New China Cafe — Restaurant in Merced

I'd heard of this little hole-in-the-wall recently and was hooked by the fact they made their own noodles, apparently being known for their crispy noodles and egg foo young, two of my favorite dishes when done right. Let me tell you, New China Cafe does both of them right, heck, more than right; they were both amazing!

The small restaurant was doing good business at about 5 p.m. on a Friday; while not packed, it was always steady and always loaded with locals, a great sign in my book.

The crispy noodles were tender and the perfect compliment to a little sauce or gravy that comes with their other dishes on the menu (like the Egg fou young) or the bean sprouts and meat if you get them as the noodles in your chow mein. They are beyond good; I think I could eat multiple orders all by myself. (10/10)

The Egg Foo Young is also amazing. The order comes with three perfectly sized patties, and the veggies are chopped extremely small and cooked until soft, just the way I like them. It's very difficult to find Egg Foo Young prepared this way. If anyone is familiar with the old Wong's Takeout on Tully Road in Modesto, this is as close as you can get. (10/10)

We also got wonton soup., which was simple with a delicious broth, bok choy, and pork wontons. As mentioned, the broth was delicious, light and flavorful. The wontons were really good, a little dense, but the meat in them was wonderful with a touch of sweetness. Really good. (10/10)

The rest of our meal consisted of Chicken Chow Fun, Beef and Broccoli, Sweat and Sour Pork, and Honey Walnut Shrimp. None of these dishes were the best I've ever had, but they were all very good, with the Chow Fun, Shrimp, and Beef and Broccoli being a 7.5/10 and the Sweat and Sour Pork a 6/10 (it was a bit overcooked and therefore drier then it should have been. If it were cooked to a better temp, it would easily be a 7-8/10; the honey walnut shrimp would gain a point also for this reason.

The service is VERY good! Everyone was very kind and helpful. It was a wonderful meal, and somewhere we'll definitely make the 45-minute...

I ordered food on Sunday 06/24/22 from their online app because their business hours on goggle and their website stated that the restaurant was open for business. I have ordered this way in the past so I didn't think anything of it. I called the restaurant numerous times to confirm they received my order and there was no response. I finally drove down there and their restaurant was closed. The following day they were closed as well (as it is posted on their website) Today I called asking if I could pick up my food that I ordered and they told me NO! I also asked if they could refund me my money and they again stated no that I would have to call the app that I ordered my food from in order to get a refund. This made me really upset because I would have gladly taken the food that I didn't get on Sunday, TODAY. I ordered about $90.00 worth of food and did not want a refund to begin with. All in all be careful when ordering online from these people, verify that they are open so that this doesn't...

Since the new ownership I guess things are going downhill.

The dinner plates they have are foods that I don't normally eat so I had asked for one replacement of item and she was very annoyed and said I would have to spend an extra $4 if I wanted to replace anything in any of the dinner meals. I had three meals and I asked two of them to be rice and chow mein one of them to be chow mein they didn't get that right all three of them were both and even though I paid the $4 they didn't make the changes to one of them and they made the incorrect changes to the other two. The rice tasted like steamed rice that they just added a little bit of soy sauce too and threw in some vegetables it did not taste good and it was too soft. And the meat that they're using for the Kung Pao chicken is not the same meat as it used to be and I don't really like it.

Next time I will be looking somewhere else to...