I can attest to having a taste for Chinese food. Give me some good lo main, chicken and broccoli and fried rice and I am a happy man but the quality has just gone downhill. Even ten years ago it was easy to find good quality places but these days all the local place have that low quality feel with overly greasy food and that yellow fried rice which is the indicator of a poor quality place. Maybe it is just the area I live in but we tried the highest rated Chinese place on Doordash and it was just okay. Has anybody else noticed this?
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Why are good chinese restraurants so hard to find these days?
- Thread starter Woggleman
- Start date
Billbofet
Member
I would agree. When I moved to where I live 15 years ago, there were two amazing Chinese restaurants five minutes away. They have both taken a nosedive in quality in the last five years and are no better than Panda Express. Still have a great place about 20 minutes away, and when we go there it is a huge treat.
Puscifer
Member
The other reason is that many of the Chinese/Vietnamese restaurants we grew up on were run by many immigrants and their first generation of children. Either the 2nd gen didn't pick up or the parents are older and should retire so the food suffers
My favorite Vietnamese restaurant of all time, Van Loc in Houston, decided to close back in 2014 with a sign saying "we paid for our children's college degrees and they don't want to take over were going to retire and enjoy our old age." To this day I feel like I'm going to have to go to Vietnam to find some lemongrass chicken half as good.
I love that this is just how he sounds lol
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diffusionx
Gold Member
Not trying to be one of those annoying city "people", but I remember when I moved out of Brooklyn a few years ago and ordered Chinese one day. It was just abominable. I've had better since but yea I think the only option is to try places until you find one that works for you.
Alex Anderson
Member
Making me hungry, bruh
The US is a wasteland for Chinese food outside of LA and NYC. DC Chinatown sucks. I had mapo tofu that consisted of some weird jelly an no spices. I ordered "beef with chinese broccoli" and there was no kai lan to be found. The roast duck was the only somewhat passable dish and even that was overly salty. American Chinese food has developed far enough that I no longer consider it the same cuisine. Food from newer Asian migrants is a safer bet although you get oddities like green curry being sweet and other nonsense.
Ownage
Member
Rockville and Ellicott City have great Chinese food, mostly mainlanders. But Rockville isn't where the cool kids want to go.
Is it near that stretch of road with all the Japanese places?
Burning Blade
Member
Having just moved out of Northern California to the south I can attest that the Chinese food out here is absolute shit. My family and I lived in the Bay Area and there were some dope traditional Chinese spots and Dim Sum places too. We always tried to find the restaurants that Asian folks eat at. If it’s full of whitey it’s gonna suck…as a general rule.
Mistake
Member
They all taste roughly the same to me in the US. I do miss eating authentic chinese sometimes though. Garlic string beans, duck neck, roasted peanuts, kung pao, bbq lamb, etc. I imported something similar to sichuan chili powder for meats, which tastes great. I’ll post pictures of it later
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a multicultural team of v
Member
From what I've read, the DC Chinatown got wrecked by the arena they built there and probably is nothing resembling authentic anymore. I only know this because they are also trying to build an area near the Philadelphia Chinatown and they are PISSED.
CrankyJay™
Member
That’s exactly what happened to my favorite childhood Chinese restaurant. They ran a highly successful business in the 80s/90s, and basically closed their business in 2000 when their kids made it to college. Ivy League colleges even.
I mean. Good for them. But I miss the food so much. It was comforting.
The local community got the area designated as a historical space then sold all of their shit and set up in Rockville and surrounding areas. Authenticity is a general problem though. Even authentic restaurants will serve dishes to American tastes unless you order in Mandarin.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Toronto GTA is blessed. Chinatown has legit places of course. But throughout the metro area you got Markham (north of the city) which is practically Chinatown V2. There's also more legit Asian place east of the city (Scarborough) and small pockets west too (Mississauga).
But for people who prefer places like Manchu Wok or whichever eggroll and fried rice take out joint, we got lots of westernized places too.
But for people who prefer places like Manchu Wok or whichever eggroll and fried rice take out joint, we got lots of westernized places too.
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ReBurn
Gold Member
Before covid there was an amazing Chinese food place where I live that had an unpublished authentic menu and it was amazing. They enjoyed sharing their family recipes with people who hadn't tried them. They had to close because of covid and sold out to a fried rice and fortune cookie chain and that was that. There's an Asian bistro that has some esoteric Chinese and Japanese dishes but it isn't the same.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Restaurants being shit I notice that too.
Oddly, the price of ingredients is ridiculously low compared to the price they charge. When you got the average plate of food being probably 3-10x what it costs to make (a plate of pasta for $18 is probably $1 worth of pasta, meat and sauce), it goes to show two things to me:
1. The costs to run food joints are all tied up in non-food costs
2. Most places would rather scrape bottom of the barrel food and ingredients selling customers often shit food hoping they come back no matter what, instead of amping up the quality a bit, charging more and trying to survive on a higher end clientele. A simple example that seemed to work is the trend the past 20 years to more burger joints that are a step up from McDonalds but charge an extra $5 for a combo (that craft burger trend). They all seem to still survive so it's working. To survive running a burger joint, you dont have to go after McDonalds in low end burgers at value pricing
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Ownage
Member
More like the Japanese places are near all the Chinese restaurants. One dominates the other. This is north of Bethesda.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
If it's an authentic ethnic restaurant, they probably buy all their ingredients at wholesale and then make and bake their recipes.
