Ruby Chen’s Restaurant

This is my first visit to Fort Lauderdale. I came for a cruise and we stopped in to eat before we left to go to Orlando. I have had some amazing Chinese food. This was not it. This was some of the most disgusting food of any type I’ve ever had. The hot and sour soup had absolutely no flavor and my dad’s Pork Lo Mein was all cabbage and onions. NO noodles. The orange beef was flavorless and had the texture of an old shoe. Stay away!

This place is awesome. I live in Miami but when I go to Fort Lauderdale I have to stop by here!

Stopped in for lunch with my kiddos. We ordered to go but I needed to use the restroom. Restroom was surprisingly very clean. Our food was cheap and fast. I ordered general chicken, shrimp egg roll, and Hunan Shrimp. Rice was decent. Soup was OK. Chicken had a ketchup taste to me. Shrimp was fresh. The lady was very nice at the counter so I gave an extra ½ star. So really good to me is 3.5 service earns an extra ½.

The best Chinese food! My favorite is Singapore chow mi feng. It is so tasty. Wish I can eat every single day! Yum yum!

The food is soooooo delicious!!! The service is good too!!! Definitely wanna go back! Love it!!!

Great Chinese food and very nice staff. I love the Singapore rice noodle! It’s so tasty!

Everything there is so tasty and my favorite dish is sesame chicken !! I go there very often the owners are very nice people !! Love them!

Good location and fresh food! I love this place!!! It’s is the best authentic Chinese restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, all my Chinese friends highly recommend this restaurant. My favorite dish is beef Lo Mein

Very fast and inexpensive Chinese food. Always consistent and they deliver after 4pm.

If i could give it negative stars i would.
Gross. Chicken (szechuan) had a film on it and the rice was yellow& tasted instant.
They should be embarrassed to charge for this food.

I used to like this place and by like I mean it wasn’t that bad. Now it’s really bad. They should be ashamed to call this Chinese food, they for sure do not eat the food they’re serving their customers and if they do their don’t have any taste buds. Please tell me how one can call themselves a Chinese restaurant and use yellow rice?!? Anyway, I won’t be back even though this is the closest Chinese restaurant to my house and I’ve been eating there for years.

not the worst, but there are a lot better places. Cold sesame noodles were warm and mushy with some spice but no real flavor. Sweet and sour chicken was overcooked and the sauce was watered down. Pork fried rice was bland with microscopic pieces of pork. in a pinch, it’ll do, but not if you have a choice.

Unless you are are a masochist, do not eat here. I have given them several chances to get it right, as the quality with most restaurants varies a bit depending on the chef, but they left me cringing every single time. Examples you say? OK… One time I ordered a quart of hot and sour soup. I found numerous congealed globs of cornstarch (I hope) floating around in it. Awful, had to throw out. Another time I ordered a broccoli dish from the «special diet» section of their menu which clearly states that it was served «prepared with scallion, garlic, ginger, wine served without salt, sugar, corn starch» What I got was just straight up steamed broccoli. Seriously… just. steamed. broccoli. When I brought this to the attention of the girl behind the counter she argued with me and told me that the sauce is served on the side, which, regardless if that is correct or not, I still did not receive any! When I requested said «side» of wine sauce, I got a small tub of the rather awful standard thick gloppy garlic sauce they serve other dishes with. I am not just assuming it is the same sauce other dishes are served with… I have had it before, when I ordered «broccoli with garlic sauce»! When I brought that fact to her attention, she acted like she had no idea what I was talking about and kept arguing! Though I shouldn’t have to fight to get what I paid for, I gave up! I honestly believe that a language barrier is to blame for this incident over rudeness or malice, but still, if one can’t manage to serve dishes the way they are represented on the menu (it is still printed that way, see picture of menu) and can only manage to make things worse by refusing to correct the issue, regardless if it is due to language or not, perhaps it is time to get out of the restaurant business. I will definitely not be returning here again.

Terrible. All orders are 45% onion, 45% green pepper, one green bean, and some over flattened dry meat

Overall good Chinese takeout. This is the closest takeout place to where I live, so it gets points for convenience as well. I placed an order for takeout at 7pm and it was ready in 15 minutes.
The food (chicken fried rice, spring rolls, general tso chicken) was hot and the chicken was crisp. The fried rice was bland tasting, not enough soy sauce or seasoning, but the chicken had a very tasty sauce so I mixed the two together. My husband doesn’t mix his rice with food, so he found it too tasteless and added soy sauce.
For the price (under 20) and the convenience, I would come back.

OK — so after reading the reviews and seeing the prices on their menu ($ 5 for beef Teriyaki, hell yeah!) I decided to try something different than East China — my usual spot. My run down:
1. Pork fried rice — best part of the meal, fresh, cooked to order.
2. Beef Teriyaki — 4 thin pieces… yes 4. 2 Were fresh, the other 2 were literally like beef jerky from a gas station — no exaggeration, inedible.
3. Crab Rangoon — again great price factor, but they were a giant wrapper, and about a teaspoon of filling. I was shocked they were even passing them off as rangoon.
4. Boneless Ribs — decent, but I’ve worked in kitchens/​run kitchens in the past as a sous chef — some of the meat had been cooked, frozen, thawed, and mixed with fresh.
5. Honey/​Garlic Chicken Wings — no complaints, they were good.
Onward in my quest to find good northeast style chinese, in South florida.

