Pye W.
Yelp
If you want delivery or take out, the place is fairly typical of faux-Chinese fast food. They serve that yellow glop that some people think is actual fried rice and the gamut of typical Americanized sort-of Chinese food that one would expect from a place like this. Personally I don't like the yellow glop at all - it looks and tastes like the Vigo "Yellow Rice" you buy in tubes at the grocery - but if you like that sort of thing, well, that's what they have for you.
The problem is I didn't go there for carry-out. I was fooled by the nice-ish tables (and plenty of them) and assumed the place was set up for both carry out/delivery AND sit-down diners.
It is not.
I don't know what was up with the heat in the place, but it was FREEZING COLD, and when I asked if the heat was broken, I got a blank stare. When I elaborated and said "It's FREEZING in here" the guy just looked annoyed and walked off. And it really was freezing in there. I ended up not only keeping my winter coat on, but my hands got so cold I had to put my gloves on as well. When the food arrived, it cooled off so fast I gave up, stuck the lid on it, and went home, with only a few bites taken. Please note that all the employees were wearing hoodies and jackets. As far as I could tell, the only heat in the place was coming from the wok ring. If your heat is broken you put a sign to that effect on the door. I have no idea if it was broken or if they were just trying to save on heat. All I know is it was too cold to hang around in there without a coat on, even for the folks working in the cooking area.
I had ordered black tea for myself - my dining companion had ordered none. Instead they brought 2 cups with hot water and a tea bag in them - but that's ok, neither one was full, so if you poured them together it made about one full cup. Of course we'd been CHARGED for 2 full cups, despite having ordered only one, but after my experience at the register trying to communicate with one of the employees (it did not go well, let's just leave it at that), there really wasn't any point in trying to point that out to anybody. Also, when they brought the food out, they just threw it down on the table and ran off. Its not like they gave us a number or something to be called and go up and get it ourselves, but the server was pretty clearly not really in the mood to be serving. My dining companion was facing the counter and we were only about 8' away from it so its not like he couldn't or wouldn't have walked up to get the stuff if they'd waved at him to come get it, and it's also not like she had to trek across the entire restaurant to get to us ... so the attitude was pretty weird. If you want people to come up and get their own stuff when it's done, hand out tickets and call numbers.
There were like 8 salt and pepper shakers on our table - literally, I am not joking - but no sweetener for the tea. I walked over to the condiment station, and there was no sweetener over there either. I finally had to go up to the counter and try to get an employee's attention (again) and after I finally made her understand what I was looking for, she heaved a great sigh of annoyance and gave me about 1/4" of sugar in the bottom of a sauce cup - she scooped it off the prep table. Apparently they serve tea but don't think it's normal for people to want to put sweetener in it. It was actually Sweet 'n Low I was looking for, but ... clearly this is a place where you take what you are given and be thankful for it.
Pros: They were fast. They used fresh ingredients in the entrees. Big plump mushrooms, crisp snow peas and bell peppers, very fresh broccoli. Serving sizes were moderately large.
Cons: Forget about sit-down eating. The food was average to below average, and that's evaluating it as bad Chinese fast food (the kind we all love once in awhile). Szechuan chicken has no szechuan pepper in it, of either kind - not the sichuan peppercorns, nor the sichuan chili peppers. They use dried chili flakes and whatever variety they are, they are not particularly hot. I asked for extra hot and it was barely discernibly spiced, despite seeing lots of dried pepper flakes all over everything. For a place with as many tables as this place has, they clearly don't have the interest in dealing with sit-down diners.
Conclusion: Will not return. Not even for carryout. I can get carryout at ANY of the local Chinese restaurants, all of which (so far) have far better food, and this place is subpar, overall, even as Bad Chinese Fast Food goes.