Chen's Palace — Restaurant in Kirksville

TLDR: Takeout only. Bland. Bare bones recipes. Go to Great Wall on Baltimore instead.

MENU: It's your typical beef/pork/chicken/shrimp with (insert vegetable here) in a cornstarch sauce type of Americanized Chinese food. If you want, you can get the dinner special during lunch hours - the difference is it comes with your choice of egg rolls or crab rangoon. All of the online menus I have seen are outdated. The actual menu is much more limited than the online stuff would lead you to believe, and the prices are marginally higher.

FOOD QUALITY: IMO, the recipes they use at Chen's are austere and sparing. Overall, the food is bland. Portions are a decent size. They have very definite ideas about which vegetable goes with which meat, for some of the dishes. Celery goes in the cashew chicken, to the exclusion of any other vegetables. Onions go in the Mongolian beef, to the exclusion of any other vegetables. Case closed. The result of this philosophy is that some of the dishes are extremely bland. One of the first items I tried on the menu here was cashew chicken, and I say, without exaggeration, that the meal was about 50% celery. It's not that I don't like celery, it's fine, I just don't want so much of it. And it's also not the case that they were skimpy on the chicken or the cashews - I would say the quantity given of each was more than fair, for the price. My problem was with the lack in variety in vegetables and seasonings, which I know they include in some of the other dishes, so I'm confused as to why they are so strict in applying limitations in some specific cases. It seems to me that these restrictive dishes would be improved with a mixture of onions, celery, and carrots as a baseline. Beyond that, I would say the sauces are generally tasteless. When it comes to Chinese food, I expect bold spices and flavorings - garlic, ginger, chilis, soy sauce, oyster sauce, fermented bean pastes, black vinegar, etc. Here the sauces tend to be little more than water, salt, sugar, and cornstarch. I recommend passing on any of the dishes that involve fried nuggets of meat. On one occasion, for example, I got the sweet and sour pork, and found the nuggets to be so hard as to be borderline inedible. I don't mean crunchy, I mean rock hard. The meat was also dry and stringy.

MENU FAVORITES: Go for the dinner combo, no matter the time of day. Both the egg rolls and the crab rangoon make for a nice little fried treat. Personally, I recommend the beef and bell peppers, or beef and broccoli.

MENU FAILS: Don't bother with the fried rice. It's over-salted and greasy. No wok hey. (Same is true of the noodles.) The plain steamed rice is much more pleasant to eat.

FRONT OF HOUSE SERVICE: Every time I have visited Chen's, it has ALWAYS been the same lady working the cash register. I wouldn't be surprised if she runs the show six days a week. (Can my girl please have a couple weeks off?!) She's very polite and cordial; friendly, but also efficient. If she isn't standing at the front, just ring the little bell and she'll come up. The restaurant is currently takeout only. (Looks like it used to be a buffet in the past, but I suppose that was shut down during Covid, and they haven't brought it back.)

KITCHEN SERVICE: Aside from that time I got the sweet and sour pork, I would say the quality of cooking is good, overall. Vegetables are tender but retain an al dente texture. Most fried items are golden and crispy.

ATMOSPHERE: Take out only. The building tends to be dark. Cold in the winter. Hot in the summer. (Gotta save on utility costs, I get it.) On one occasion, I was waiting for my food and an Asian customer came in to pick up her order; I got to overhear the two of them speaking in their language, which I thought was cool - a rare experience for me,...

[8/27/16 - Update: If I was forced to only eat here I would lose weight, so maybe I should pay someone to force me to eat here.... Against my better judgement I ate here after well over a year(was tricked, I swear) and the food is actually worse]

I don't even know where to start. Once upon a time this restaurant was really good, well those days have come and gone.

They cannot get an order right(no matter how many times you have them repeat it back to you). So if you have food allergies I would steer clear. The last two times I ordered carryout I had to return part of my order to be remade(remade more than once), while the rest of the order sits and gets cold. Even after requested the entire order be remade twice(still see the lady bag up food that was left to sit). After an hour you're pissed and hungry so you leave with half of your order wrong and half of it cold.

Quality of the food, sometimes it's okay sometimes it tastes like they poured a gallon of vinegar into the sauce and the order is almost entirely onion. No consistency.

Price point...... would be fair if the order was right and there is more than 3 or 4 pieces of meat in a dinner order(rip off).

Cleanliness, haven't seen the kitchen but if it's anything like the dining area I really wouldn't want to. The carpet is very stained, there's stuff on the floor under the tables, etc. Just looks pretty "grody".

Service, well pleasant enough but seemingly incompetent. I don't care how nice you are if you consistently mess up my order and waste a gob of my time WITHOUT even resolving the issue then that's...

China Palace is the single greatest restaurant in the history of restaurants. I personal live to eat their fine cuisine. Every time I walk into China Palace I am great with a smile from a friendly hostess who leads me to my seat and asks what kind of beverage I would prefer to go with the mind blowing meal I am about to feast upon. Once choose a delicious beverage (usually water) I am free to roam the plains of finest restaurant in all of Kirksville (possibly the world!). I pick up a plate and dive into the rice, wings, orange chicken, and egg rolls! There are so many options to choose from, and the best part is if you can't fit something on your plate that you would like to try you can always return and dominate the priceless edible heaven that is the China Palace's cuisine. When you have eaten your fill (which I truly believe is impossible at China Palace because the food is so exquisite) you will receive your check again from the friendly hostess or waitress and you proceed to the front to re-compensate China Palace for the heavenly feast that you have just ingested! At this point you will receive a fortune cookie (which has almost always come true for me) and you will walk out of the China Palace feeling better than you ever...