Uncle Zhou — Restaurant in Plano

Adding to my original review after the owner responded:

#1: I should have mentioned that my wife and I placed a takeout order. We did not have a large demand or something outrageous. We expected to have some rice to go with our two entrees, which again would be a norm with almost every single Chinese/Asian restaurants in the area. If the rice is complimentary with every entree, our expectation seemed to be fairly reasonable.

#2: My original review did not mention anything about "bread crumbs", I clearly mentioned "breading", which is the golden, crispy outer layer that coats the chicken. (To answer the you, the owner, I remembered it correctly.)

My wife and I tried this place about 3 years ago and we had a miserable experience because:

Let us address the biggest elephant in the room - We have never been to a Chinese restaurant where we need to order steam/white rice separately, as it would normally come with an entree. We had to go home and cook our own rice...

The dishes we ordered were - Sesame Chicken, Pork Belly Henan Style, and Hot and Sour Soup, two of them were relatively common Chinese dishes. Unfortunately, all 3 dishes we ordered were inedible. The chicken barely had any meat in the breading; the soup was nothing like the hot and sour soup you would get anywhere else, and it was dark black; and lastly, the pork was drenched in oil. I am a Taiwanese and I have had a variety of Chinese cuisines/dishes, however, this restaurant served things that were completely outside of expectations.

Today 11/27/2024, I decided to revisit the place just to see if anything has changed. Placed an order of Shrimp Fried Rice over the phone, the person who took the order did not even ask for my name and/or phone number, which was a bit bizarre. After arriving, there was a person sitting at the register at the door. I very clearly explained that I placed an order, and came the other person from the corner. The other person said I can do a checkout at the other register, which made the entire encounter. Keep in mind both registers are less than 10 feet apart.

In terms of the Shrimp Fried Rice, I decided to get it because of the previous running. Considering the restaurant was recommended by Michelin Guide, it would be incredibly difficult to mess up a fried rice. The fried rice tasted decent, I appreciate that they "deveined" the shrimp. Outside of that, the fried rice was nothing to write home about! In addition, I understand the restaurant moved from NY, but the price ($12.95 before tax; $14.02 after tax) for a 24oz round takeout container is more than the norm in the area, not to mention there are plenty of great Chinese restaurants in the area. (I had taken a couple bites as I was eager to try)

Overall, I would lower the expectations if you decided to visit, as the restaurant is often featured by influencers on various...

Honestly one of the worst experiences I've had in a while. I was really excited coming across this place after seeing it had a Michelin recommendation but from the moment I walked in I was very disappointed. It took us almost 5 minutes to be greeted at the door as the server / host was busy. And honestly I wasn't in a rush so waiting really didn't bother me. What did bother me was the fact that she dropped us off at a table threw the menus down and and asked us what we wanted to drink. We both responded with water having not had a chance to look at the menu well and she kind of scuffed at us and walked away. Then she proceeded to ignore us and never brought us water or asked us what we wanted to order. She stood right next to us staring at the restaurant but didn't acknowledge us. We finally had to flag her down 10 minutes in and instead of trying to explain the menu or offer any ideas for food she just asked us if we knew what we wanted. Luckily we did so we put in an order for fried dumplings for an appetizer and an order of the oily noodles and fried rice. She then dropped off Waters and we didn't see her again. The fried rice came out first and next did the oily noodles and no sign of the dumplings that we were wanting to eat for an appetizer. And let me tell you these oily noodles were the most disappointing thing I've ever eaten. The portion was smaller compared to some of the other restaurants in the area like Highland Noodle. And instead of tasting like the nodles were made with oil it tasted like somebody soaks them in vinegar. There was very little flavored except for the flavor of vinegar which canceled out the pepper and garlic that was supposed to be there. The appetizer dumplings came up by the time we'd already finished our food and we refused them saying we had wanted them as an appetizer and had already eaten. It then took another 20 minutes to pay the bill as they dropped the bill off and didn't come pick it up for almost 15 minutes. Overall the service was terrible and the food was some of the worst Asian food I've ever had. It was really disappointing to see a restaurant that comes with such high recommendations being one of the worst restaurants...

This was our first time here. We came right about 6 o’clock for dinner and only had to wait for maybe one or two minutes to be seated. By the time we left there about 730 there was a line of probably five or seven tables waiting. I’m super intrigued by the fact that they have so many low reviews because we had an absolutely perfect experience.

We were greeted by multiple staff. Our waiter was prompt and always available. Food came out quickly. They tried to bring us the wrong pork dish, but they quickly swapped it when we pointed out the error. They didn’t give us any disagreement about it at all.

They were super sweet. I had a question about an ingredient I had never encountered before in the entree of Hand-pulled beef noodle soup. A waiter took the time to pull up the ingredient on his phone and teach me about Lilly flowers as an ingredient. We ordered the spicy crispy chicken too. It was not overly salty at all. The spice level was great, and the flavors were complex for a simple fried dish. There is some bone in and amongst the thigh meat so you have to be mindful when you are eating to pull the bone away and not bite too hard initially. The other entrée we got was the henan pork belly. It was delicious melt in your mouth tender, well seasoned, and again not overly salty in our opinion.

We got the henan on cucumber appetizer: sour, citric, sesame...delicious... it was perfect. I would come back just for that appetizer. We also got the spicy oil wonton. It was not my favorite dish as far as the texture of the wontons, but the flavor of the oil was fantastic. mixing the sauce from the cucumber salad into bites with the wonton was also a delightful combo. Give it a try. We also got the fried jalapeños. I had no idea what was going to come out and was super surprised to to see an entire plate FULL of fried jalapeños in a rich sauce. They packed heat, let me tell you. My eyes were watering, but they were delicious.

We will most definitely be back. We want to try the dragon eggplant, the pork intestine, the twice cooked pork, and the dry fried cauliflower.

Thank you for...