101 Asian Kitchen — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Yesterday I began craving Orange Chicken and did a fast google for a dine in restaurant within walking distance. I found a great parking spot in front of my building that I didn’t want to lose it so I walked.

Upon arriving I saw people sitting down, the website says “Dine In” … nope, they were workers it appears that they decided to not reopen their dining room after Covid restrictions were lifted so this place is really only for food delivery drivers.

The chairs and table available are for employees. I walk in, through a cloud of cigarette smoke, the employees smoke outside right in front of the building, not out the back, but right in front. The place looked filthy! I almost didn’t want to order but there were lots of delivery drivers who came in and out so I went against my better judgement.

The kitchen looked packed with ungloved employees but they were all cooking, no wait staff. I place my order with a man who seemed gravely overworked and probably severely underpaid idk, he wasn’t so much rude as he just seemed extremely busy and didn’t really make eye contact and spoke very quietly which was hard to hear over the kitchen staff. I placed my order and walked outside to wait in the clouds of employees cigarette smoke.

The good thing for them, this place seemed to get a lot of food delivery drivers I only saw one other couple while I was waiting outside walk in to order. When they came out they even started talking about the no dining in.

The food took about 10-15 mins to come out. I ordered crab Rangoon and pot stickers in addition to my orange chicken. I make the walk home, but couldn’t wait to try a pot sticker, totally not completely cooked. Once home, I tried the Crab Rangoon…overloaded with sugar so it didn’t taste like what I’m used to. The orange chicken was nothing more than breading some sauce at the bottom but it just tasted like breading mixed with…and I’m being generous when I say this “hint of orange” … like an orange burped into the sauce, no actual evidence of any oranges. There were no chopsticks and all this food wasn’t edible. Even my dog refused to eat a piece of chicken.

I definitely won’t come back it wasn’t worth almost $40 for one person to eat. I wasn’t expecting it to be healthy eating, but I did expect it to be edible and none...

I am not crazy about the meat here. I’ve tried all varieties of their meat products here, and some meat is very hard to chew and bite through. Some meat doesn’t seem all the way fully cooked. (Feel that out for yourself). I personally do not like that they don’t cook their meat all the way through. The meat can taste too “gummy” to chew, or toOo “hard” to bite through. I do like some of their side orders… like the dumplings, the fried rice, the macaroni. Their sushi doesn’t always taste good to me. I also do not like their service sometimes. I used to come there more regularly mainly for their fried rice, and one of the Asian guys who work there, and the woman (his girlfriend) or something… they started talking in “Chinese” or whatever… and would make certain facial expressions and gestures towards me, that made me feel like they were annoyed by seeing me be a regular customer, financially supporting their business. Some people really do NOT belong in business. If I have frequent regularly customers who show up to my business and support me?? I’m gonna have the biggest smile on my face… cuz they are PUTTING MONEY IN MY POCKET AND HELPING MY BUSINESS TO CONTINUE TO OPERATE. These people wanna give you “bad attitude” sometimes, if you chose to be a “regular.” They do NOT always appreciate repeat customers. So I stopped going regularly. Plus the issue I have with them not cooking their meat all the way through properly. The only reason they continue to seem to get “business” is cuz they are opened really late at night… when other food spots have closed. They do tend to give BIG servings of food (which is good). Much bigger servings than say…Panda Express. Which is good. However, beware of the meat. They just always seem to under cook, or overcook their meat. So beware of that. You also can’t relax and dine in there, because they offer no real generous seating… they have “supplies” stacked up everywhere against the walls where there is supposed to be seating with a dine-in option… but they don’t offer it. The space is too tight. I also think they are waaay toOoo overpriced....

This place has gone through so many incarnations and l've been loyal on and off for over the past 15 years but they've become progressively worst as far customer service and some cases certain food items! I had Ordered from them through Uber eats and they got my order wrong so I called the store to complain and the guy blamed it on the kitchen and then he just started yelling and screaming at me over the phone! I was in shock so of course I matched his energy because I was totally caught off guard! The employees there are absolutely evil! They have no respect for their customers so they're not interested in building relationships with their long time & loyal customers! They just want money and that behavior makes me question what goes on behind the scenes especially in the kitchen! I've had many disagreements with them over the past 15 years but they've crossed boundaries that should not have been crossed! I'm officially done with this place so l won't ever be ordering from the place again! I hope others will do the same because they don't deserve people's hard...