Shana T.
Yelp
When entering one of my used to be favorite Chinese spots in Haymarket, I became immediately confused with the " halal" sign hanging up and the baklava at the front counter. I asked another patron if it was still Chinese and they said yes.
We sat down, perused the menu and realized there was no pork. What Chinese restaurant doesn't serve pork?!!! Oh yes...one that is now halal because the charming Chinese ex owners were now gone and the restaurant is apparently now run by a middle easter owner. This would be fine if they maintained the integrity of the old owners....which they did not.
The one employee that was working front of the house brought over our place settings which were paper plates and plastic utensils. We ordered egg rolls (options were beef, veggies, NO PORK) , chicken on a stick, general tsos and combo lomein.
After about 15 mins we got our egg rolls, served in a small plastic to go container, after another 10 mins got our chicken on a stick which was a doll size piece (in my photo those are SMALL skewers not large ones for reference) served in a to go plastic LID. My daughter didn't even finish her egg roll bc she said it tasted strange...the chicken on a stick had a weird curry flavor.
After another 15 mins we got our entrees... the rice was served in a Styrofoam bowl and the general tso's and lomein were served in....drum roll please..... black plastic to go containers. The food was lacking flavor, the shrimp in the lomein tasted a little like ammonia and there were a couple random bean sprouts and scallions as the veg in the lomein.
My daughter said she felt like we looked like we decided to have our take out as dine in... which we did due to no decision we made....we felt uncomfortable the whole time and with no waitstaff we were basically ignored as the elderly Chinese woman was getting take out orders out the door.
We used to love this place.... NEVER coming back..... hey East Ocean.... leave the Chinese food to the Chinese! And thanks for destroying our oceans with the disposable serving dishes...if I'd wanted to have take out, we could have ordered and eaten in the parking lot...
Maybe I should have ordered baklava because at least THAT may be authentic.... unlike the mall quality Chinese food we got.