extra, extra hot. You know it is "right" when you lips and mouth feel like they are vibrating since it is SO hot! Served with rice and is DELICIOUS! Portion size is LARGE and you get at least 3...

This is our first time to try the authentic Chinese food in Birmingham, AL. We are glad that we find this restaurant. We had the meal around 3:30 pm there. So we only see one active table ordering American Chinese food. We know that authentic Chinese food are provided here!! We ordered durian pie, braised pork rice and steamed bass.

Durian pie榴莲酥: very surprised to see this dessert. The pie is crispy with the durian flavor, although I would suggest that durian can be added more!!

Braised pork with rice红烧肉: this is Taiwanese style braised pork belly. I initially thought it was 卤肉饭，but it was 红烧肉. It is yummy, but I generally don’t prefer 红烧肉that much since it may make me feel greasy and full easily.

Steamed Bass: the price is reasonable with the fish being fresh. It is very tasty, although the sauce may be a bit heavy and salty for me.

Pros: Overall, I am glad to explore this restaurant at a non-peak time. Many specialty dishes are not easily found on Asian restaurants in Tennessee, such as spicy crawfish 麻辣小龙虾 and Dapan Chicken大盘鸡。

Cons: But I would suggest some renovation and more Chinese music to attract diverse customers if they want to promote their business. The price of the bubble tea is reasonable, but we didn’t try it this time. They provide a wide range of dishes, though it is hard to see what the specialties are. We also don’t get enough recommendation from the waiter, although he really cares about our demands during our meal.

I would try this again next time I pass by...