En Lai Chinese Kitchen

edible food ok first thing the cashier said to me was 608 buffett or 535 for lunch special trying to push you along i didnt care for that but i tried it like i said edible

Ordered at at 9:42 pm. after our order hadnt been delivered after 2 hours which was an hour longer than estimated, we decided to investigate. it turned out they canceled our order after our order was already 30 mins late. no phone calls, no nothing. then at almost midnight nothing else was open so we were completely screwed

In the mood for some Chinese food one night and though we’d try something new. Same menu as others but portions and flavor are opposites. Lo mein was flavorless, as was the crab Rangoon. BBQ spare ribs and fried rice were really the only things we thought were good. Sadly I have yet to find a good place for Chinese food in town. Depressing.

I stopped in to the En Lai for some take out. When I walked through the door I was grossed out by the décor and how extremely dirty the place was. If the lobby is filthy then I can only imagine how the kitchen is kept. This place is in desperate need of a remodel and an update. It is not an appealing place you would want to go. All the fixtures were covered in an inch dirt and had not been cleaned in what looks like years. The fans and lights above where people eat have a mountain of dust and dirt looking like it could fall into your food any moment. It was almost closing time or I would have just walked back out the door and went somewhere else. Well enough about the depressing and dirty lobby.
The food itself was the traditional Chinese buffet and take out food. It was average at best. The portions are quite large and the price was good. It was nothing special by any means and I recommend going somewhere else. Its hard to go into detail about the food because the look of the place just dominated my experience and opinion. It just looks like they don’t care. They had a lot of employees working and were not very busy so you would think they would see the place was kept clean.

A hankering for Chinese food one evening prompted me to open the phone book (I couldn’t find anything on the internet) and find a place that delivers. En Lai had a large, diverse menu printed right in the yellow pages, making it even easier.
We ordered: Steamed dumplings, General Tso’s chicken, and pork chow mein. Delivery was on time, prices were very fair.
Maybe I am totally wrong, but the chow mein I have always had before was a noodle dish. It was always noodles, veggies, and meat. So I assumed that chow mein was a noodle dish. Unfortunately, this was not the case here. The was not a noodle to be seen among the veggies and pork. And even worse was the complete lack of any flavor in the dish. It was pretty much inedible — it was as if no seasoning at all was used in the meat or veggies. The closest thing I can think of is boiled cabbage. Minus the cabbage flavor.
The General Tso’s chicken was much better. It was cooked right, with crispy outside and flavorful sauce. The steamed dumpling weren’t terrible, but I wouldn’t get them again. They were too doughy and chewy with very little filling inside.
Oh well, I’ll just have to eat more Chinese food to find a great restaurant. Worse things could happen.