China King Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Palm Springs

China King is the best "chinese" you'll find in Palm Springs. Now don't get excited, that's not really saying a lot when you're only other choice is Panda Express. If you're wanting good Asian in Palm Springs, you'll find it in many Thai places and some Vietnamese too. But Chinese remains the elusive category in PS. So, I decided to give China King a try.

So first the food. It's not bad really... pretty standard but not bad. I'd say it's fairly average for all the Americanized Chinese food I've had 50 plus years. The Kung Pao chicken was a little spicy but not much, and the flavor was ok. The chicken Lo Mein was on the bland side, but the noodles tasted fresh and there was lots of chicken pieces.

Prices are reasonable for Palm Springs, and they have some lunch specials and some good deals if you arrive before 5:00pm.

The portions are huge, each plate could feed two people as long as you're not very hungry. The hot and sour soup was pretty good, but when they say a cup they mean a small cup for sure. They brought me brown rice without asking if I wanted brown or white. Which they may only have the brown, you might ask if you go.

A strong point here is the family that runs it are very friendly. Some younger ones of the family are helping out which is fine. They checked back on me a couple times. They do a LOT of take out business I noticed.

The restaurant itself is clean, but on the small side and sparse. My biggest "odd" observation was actually the front door. Reminded me of a fire escape door at a theater. Just a solid metal double door. If they were to replace it with a nicer wood/glass window door it would go a long way of making the place a bit more inviting. Some pendant lighting above the booths instead of just can lights in the entire place would also help cozy things up a bit. But I digress.

So for Chinese food in Palm Springs it's China King or fast food. I'd go back to China King to explore the menu a little, maybe pick up some quick take out some night. But I'd like to find some tastier dishes there, before I'd consider taking out of town friends. For now if they want chinese, I'd probably steer them to some Thai or just say ... "Gas up the car, were getting on the...

The quality and portions of the food are great. Atmosphere is Cozy. It's not ultra Fancy or trendy inside, but it is clean , traditional, and the non-presence of fanciness reflects IN THE PRICE. It's very affordable.

The only issue I had is, like many Chinese family-owned & operated businesses, the children work there , serving and interacting with customers. And that is fine, except there seems To be a WIDER than usual understanding Gap between the parents ,who BARELY speak English and maybe can't pick up on sarcasm, and the children who are very much Americanized and PRACTICE sarcasm on the customer.

In my experience, The female elder sent the child server back out to us to bring an additional teacup , because I was given a whole pot of tea just for myself and my wife tasted it and liked it.

Already feeling like she had fulfilled her duties with us, The child- female server marched back out to us in an irritable manner and firmly placed the cup at the very edge of the table, out of reach to my wife, She then sternly said, "there you go!" , and turned around and stomped off in the same irritable manner, WELL before my wife had a chance to say "thank you". It was a poor display of manners in which I believe she KNEW her parents would NOT pick up on because of the serious Gap of English-understanding. Ironically, I believe this is the whole reason they have the children deal with the customers. They speak better English. But they're also MUCH better at sarcasm and rudeness.

Hell if I wanted to put up with attitude from a preteen, I could just stay home & forcibly have my kids serve me. I'd get the same result.

Hopefully, this review will be seen by the parents, and adjustments will be made...

When you live in San Francisco and the Bay Area, or Manhattan in New York City, you are spoiled for choice when you’re craving a pepperoni pizza or cold sesame noodles. Before food delivery apps became ubiquitous, Chinese restaurants and pizza parlors offered free home delivery. You called the restaurant and they delivered right to your door. Imagine that!

In Palm Springs, when you’re craving Chinese food, there’s only ONE authentic Chinese restaurant in town. (Panda Express is neither Chinese nor authentic.)

China King is a family owned and operated Chinese restaurant. They don’t deliver and they close at 9:30pm. You can place an order through their website online, or you can use one of the food delivery services (but the food will be cold and you’ll pay through the nose for it. ) Or you can do what I do - call your order in and pick it up.

The food at China King is standard fare. It’s freshly prepared, and lucky for us, the food is pretty good. I’ve only tried a few things on the menu, and it was all terrific. The pan fried dumplings, egg rolls, wonton soup, hot and sour soup, and assorted appetizer platter, are good and what you’d expect. I like the Szechuan beef, Mongolian beef, Curry chicken, and Kung Pao chicken. The roast pork fried rice is tasty and not greasy, and the white and brown rice is prepared perfectly.

The portions are HUGE and I’m always satisfied after a meal from China King. Try it yourself and tell ‘em Roy sent you! You’ll eat like a King...