China House — Restaurant in Valparaiso

BEWARE: Before & After Ordering from The China House 120 E Lincolnway in Valparaiso. Haven't dined in since before COVID. Tuesday, My Dad wanted Chop Suey after having a procedure at the hospital and my Mother getting her first cast on her arm to her elbow. Dinning room was empty. Phone was ringing for Togo orders, a man was taking them. We had the whole place to ourselves. My Mother and I ordered Oolong Tea! Tasted amazing. Waters glasses for all. My parents ordered Beef Chop Suey and I ordered the Combination Chop Suey with Shrimp, Pork, and Beef. Loved how everything was hot and there were 3 heaping oval plates full of food that came to the table with 3 little bowls of sticky white rice. I love their real Crab Rangoons, no imitation crab. I ordered those too. After enjoying great conversation, the company and good food. The Chinese woman who served did not ask if we were finished, just picked up our plates and was cleaning up. The bill was brought to the table $44. We all asked for Togo boxes for our leftovers. The Chinese woman with a Christmas Santa apron said she would bag our food up. We asked each plate to be in a separate container. She took our plates to the back to package it. She came back to the table with 1 brown paper bag stapled and she then took the payment for the food. Getting ready to go, helped my Mother put on her coat. My Dad grabbed the brown bag and we left. No one said thank you and good bye to us.

When I drove my Dad home and I went to go get both my Mom & I leftovers out the brown paper bag. There were only 2 little white boxes with 1.5 that filled. What happened to our leftovers? There was enough leftovers for another 3-4 meals for 3-4 people. My mother called the restaurant back. Asked the woman who answered the phone if we can know where the rest of the food went? The woman said she made 2 bags and given them to us. Then she said we were never there. Then next thing, she was screaming at my mother about how my parents spoken to her supervisor and got her in trouble. ( Smh Didn't talk to a supervisor) Then she said my mom was carrying the bag. I carried my mother's purse. I had my purse when we headed out the restaurant and we left with 1 bag. So I believe she gotten our order mixed up or it was thrown away. Idk. We never have issues with ordering takeout, other than there is no discount for service members. Their food is always good. Just rated it poorly because of service and what happened. Just check your...

I order from here a lot because I love Chinese food and it's the only place in Valparaiso that delivers to my apartment. If I were to give it a 100% honest score, I'd give it a 2.5 of 5 stars. I don't hate it. I don't even dislike it. But I also don't enjoy it. I give it praise for their soups and pot stickers, but that's about it. Every now and then, I get free egg rolls just because, which is always a plus and very nice. The flavor of the Orange Chicken is one other thing I can praise, but it's not the best I've ever had, either. And they're nice about leaving out the rice when I tell them it won't get eaten. A lot of Chinese places will still give it to you, even if you ask them not to.

Everything else? I've tried an assortment of their vast menu and everything is absolutely terrible and flavorless. And this is coming from someone who prefers their food naturally flavored and/or bland with no spices or even salt and pepper. I LOVE perfectly seasoned food too though, so that's not the issue here. In fact, I'm not a picky person at all. I'll eat 99% of anything put in front of me without complaint. The problem is the food isn't seasoned at all or isn't seasoned well. The dishes don't compliment, the flavors don't compliment, nothing works right. It's enough that when I DO order (I admit ordering here a lot because it's convenient when I crave Chinese) I stick to the soups and the pot stickers. The only dish that DOES have flavor is the Eggplant. But it's not seasoned in proportion, so one seasoning tends to overpower the rest and it tastes like over-spiced eggplant.

And the service? When I call into the restaurant, I would say a good 1 out of 5 times I call, I get FRIENDLY service. The delivery guy (the older gentleman) is ALWAYS fantastic. Everyone else rushes me, they're rude, they don't wait for me to specify sizes or ask. Sometimes they just assume I'll pay cash and hang up before I get a chance to tell them I'm paying credit. In fact, I just now ordered from them and they didn't bother to ask me what size of the soup I ordered I wanted. I'm hoping they gave me the small and charged me for the small, because that's all I wanted. Yet my bill seems a little high for a small soup and pot stickers, so we'll see when they get here!

All in all, if I had a choice in other Chinese restaurants delivering to me, I wouldn't order from this...

New ownership at first did not live up to the food of the previous owner as described in previous review below. But great news. They have got their mojo back. The egg rolls and food are now ex as good and in some cases better than that of the previous owner. One improvement I'd like to see though is to the fried rice they serve as part of each lunch menu meal. It is just colored rice not quality fried rice that would contain bits of meat, bits of fried egg, bits of vegetable like peas, and drizzled sesame seed oil. All in all though I love the egg rolls with duck sauce, and the Kung pow shrimp with fresh good size shrimp, lots of cut up green bell pepper, water chestnuts, carrots and peanuts. It's excellent except for the fried rice I mentioned above.

Been coming here for eight years and we were never disappointed. That has changed with the new ownership. First, for years we were always greeted with a pot of piping hot tea. Now the tea was Luke warm. A downer to start with. Second, the egg roll from the new owner was hot and crispy, but smaller with some mystery ground up filling. A step down from the previous owner's larger and more meaty egg roll. And the dipping duck sauce has changed - more watery and a poor tasting pineapple base. Third, fried rice has taken a bad turn for the worse. Not fried enough, basically regular white rice with added color, and no bits of vegetables, egg, or green onion. A real step down from that of the previous owner's excellent fried rice. Fourth, the Mongolian Beef was fatty and inferior, very greasy fatty sauce, barely passable beef, and all overshadowed by tons of greasy fried onions that overpowered the dish. Fifth, the shrimp chop suey was very good, some large, fresh good shrimp. And decent vegetables. And the traditional fortune cookie has changed, for the worse. And to top it off, the new owner raised the prices. Raising prices and lowering quality - not good! Advice to the owner. Don't mess with success!! All you had to do was to not change a thing, and continue with the old recipes to succeed. Very disappointed!!!! Get the old recipes and old...