Chinatown Kitchen — Restaurant in Town of North Hempstead

I went to this restaurant yesterday for the first time. I drove 20 minutes from my home because other reviewers said it was the "Best Chinese food" they ever had. It was, in fact, the worst Chinese food I had ever had.

First, the best part: The woman behind the counter was extremely nice. He thanked me multiple times for coming in. It was the first time I've even seen a Chinese person give me a big full tooth smile. That was the only best part!!

I ordered the orange chicken combo with fried rice and an egg roll. I told the woman that I had to travel a good distance back to my home so I wanted to make sure the food stayed hot so if she could wrap it in some type of heat holding packaging, like tin foil. She said we put it in this nice plastic container (and she held it up to show me), and then we put it in a nice paper bag. Yikes, that's what every single chinese restaurant on the planet does!! She acted like she was giving me some kind of special treatment!! I didn't bother to argue with her. She understood what I wanted, she just didn't want do anything above the usual.

Next, the egg roll. Like meatballs at an Italian restaurant, I first judge a chinese restaurant but heir egg roll. It's usually a precursor to the rest of the meal. And this was definitely the situation here.

This was the most pathetic egg roll on the planet. It was about an inch thick and 3 inches long. Less than half the size of a usual egg roll. Being so thin, there was basically no room for any filling. So all you got was crust. Hard, oily crust. I took the egg roll out of the bag as soon as I got in my car and to add insult to injury, it was ice cold!!

Now the rice, I ordered pork fried rice and I got yellow rice.

The orange chicken was just as disappointing. It had bits of orange peel in it but the sauce was brown and heavy with no hint of orange flavor. The reason I like orange chicken is because the citrus elevates and brightens the flavor profile. Here, just a flavorless brown goop. Last, it was soooo spicy. I've been eating orange chicken for 20 years and even if I order it extra spicy, I can never get a hint of heat. Now, I don't say anything about spicy and my mouth was on fire. You can't win.

Needless to say, cross this restaurant...

Chicken and string bean lunch special was mostly just rice and the chicken was cut in tiny pieces so small you couldn't jab most of it with a fork. It's was tasty but the there was hardly any chicken. 8-4-2023 tried the scallion pancakes, very good! Light and not too greasy. Tried sesame chicken, the sesame sauce had a BBQ flavor that I didn't really like, not the usual sauce I'm used to. UPDATE: Ordered beef chow fun and it was very good with big pieces of beef! I once ordered their chicken and string beans and it had a delicious garlic flavor but there was hardly any chicken and it was cut into very thin strips that broke into literal Tic Tac sized pieces that you couldn't even jab with a fork, they need to make the chicken in chicken & string beans the same size as the beef in this dish and I'd buy it everyday, but I've never bought it since the Tic Tac...

I ordered from them for the first time. I admit the food is good. However I wondered why my boneless ribs and French fries came to 11.55 That's a lot for a plate right?! Well I see my receipt and they decided I should pay $9.25 for the food, a mystery fee of $1.50 plus tax .80 and then tact another $1.50 for delivery. If I had known this I wouldn't have tipped my rude delivery guy that was too busy on his phone that he wouldn't even come to my door and ring the bell. The delivery man honked his horn, I had to come to him and then he puts his phone on speaker so he can keep talking. I like an idiot tip him $3 and not even a word from him. He turns and walks to his car. This is the service I get. Yeah I'll never order...