For all those westernized fast food kinds of places (general tao chicken and sweet and sour XYZ), there's no way they are making that stuff from scratch. THey need consistency in product at high volume. A franchised or mom and pop shop are buying most/all premade stuff from wholesale, or from their own company facilities in giant processed food batches. Then truck the shipments to each location.
Even something mainstream like Starbucks and Tim Hortons. The baked goods arent made fresh at store. They are delivered early in the morning either premade and prepackaged to sell, or get them in almost done shape and they just heat it up to finish it off.
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Dirk Benedict
Member
A good chunk of those people passed on the business. Then, most probably held, but there was those who sold out... I think as time went on, selling out became more prevalent as the generations went on? But, I think there are exceptions. People who value Legacy over money, which probably leads to more money, anyhow, eh?
GeekyDad
Member
Yes, and I don't know why. Even if the prices of various meats have escalated, most of the flavor is in their sauces and combinations of spices. That stuff hasn't really gone up much, or at least not enough where it would justify the terrible quality of Chinese food. I'd rather have no meat with a good sauce and noodles than the stuff that's out there now.
Esca
Member
Any recommendations? Im always open to trying a place if they are worth it
newtypepilot
Member
unless you live in an area with a large asian population, the "chinese food" in the US is just bastardized chinese food for white people.
Puscifer
Member
As someone else from the south, Vietnamese and Thai food are going to be the best bets for you.
Chinese food exist in pockets of California and New York.
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It's like a really weird mix of Guangdong and Taiwanese food with any strong flavors stamped out.
So I started making my own lo-mein.
Here is the deal.. I love it, but often the restaurants I go to serve it with spaghetti like noodles. I like my noodles more fried and smaller... Then this Chinese lady told me to ask for chow Mein noodles instead....
She was spot on and its been easier to get better food since.
This is straight false. If you want a wasteland for Chinese food and Asian food in general come to Europe. Us has plenty of great Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese etc spots all over.
does that translate to something? I can ask for it at the local Chinese marketHere’s the seasoning I use for meats if anyone is interested. Has a nice kick to it and tastes great. I put it on everything
烧烤撒料
I was able to find actual Chinese food more easily when I lived in Munich than when I lived in the US. Options drop pretty fast as you leave the main hubs.
Ask for Sichuan BBQ Seasoning.
CrankyJay™
Member
My experience growing up was sit down Chinese restaurants with white table cloth, hard to get reservations etc. Now it's some small place in a strip mall, wedged in between an HR Block and a Super Cuts, with the menu above the counter.
Chinese food deserves better.
Chinese food deserves better.
One of the best chinese places I had was on the boardwalk right near the beach where I live but that part of the boardwalk burnt down ten years ago even thought they built it back up that place never returned.
Mistake
Member
I fixed the post. Probably better off just showing them the photo though. It was a pain trying to get it myself initially
The best Thai food I’ve ever had is actually a local place here in the US. Getting harder to find gems nowadays, but they exist
Depends on where you live, I guess. Anywhere that has a high Chinese population (especially recent immigrants) will usually have great Chinese food. Toronto has no shortage of amazing Chinese restaurants.
It also depends on what you mean by "Chinese." If you're talking about the Westernized style of Chinese restaurants (general tso's chicken, fried rice, egg rolls, etc.), then you're probably right. Westernized Chinese is well past its heyday, IMO. Combination of lower demand and higher competition = shut down restaurants, cost cutting measures, and so on.
However, most cities with a Chinese population I've been to in the past few years still have great dim sum, crossing-the-bridge noodles, xiao long bao, etc. And that's just what's popular nowadays. There's a bunch of different regional cuisines that basically most Westerners have never beard of -- and so won't frequent. But again, if there's a solid Chinese population, there are likely some really tasty, hole-in-the-wall restaurants you've never heard of.
It also depends on what you mean by "Chinese." If you're talking about the Westernized style of Chinese restaurants (general tso's chicken, fried rice, egg rolls, etc.), then you're probably right. Westernized Chinese is well past its heyday, IMO. Combination of lower demand and higher competition = shut down restaurants, cost cutting measures, and so on.
However, most cities with a Chinese population I've been to in the past few years still have great dim sum, crossing-the-bridge noodles, xiao long bao, etc. And that's just what's popular nowadays. There's a bunch of different regional cuisines that basically most Westerners have never beard of -- and so won't frequent. But again, if there's a solid Chinese population, there are likely some really tasty, hole-in-the-wall restaurants you've never heard of.
Soltype
Member
Taste of Chengdu and Yummy House were good, haven't been in years though.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Well said.
As for what style of Chinese food people like or have sold in their area, I have no problem if someone likes eating the Panda Express stuff. I eat that too. But I also like some types of authentic Asian food.
For those of you who arent sure if you've ever eaten real Asian food, put it this way. If the place serves you take out style, gives you a fork and knife and has those throwaway wooden chopsticks, that's westernized food. Egg rolls, Family Combo for 4 with fried rice, orange chicken and handful of fortune cookies is not real Chinese food.
And I have never seen one restaurant in Chinatown ever give you take out food in those folding boxes like you see in Hollywood.
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Lunarorbit
Member
Off topic but I moved to Denver recently and I can't find a good wing place yet. There's a ton of them here; I get garlic parmesan as a default to base wing places against each other.
Little Ollie's in Denver is an excellent Japanese/Asian restaurant. Shishito peppers are bomb there. Haven't had any Chinese food here yet so sorry I can't recommend anything
Little Ollie's in Denver is an excellent Japanese/Asian restaurant. Shishito peppers are bomb there. Haven't had any Chinese food here yet so sorry I can't recommend anything
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
The influence of American Chinese food is too strong.