Asian Cafe Express — Restaurant in Mesa

Oh, my, GOSH!!!! I was recommend to eat here for lunch one day by a co-worker and boy am I glad that I listened!! I enjoy eating a lot of unique food but this restaurant is BY FAR THE BEST CHINESE FOOD!!

I tried the pork egg rolls, the chicken dumplings, and the orange chicken rice bowl. First of all, the whole meal only came out to $11, super cheap! And the quality of the food, just WOW!!

The egg rolls were perfectly crispy with the delicious, extremely satisfying crunch that I love looking for. They weren't burnt by any means, they were nice and soft once I bit into them and had the perfect amount of flaking. The chicken dumplings were very moist and had a lot of flavor. What helped amplify them was the cooler sauce that they were in, very good!

And the orange chicken. Ohhh man... The orange chicken. It had the most beautiful texture! It wasn't like Panda's orange chicken where it's overly breaded and thick. Instead, there was minimal breading and right underneath that crust, the most juicy, soft, and tenderly most chicken. Oh man!! Just typing this makes me want more! The sauce was flavored with orange zest and lightly drizzled over some of the rice too so I could enjoy it even when eating just the rice under the chicken.

And the portion sizes!! HUUUGE!! I've got enough for two meals just on the chicken bowl alone!

Overall, I can't wait to go back. This place was LEGIT!! Now I will say this, when you first pull up, DON'T WORRY!! They are very humble, so the restaurant doesn't look flashy by any means. But over 500 5 star reviews can't be wrong, this is the BEST place in town! Run by a very humble group of people who I appreciate giving my money to any day of the week.

Okay now let the pictures do the talking (check out...

I wish I could give this place five stars but I just can't. Honestly the egg rolls and crab puffs were really good, but I was not a huge fan of the orange chicken at all. When we walked in we were not greeted and didn't know if we needed to just have a seat or walk up to the counter, it was a little confusing. Our waitress took a while to get over to us but after we ordered the food was hot and served within a timely manner. I think the things that bothered me most about this Cafe was the fact that it was dirty. Looking around at the floor I don't know the last time it was mopped or the edges of the room ever vacuum or swept out. In one of my pictures I posted, its the table top, you can clearly see the grime all over the tip of it. With one of the green chopsticks I was able to scrape some of it up easily, so I'm sure a wash rag and the Right cleaning solution you can take that right off. (Looking around, every table was like this!!) The table felt tacky to the touch, it was seriously disgusting!The waitress never came to check on us, even web our drinks were empty. Then by the time we were done eating, we had to walk up to the counter and ask for our check... again I don't know if that's just what you were supposed to do or if we were supposed to wait until our waitress decided we spent enough time there and being our check to the table; during our dining experience all of the people that seemed to work there we're sitting around eating their own bowls of noodles. Maybe that's why they took too long to get to us? If I was to recommend this place it would only be for they're crab puffs, and for your own sanity, get...

Short story: Looking for a cheap lunch that’s just OK? Come eat here.

Long story: Ambiance: typical hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant reminiscent of the type Chinese restaurant that you would find all over New York City.

Service: excellent!! The servers and waitresses were always walking ensuring that my drink was full, and making sure that all my dining needs were met.

Food: I ordered pork eggrolls, hot and spicy bowl of soup, and the house special lo mein. All of the foods came out piping hotand looked beautiful. However, all the dishes lacked the flavor and spice typically associated with Chinese and szcehchuan style cooking. The eggrolls, although crispy, lacked the pork flavor that I was looking for. The soup was hot and had plenty of high-quality ingredients, but it was not particularly sour and hot testing. The lo mein had plenty of chicken, beef, and shrimp. It also had that smoky panseared flavor that is characteristic of a good tasting lo mein, however, it was still somewhat bland.

Cost: two pork eggrolls, huge bowl of hot and sour soup, and whole plate of house special lo mein came to a total of $11.50!

Verdict: Asian café express is a great place to go if you want a quick cheap lunch; however it is not particularly the most flavorful Chinese food I’ve had. I’ll come back and try something else before I cast my final judgment or...