Happy Inn Chinese Cuisine — Restaurant in Rancho Cordova

Ordered here because it was the only local Chinese food restaurant in the area open past 9:00pm near here in Rancho Cordova.

Called in for takeout based on online menus, prices were pretty similar, not sure of the exact numbers.

Lady taking my order was friendly, they take down your number as places usually do.

Restaurant looked only partially set up for dine in, looks like they mostly get takeout orders these days. It smells somewhat musty inside, probably a testament to the age of the building. They have a lot of cardboard boxes in the back they use for takeout orders as trays/holders for takeout dishes instead of plastic bags.

The food portions were fantastic in my opinion, as you can see by my photos. Definitely didn’t feel like the amount of meat was lacking at all. My house special fried rice had about 4 pieces of shrimp which is pretty generous in my experience. Mu Shu Pork had plenty of pork and a good amount of veggies as well.

The House Special Fried Rice tasted pretty solid, no complaints. Standard chinese fried rice flavor and nice firm but not hard rice. Came with carrots and peas, which is not my favorite for fried rice but it tasted fine.

The Mu Shu Pork comes with “pancakes” but they’re more like tortillas or crepes, which you use to eat the pork in like a taco or hand roll and drizzle with some of the plum sauce if you like. I have not really had Mu Shu Pork and wanted to try something new. This one was pretty tasty and I recommend it. Fairly simple soy based flavoring but with the pancakes and plum sauce it is very good as far as americanized chinese food goes. There was also definitely more of the Mu Shu Pork than could fit in the pancakes so there was some extra to eat with rice. Great balance of meat and veggies in my opinion.

The people working there I assume are the owners. The lady in front was friendly. I would definitely come here again if I was in the mood and didn’t want to go all the way to Fortune for Chinese food. I had a menu picture but it got soaked from some of the liquid in the Mu Shu Pork tray...

Update: really hope this place closes, only noticed on Google maps after spending an absurd amount of money here that there actually is a higher rated Chinese place across the street and the next time I am in this area I will absolutely try to support them, but also hope that I won't be literally disappointed because for some reason Sacramento refuses to do Chinese food remotely decently despite having a fair amount of Chinese people, I know Sacramento is segregated but it's not that segregated compared to other places I've been, so get it together Sacramento.

I didn't mention but need to report about this place (Happy Inn) that it smelled of both bleach and mold and if I wasn't literally nostalgic and dying for decent Chinese food which I did not get here, I would have immediately left. I really want to know why there's apparently no health inspectors in Sacramento and why no one is telling them to come to this place because this place really needs an inspection ASAP.

Original review:

Absolutely awful and they charge white people more. Like people can tell when you charge more per entree and then charge for rice as well, somehow a $10 entree becomes more like a $15 entree. Try to hide behind not putting the price on the check. The mediocre breaded-to-hide-it's-probably rotten food was already punishment enough. This place only stays in business because there aren't others doing Chinese at all in the area. I don't know why it's impossible to find decent Chinese food in Sacramento.

Don't restaurant owners understand that if you try to overcharge people they might smile and say it's "good" but NEVER COME BACK? And also not waste it because some of us don't want to completely flush away money?

We were too polite but I'd love my money back. Will...

Good local place. They have excellent sercice, always kind and attentive servers. Once we ordered delivery & our dog bolted when we answered the door, their delivery woman helped chase down the dog! She was totally wonderful. We usually get take away or delivery but tonight we are eating in. We usually get the Singapore Noodles and tonight they were very good (even if they could use a bit more curry). In addition we ordered the egg rolls. They were crispy and greasy, just like I get in NYC! Delicious! They're filled with veggies, just the way I like them. And the sweet and sour sauce is old school red-delicious. Its not gourmet but its good diner food. The food is a 3/4 but the...