Long Xing Restaurant — Restaurant in Iowa City

My wife and I got takeout from here last night after reading positive review after positive review on Reddit, here on Google, and Yelp.

I was very underwhelmed. The crab rangoons we ordered were easily the best part of what we received. They were the perfect amount of crispy and they had an appropriate amount of well-seasoned filling.

Then, the main dishes. I received their 'best seller' General Tso's Chicken. There were a few problems right out of the gate. First, the chicken was extremely tough and dry. Then, the breading was neither crisp, nor soft enough so I was forced to eat an entire piece in one bite which is less than optimal considering how big they were. Plus, the seasoning was very lacking. All I could taste was an uncomplicated sweet glaze and nothing else. No salt, nor other seasoning. The pitifully small amount of broccoli included was 'steamed', but retained a difficult to chew, crunchy texture. My wife's Szechuan Chicken suffered from similar issues, but in her case the chicken was well-cooked and velveted, but had virtually no flavor. Overall a very bland dish and extremely far from what you would expect from a 'Szechuan' dish. To top it all off, the rice was slightly overcooked.

We spent over $60 all told and for a place with reviews like this I...

Generally we really like ordering from here. The food tastes good and the portion size is great for the price. We usually order the combo platters. However, today when I ordered the chow mein combo, I got a call from the restaurant questioning my order and asking if I wanted to switch to lo mein. They said that chow mein does not have noodles, only the lo mein does. This was very confusing, as I’ve always known chow mein to be pan fried noodles vs the soft noodles of lo mein. I switched because I didn’t want to miss out on noodles entirely, but it’s not what I wanted to order. Everything else was good, but I’m disappointed that the menu is misleading with its names. Edit: After more research, it seems this is a regional difference in how dishes are named. Chow mein does mean a dish without noodles in the eastern part of the US. So no hard feelings towards the restaurant, but do be cautious if what you’re wanting is...

Lady faked a language barrier as she took my order. The items were all set up in combo all of which included a drink. The price was quite a bit more than expected and when I asked for my drinks she quickly said "you didn't order any" not only like she has it rehearsed, but without a drop of accent. I rolled my eyes because I instantly realized she pulled this scam on a regular basis. Food was mediocre too sweet and soggily drenched with sugary sauce, ragoons and eggrolls we're good but the service was more comparable to cutthroat...