China One — Restaurant in Louisville

I just discovered this place less than a month ago and I’ve been there enough times to realize I might need to move closer to save gas. Why drive 20 minutes when there’s a Chinese restaurant on every corner? Because this one’s better.

There’s a few things that stand out.

They’re down to make it spicy. This is rare because everyone says they’ll make it spicy. I even promise I won’t return it if it’s too hot. But most people just add spicy oil until the benefit diminishes to a spill hazard when I make this request.

I get the Hunan chicken extra spicy. But I’ve tried their bourbon chicken and my wife likes their Mongolian beef and general Tso’s and everything is good.

The menu. I don’t know why more places don’t do this but they offer two sizes combination plates and then a one size higher to a quart or what most places call dinner portions. Dinner combo is enough with a lot left over.

There’s no inside seating. This sets the vibe and lets you know they’re selling volume and not trying to do everything. I like the decision for some reason. Gives me permission to get my food and go. Simple ‘order, pay, go away’ comes with a similar magic rainy days can bring as they limit your options and illuminate your path. Eat at the park because why not?

It feels like someone’s thought about this business and decided they’re not going to chase tips, but they’ll strategically make the food good enough to be habit forming, omit the label and pretend they’re the same as all the other spice-averse Chinese soup kitchens until it’s too late and you’re hooked.

If the pricing was higher and the food was blah and the menu was mindless and the chef went on strike, this review wouldn’t have been necessary, but there’s no reason to not eat here. And some people may call that dangerous, some may call it good business. You’ll never call it predatory until you realize they’re making it this good on purpose and feel the sudden urge to warn others. But whenever you try to call someone, your phone only rings to this China One, and then the cycle continues.

This chef has convinced me he knows his stuff and doesn’t cut corners, all without words, but you’d be surprised at how many places will turn your food to an oil soup instead of rising to the occasion and blending flavors and spices together one at a time, like an orchestra led by a rogue drummer.

Regardless of your taste, you’ll feel it and might even dance.

And now I’ve...

If I could give no stars and make a review I would. This place is a joke. I ordered some food tonight, first time ordering from here ever, via doordash site and realized I'd forgotten to ask for red sauce. Most places do not give it unless you ask.

So, I called and spoke to a friendly worker who said they would have to speak with the manager who was on another line in order to get permission to add another (add) red sauce and that she'd call back.

The call never came so I decided to call to find out if I could pay for another. The very, very rude manager said that they were too busy to speak to me about anything and that I should call the call center! Then, she hung up on me, even though I just spent over $30 patronizing your business. I have no idea what the call center number is so, I call back and she said I'm not debating you! Who asked for a debate?

So, I'm irked now and I just want a refund she first sends the call to an automated system then answers and says I'm harassing her. Just refund my money is what I was going to say but she hung up on me again.

I'll never and I mean, I will never patronize your business again. I'll also make sure those that I work with know how rude you are and how you treat customers so that they'll never patronize your business either.

The food was subpar and the fried rice was really over cooked and flavorless. I think even with the over cooked rice it could've been a better experience had management received proper training and phone etiquette skills. Maybe a script is needed for both. You DO NOT just speak to people any type of way. Especially when they pray your bills with the disgusting...

I moved to Louisville almost ten years ago; I moved in late at night and was too tired to unpack and cook something. I saw this place online and gave it a try. The food was fantastic; it was the perfect ending to my day. Since that night, this little restaurant has had a special place in my heart. I would eat there monthly for years. The restaurant started out great, I would always get a chicken dinner combo, and the chicken would be huge chunks of white chicken. Over time the chicken became smaller in size, then dark meat was incorporated. It was only dark meat with additional fried flour coating so it seemed larger, and tonight.... out of my orange chicken dinner, I had seven pieces of orange chicken actually had chicken in it. It was the low-quality overlooked stringy chicken, and there was hardly any of it. Not only did the fairly non-existent chicken plummet in quality all the other food went down in quality too. The egg fried rice is now just white rice with soy sauce, their spring rolls are completely mushy, and their egg rolls are lackluster too. Looking at most of these reviews, you'll see most of the low reviews were by once-loyal customers. It's disappointing that this restaurant chose to continuously lower their quality of food in increase their profit instead of doing what they do best, make great food and have profits increase due to a...