This restaurant is located at the end of a strip mall that was close to the Best Western that we were staying at. There were about 3 – 4 tables so most people probably get take out which is what we did. After looking at the menu, we decided to get the large shrimp lo mein, sweet and sour pork (which came with white rice and sauce separate), and fried rice. The food was prepared within 10 minutes and we took it back to the hotel to eat.
It was less than $ 20 and too much food for 2 people. The sweet and sour pork wasn’t as I expected as ordered back home. It was battered and fried pork pieces that you dip in the sauce. The low mein came with decent amount of shrimp but wish there were veggies. The large would be enough to feed 2 people.
Given the amount of food, we could have eaten full for about $ 15. The noodles were a bit greasy. Food ok if you are looking for cheap, fast, and fried Chinese food.

Classic New York style Chinese take-​out. Dingy location but it has been in the neighborhood for at least 2 decades. You probably don’t want to eat inside but they do have a few tables.
Call ahead… wait 10 minutes… pick up food… relax in front of TV.
Tastes like what you would expect from Chinese take out.

I was staying at the holiday inn express for some work travel when I found Rubys. The only thing disappointing is that I flew the next morning and could not finish this delicious meal.
For Chinese food, I keep it simple and almost always order sesame chicken or orange chicken. Whichever I ordered was awesome and the portions were huge.
The staff was great and very nice. They had a little bit of seating but I took my meal back to the hotel so I could relax. Definitely returning here next time I stay by Ft Lauderdale Airport!

(Dined 12÷22÷13 SU @ 5:00pm): Sometimes going ghetto isn’t a good thing.
I was starving and initially wanted to go to a local sports bar for some brews and NFL games, but that was packed to the rafters, so Chinese sounded good and I found myself at Ruby Chen’s Restaurant located steps away in the same Southland Shopping Center. It smelled good when I entered, but that’s where the niceties ended. Here how the meal went:
Sweet & Sour Chicken, Fried Rice, and Vegetable Eggroll Combo ($ 8.25) — I was starving so I ordered the most generic — and safe — Chinese dish I could find that looked like a deal. All the menu pictures were faded out, but seriously what was there to worry about?! First off, the Styrofoam container this came in was filled to the brim and the sweet and sour sauce was served on the side in a plastic container. Once I cracked open the lid some chicken pieces tumbled out; there were a ton of them! However, there were no green peppers and sliced onions mixed in as expected, and frankly, the batter was overcooked and dry. Grab a piece and drown it in the sauce to soften it up. The fried rice was forgettable and barely had any other ingredients mixed with it; I think I found flecks of pork in there. I liked the eggroll as it was huge, thick, and filled with a ton of vegges. Too bad some of this didn’t make it into the fried rice.
Fried (Pork) Dumplings — 8 pieces ($ 6.50) — These were big in size and were several bites worth of munching each. The pork was rather flavorless but freshly cooked as steam went up your nose after each bite. The wrapping was hard on the edges and chewy elsewhere, so the unevenness was quite unappealing. The dipping sauce was served on the side so grab a dumpling and dunk all you want — I did!
Chek Orange Pineapple Soda ($ 1.00) — I’d never seen this brand before so I had to try it. It honestly tasted like a Fanta so I was good with it. The brand could’ve at least spelled its name correctly.
Service — I was the only customer at the time so I got undivded attention from the kind and friendly woman behind the counter. The wait time for my food was about ten minutes as I heard and smelled it being cooked in the kitchen. There was no wait service so you got called up to pick up your food at the same counter. Pretty hands off.
Parking (free) — Located in an outdoor strip mall with many other businesses big and small, mostly notably Winn-​Dixie, Wendy’s, and Dunkin’ Donuts, there was a ton of available spots.
Atmosphere, décor, ambience — Ghetto best described this place with its four tables and accompanying chairs, dingy walls with a few things hung on them, an order counter with visual menus above it and a more extensive printed menu on it, and a bird’s eye view of the kitchen behind the counter only covered by a drape. Natural lighting came through the windowed front walls, but at this time of day it was all about the bright fluorescent electric lighting inside. There were no TVs or background music played.
Attire — Totally casual, so I would normally be in a t-​shirt, boardshorts, and flip-​flops.
Overall, Ruby Chen’s Restaurant was sustenance at best and did the job of filling my belly (I can report I experienced no ill-​affects). But I would definitely not return the next time I’m in the area. Other than the kind woman, I couldn’t find much redeeming qualities. It served its purpose in the community for food diversity, but that was it. However, many diners came in while I waited and ate my food there so obviously they had a niche customer base. I found decent value based on the prices, service, and experience noted above (total bill was around $ 16.00 before tip), but at least the serving sizes were huge. And, although they accepted credit cards, not mine of choice… AMEX!