Lin's Express — Restaurant in McAllen

Wow, where to start? We ordered online. The website was easy to navigate. I ordered the generals chicken ($11+). Spicy is an understatement. The spice is supposed to enhance the flavor of the meal not overwhelm it. My butt will be bleeding later. Thanks Lin's Express. Had two bites and couldn't finish it. I can do spicy hot but this was unreal. Not good. Maybe it was just this one time. My drink ($5) was the classic milk tea the puke orange drink pic I posted below. Not sure what this drink was but I poured myself a drink at home instead. My husband ordered the seaseme chicken. More like rubber bland chicken. His purple drink was supposed to be a Thai Tea but it's not. Idk if there's a Hispanic twist to it but it's not Thai. The egg rolls were awful. Absolutely disgusting. The lo mein noodle were bland & cold. Overall $43 spent. Can't say wasted because every meal is a culinary adventure. We, our family & friends will not be eating at this establishment. Best of luck and hopefully improvements will be put in place. When we arrived to pick up our meal a cook was sitting outside smoking a cigarette. Just a friendly FYI. Don't recommend this...

Let me tell you how life changing my experience at Lin’s Express was. You might be thinking “how can a Chinese dine-in restaurant change one’s life?”, well let me tell you... first of all, I walked in and I was instantly greeted by many happy faces, this not only made me feel accepted but appreciated by their employees. Once I was seated, my server, Carlos, guided me in this wonderful culinary experience. Everything started when I ordered my drink, a dr. Pepper with no ice, Carlos delivered it instantly with amazing care. After my drink arrived, I ordered some egg rolls, and believe me they were eggcelent, lol, jokes aside I really liked them. For my main course, I ordered the hibachi steak, let me be blunt, holy moly! It was exquisite, the meat was cooked to perfection and the flavors were really nice and complemented each other. I want to personally thank Carlos for the amazing service he provided to me, he was attentive and well educated, Thank you Carlos and the whole Lin’s Express Team, will definitely eat...

Disappointing Experience — Especially the Service

I usually give places the benefit of the doubt, but my experience here was disappointing. The Hunan beef was extremely salty and lacked any real flavor — easily the worst I’ve had. I could’ve let that slide, chalking it up to an off day in the kitchen (it happens), and maybe tried again in a few months.

What really ruined the visit, though, was the attitude of the waitress. She was visibly annoyed when asked questions and acted like she had better things to do than serve customers. Despite being polite and always saying “thank you,” I felt unwelcome. That kind of behavior is unacceptable, especially when I’m a paying customer just trying to enjoy a meal.

For clarity, this wasn’t the Hispanic waitress — she was actually polite. You can figure out who I’m talking about.

If I could give zero stars, I would. I won’t be returning, and I’ll be warning friends and family to steer...