Chin Yuen — Restaurant in Monticello

First time back since they stopped doing the lunch express table. So since covid... I used to come multiple times a week and this will be my last time ever back, unless they make some changes. I've always been hopeful that they would bring the express lunch table back, but anytime I've called to ask I'm always told no. I was craving Chinese food last night and wanted to go to the buffet in town cause I like options and smaller portions of lots of things vs large portions of one thing.. when we discovered the buffet was closed on Tuesdays I decided to give Chin Yuen another try. We ordered several things. Even though it was only the 2 of us, I wanted multiple things so we had to order a lot.. and I normally don't mind having leftovers so I was ok with this. Not happy about it, but just "oh well" ya know... Since large portions are their only option now, this was our only option. While there I asked again if they ever brought their express lunch table back. They have not. Between the lack of options for sizes, no express table, and the following, I can safely say that I'll never be back. So the food... the food has just gone downhill. Beef and broccoli isn't as good as it used to be. The mixed vegetables in ginger sauce were underwhelming and their fried rice was just a joke. This is the only thing that when you get it, it comes in smaller portions. It's one of my husband's favorite foods so he would have liked to have had more.. until he tried it. It comes in plastic containers and was just soggy. Fried rice should be a bit fried in texture but this was just soggy brown rice with very little flavor and nothing in it. No egg or vegetables.. just rice. The mixed vegetables used to be served like a side and they're a "main dish" which is weird.. so it comes with an additional side of disappointing rice. Mostly, they need more ways to order food in different sizes or be customizable. I probably wouldn't be so disappointed with the quality of the food if I didn't have to order so much of it and now have so...

Very underwhelmed. I understand things are paired down and there is no steam table currently due to Covid. This would make me think that because most things are made fresh to order it would be amazing. I would be wrong. First the good: staff was friendly, I was at first disappointed when I got home and saw the side of fried rice. Im used to it having egg, carrots, onions & peas in it. None of that was there. I thought maybe they misunderstood me and gave me plain brown rice. I then tried it and it was great. Im litterly craving it as i type. Who would have thought? Also the chicken satay was delicious Now for the disappointment: I ordered chicken lomein, there was litterly 2 little pieces of chicken. My husband and I looked at each other and laughed because we each got 1 small slice each. If Im paying for chicken I expect chicken. We also got sweet & sour chicken. Way way way too greasy. Not sure if the oil temperature dropped b4 they fried our order, but these were little sponges filled with grease and over cooked & dry chicken. Lastly the wontons, there was nothing in them .ok thats a lie there was maybe a pinky finger tip of filling in each one and just wonton wrapper. I have not been to a chin turn in 20 yrs but this is not at all what I remembered. We were just disappointed all around and a waste of probably $45 out of the $63 we spent for food. Good thing there is about 10 other places in a 15 mile radius to pick up Chinese take out. I will have to try the...

We ordered pickup although we ate inside once and its small but clean! We had sweet & sour chicken, veggie and chicken lo mein, cheese wontons, white rice, chicken fried rice, sesame chicken. It was all very good! My favorite was the mild sesame chicken. We really like the light noodles with the Lo Mein they use. If I was to make a suggestion to the store I would say the fried rice needs bigger pieces of onion and a lot more egg and bean sprouts in it. It is much to plain compared to other fried rice we have had. It had flavor but needed a bit more to it. Also, the cream cheese wontons are tasty, but I would take out the sugar and just use cream cheese to be traditional wontons. TRY THE DONUTS!! They are so good!! Just like the homemade my Mom used to make. Thank you for a great Birthday dinner!! We will continue to make the 45 mn trip...