Chinatown Express — Restaurant in Los Angeles

This is a Chinese fast food restaurant that is similar to the much more famous Panda Express. The "Express" in their names isn't the only similarities. They both offer two or three item combination plates where you can get fried rice or chow main (or half and half of those two) along with your choice of two or three main entree items (hence the two or three item combo). Where these two establishments begin to differ is over the quantity and quality of these entree's. Chinatown Express does not have as many entree items to chose from as Panda Express does. They probably have about half as many choices but where the do have Panda Express beat (as far as quantity goes) is in the portion size. Chinatown Express does not skimp when it comes to portion size. They pile on the food. I always have enough left over to make a second meal the next day. I think that Panda Express has the better quality menu as well. That is not too say that something is wrong with Chinatown Express. There isn't anything wrong with their menu. Panda Express is a much much larger business and they can afford to have top notch chefs creating new recipe ideas all of the time. I think Chinatown Express simply watches what is popular with people going to Panda Express and they try to duplicate the recipe. Sometimes they have greater success than other times but the dishes they serve are never outright bad. They usually just call a little short when compared to Panda Express. The biggest difference between these two restaurants is their infrastructure though. While Panda Express locations are usually in modern and sleek looking restaurants, Chinatown Express locations look like they have come directly it of the early 1980's with no interior design updates since the place first opened. The ones other big difference between these two restaurants is the price. A two item combo at Chinatown Express is about $4 less than it is at Panda Express. And you get a lot more food for the lot less money you pay at Chinatown Express as well. Is Chinatown Express worth going too instead of a Panda Express? That depends on how far you have to travel to get to a Chinatown Express. They do not have that many locations to choose from but if you are near one, you might just find that Chinatown Expresses positives outweigh it's negatives when compared to Panda Express. It is worth a visit to find out...

They give you a ton of food for the price and it’s GOOD. The people giving 1 star complaining that they’re getting too much for the price are stupid. What kind of idiots are thankful for paying more for getting less?! Honestly those idiots should just use their extra cash to tip if they want to part ways with that income. Problem solved. This is one of the best in Koreatown and a local treasure that was featured in the movie...

I really love their Chinese Food, they serve well for the price you pay. I buy my drinks at the Gas station before I come here. The only problem is that is NOT a good place to eat in the afternoon's of Summer (11am to 5pm) as the sun hits the windows hard and there's no AIR CONDITIONER so you feel like your eating good food on a concentration camp in North Korea so I give you 4** otherwise it's good food for Take Out...