Ambassador Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Houston

Let me start off saying that I have heard about Ambassadors for a long time, highly recommended by friends. I finally was able to check it out.

We ordered: Wonton soup, egg rolls, pork fried rice, and orange fried beef.

Quick Food Summary: My guest and I just felt that it was lacking flavor overall. Flavors were VERY light on ALL dishes. We used way more "sauces" than we have compared at other restaurants. For example, the wonton soup broth? No bullion, no shreds of pork, the broth taste like flour water, no exaggeration, the wontons were also very small. I usually drink the broth, here it was just noodle water, so I did not. On the main entree (orange beef) I did take some home, and ultimately tossed it out (which never happens with Chinese), I tried adding more sauces at home and just couldn't get it up to par. Our fried rice is more like an entree to us, not a side, rice itself wasn't bad 3/5. *If I came back, I'd order the rice and egg rolls only. Eggrolls are handmade, I really liked the texture of the shredded cabbage, they fill them well.

Venue: Very nice, I felt music was a bit loud (jazz) but otherwise very inviting, I can see this being a cute date night place. It has low lighting (nice), and despite lots of people dressing a bit casual, you can dress up and still fit in into the environment.

Customer Service: If I can give them 100 stars here, I would. We had Fernando but interacted with other staff as well and they were just phenomenal. We tend to drink a lot and our glasses were always refilled before it got empty. They cleared our table, so we didn't have stacked dirty dishes as the meal progress. He was very friendly, very pleasant. He knew his menu.This is some of the best customer service I have received since COVID. It felt like PRE COVID customer service. These people cared about their restaurant, and what they where doing. Management needs to do whatever $$$ they can to keep their staff, they were A+ and the reason for the 3rd star (otherwise it was going to be 2).

This is close-by to work for me, I wanted to love it but it just didn't hit that level for me. Fernando and his team was the MVP of the...

Let me tell you about my own personal favorite hangout for classic Chinese-American food in Houston.

The Ambassador Chinese Restaurant is located on Richmond just next to the Rajun Cajun. There is no question that there are superb Chinese restaurants in town, along the Bellaire Boulevard corridor. No argument here.

But sometimes, it isn’t just about the food. And I promise you, for an all around fun experience you can't beat Ambassador.

It is like taking a time machine back to the 50's. You walk in, and you'll hear Frank Sinatra playing through the stereo system.

The waitresses are so sweet. They have been serving customers there for years, and if you say something that gets them to give a nervous laugh, they will cover their mouth with their hands. It’s kind of like trying to get the guards at Buckingham Palace to crack a smile. But in a good way. They are real sweet-hearts.

On some nights you might see a group of WWII veterans hanging out at their own table. Or ladies from the River Oaks crowd. Or hipsters. And old white guys like me (“Hey, that’s ME in the corner”).

The food is Cantonese and it is the Cantonese that used to be all that you could find in Houston when I was growing up in the 50's. The egg foo yung is crazy. When it comes out you will swear they brought you a giant chicken fried steak. The egg rolls are super sized, probably the biggest ones in town. The hot and sour soup is just perfect with the right amount of rice wine vinegar to white pepper. And yes, there's even a great typo on the menu (Human beef instead of Hunan beef).

If you have an opportunity to talk to the owner, she is an absolute delight and will share wonderful stories about the Ambassador over the years. Yep, for me, it's the Ambassador. I recommend staying with the tried and true Cantonese dishes: sweet and sour pork, egg rolls, egg foo yung, a chicken with vegetables stir fry and on the side a big bowl of egg drop soup or (not Cantonese) hot and sour.

From Jay Francis, Houston native, ethnic food explorer, cooking school teacher and creator of The Fried Chicken...

This is the first 1-star review (in addition to the first less-than-5-star review) I have ever left due to how bland and incorrectly described on the menu this food is. I admittedly eat Asian food every day, and I have never in my life tasted more bland Asian food than what I received from this restaurant. The “Crazy Chicken”, which is their equivalent of General Tso Chicken, did not have a single vegetable in it, and even after I asked for the sauce to be prepared very spicy, I could barely tell there was even any sauce on the dish at all (SO bland), let alone any added spice.

Additionally, I ordered the “Crispy” Tofu (“spicy”), that is listed on the menu to be served with baby corn and water chestnuts (the only reason I ordered the dish in the first place), and it was instead served with canned mushrooms, bok choy and bamboo shoots, which are three of my least favorite vegetables. Thank goodness I am not allergic to any of them. And the sauce tasted the EXACT same as the sauce in the Crazy Chicken. It also was not spicy after I overly communicated how I want the dishes very spicy.

I will...