China Cafe — Restaurant in Louisville

It's turned into an eventful night. It's 9:00 PM, it's raining, my truck won't start and I've loaded my work gear in a bag that I just bought. I'm standing off to the side of an Ollie's, the temperature has dropped double digits since a storm roared through and I've been waiting for around two hours for a tow truck.

I'm starving and I haven't had dinner yet. I haven't had the chance to even think about food but then I hear a voice. A quite and faint voice at first that soon turned into a screaming banshee! It's my stomach and I need to react fast. I need something to quite this roaring beast and I couldn't see anything in site.... until I turned to my right. There at the end of the strip mall, on the corner, was China Cafe.

Even though I was waiting for a tow truck I figured, "I've been waiting long enough, what's a few more minutes?" Plus.... I'm damn hungry!

I saunter over to China Cafe (yes, I saunter), with my bag of gear towed behind and enter into an empty restaurant. Granted, it was 9:00 PM so I didn't expect many, if any, patrons. Although greeted by an empty restaurant, it was clean and orderly, double plus good! The counter is located toward the back of the restaurant so you have to pass several tables before reaching the counter. I was greeted before I reached the second table with a, "Hello, welcome!" by a kind lady behind the counter.

Considering my current circumstance I wasn't going to sit and eat since I didn't have the time for a complete meal. I needed something to eat while standing... while waiting for this wretched tow to show up.

The menu was typical for a standard run of the mill Chinese Restaurant. After perusing through the menu I decided to stay safe. I went for my "I've never been here before. Everything looks good and I can't decide so I'll keep it safe and pick a simple dish. So simple that if they screw this up I'm never coming back because this place can't make a simple dish and therefore sucks" dish.

My default is always fried rice. I ordered a quart of the combo fried rice. I paid around $11 for the rice and a 20 ounce Diet Coke (because carbs, lol). The price seemed a little steep but I've also paid more for less at other restaurants. Plus, I was hungry and didn't care about the cost so much at the moment.

After ordering I walked to the front window and waited for my tow to show up. When my order was ready the kind lady behind the counter walked up to the front of the restaurant and gave me my food. I still don't know if she would normally do this (I assume she would) or she was just handing my food over so quickly to get rid of the dude that walked in after 9 PM with a back full of who knows what and kept staring out of the window.

After getting my food I head back across the parking lot and underneath the awning to wait for my tow to show up. I pull out the quart of rice and the quart is literally overflowing with rice! They crammed every bit of pork, chicken, shrimp and rice grains that could fit. So I grab the chop sticks to dig in. I was so hungry I was tempted to use the plastic spoon they provided but nope... got to stay real and keep to the sticks. Just need to pinch faster!

The rice was light and fluffy and the pork, chicken and shrimp were all cooked well. Some places tend to go heavy on the oil and end up making a greasy stir fry. Not China Cafe. Their stir fry was light, very satisfying and and filled me up pretty quick. It had to because after several bites my tow showed up 😲😤😢😠

I ended up eating some more after the tow, while waiting for a Lyft at the dealership later in the night. (The tow and service at the dealership are other parts of the story.) The food was still warm and maintained much of its flavor after cooling down. China Cafe provided some relief to a crappy night and I hope to...

Do NOT order from this place. I ordered chicken fried rice delivery and they messed up my order. They told me they would correct it on my next order. I told them no that wasn’t ok I’d like my food. They told me they can’t replace it. At this point Amanda the person who answered the phone tells me they can’t replace it as she’s listening to the owner in the back screaming. I advised her that if I was allergic to pork or had religious convictions this would be a lawsuit waiting to happen. They said they’ll just refund my money. I chuckled because they would have to bring me money instead of refunding a card as I paid cash. Amanda said oh yea. Well we can bring your money and take the messed up order. I laughed again because you can bring me my money but can’t bring me my food. I was utterly amazed as it placed as my fault when I callled and placed an order. We went back and forth and I was told that there was nothing they could do. I could come up there even though I ordered delivery and they just said they’d bring my money. They’re biggest excuse on why they couldn’t bring my food is the delivery guy wasn’t going out my way. I laughed and told them I had a lady not a guy. These people are a joke 5 minutes later as I’m getting kids dressed to head up there they call me and say we’ll have someone there in 45 minutes. Im yet to get an apology for their response or a you know what we messed up. I’m rather a amazed at the way the feel to conduct their business and own up to their mistakes. Poor Amanda was stuck in the middle of the owner who refused to come to the phone because she stated she was too busy and for quite sometime. They don’t own up to their mistakes and refuse to be accommodating to their customers especially after their mistake. Just know if you order from them they will refuse to fix your order and you won’t...

I found a mailer for this place in a drawer at work that said they have a $10 delivery minimum so i called them up to try to place an order and the lady whom answered the phone couldn't understand me at all. I tried to order but had to repeat myself several times. Then it took 5 minuets for me to literally spell out every letter and number of the delivery address (4-5 blocks away) after which she told me she was unsure if they delivered there so she would have to call me back. I thought ok this shouldn't take too long.... Seven minuets later she called back and said they do deliver here at which point she had me repeat my order again. I repeated it again and she verified it with me. Then she said hold one minute, answered another phone took their order and information and came back. Then she hummed for a second while totaling my order and said "Ooohh sorry, your order is under twenty dollars. We only deliver if it is twenty dollars." I said "ok can I get." (figuring I might as well order more and put the extra in the fridge for later). No sooner than I got the word "get" out of my mouth I hear click followed by a cellphone beep indicating I had just been hung up on. The whole thing took twenty minutes and ended in frustration!!! Also I want to state for the record that I wasn't rude or anything!!! I was polite as heck didn't make a big deal out of anything and still got hung up on. So when people leave extremely vague reviews saying "terrible service" these are the things they should...