China Inn Restaurant

Great! This place is inexpensive, clean, and the employees are always friendly. Easily the best restaurant in the UofL/​Speed Art Museum area!
All the fried rice dishes are good as is the sweet and sour pork and chicken. Penny likes to offer a daily Thai dish that I understand from others are always good.

This place has held up to the test of time. I remember eating here as a student, then later as a resident in my first apartment in Old Louisville. The prices have not changed much and the quality is consistent.
You can get Chinese and Thai food here, their recipes are slightly different than most Chinese places mainly because the owner is Thai and they use a different spice palate than most, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
My only complaint is parking, it has always been a challenge and if you are not careful and park in the wrong lot the U of L police will ticket you. Make sure you park up against the building or you may get a ticket.
They are very busy at lunch but can handle it well. This is one of the few Chinese restaurants that will make it VERY hot if you ask them too.
Their portions are large for the money but often heavy on the rice and lesser on the entrée.

Mmmm… China Inn. China Inn has been around for 1000 years because it’s delicious. I always get the pad thai with chicken, tofu, and extra peanuts and make it hot, baby! It’s good — seriously, seriously good. Their crab rangoon and eggrolls are on point and their homemade sweet and sour sauce and hot mustard are not to be missed. I’m hungry just thinking about it!

The staff is friendly here, and the food is good. They have quite a few stir fry options available, and it’s great if you’re looking for a quick noodle fix (the lo mein is definitely something to look into). It’s pretty customizable, so if you’re not fond of one or the other, you can tell them, and they won’t include it in your dish. Lots of menu choices, so if you ask about items you’re sure to find on that you’ll enjoy. It’s affordable, and you can get a LOT of food for less than twenty dollars.

Really good lunch specials. I was surprised to see Chinese and Thai food on the menu. They don’t have some of the «standard» fare that you often find at Chinese restaurants like sesame chicken. Good option when you are around the University.

Do not sleep on this restaurant because of its shady location. The food is great! I got chicken and rice and for the portion and quality the price was very appropriate. Very flexible place to grab food and go or sit down and enjoy a meal.

This place is tasty! It may look like a piece of crap on the outside and inside, but this place knows how to cook. They offer both Chinese and thai dishes. For students, their location is a plus as it is within U of L’s belknap campus. For non-​students, I would suggest coming for dinner as parking may be a hassle.
FOOD:
— Veggie Pad Thai– this is the best pad Thai I have had in Louisville. It is the closest to authentic tasting pad Thai and at a reasonable price (and trust me– I’ve tried several other thai restaurants in town). The pad Thai comes in hot or mild. I opted for the mild and it was perfect– not bland but not too spicy, with the perfect amount of flavor. I give this a ⁵⁄₅ stars
— Thai shrimp spring rolls– this was a let down. The spring roll is the size of a burrito, which might seem great at fest until you realize it is stuffed with 2 pieces of shrimp, one cucumber slice, one leaf of lettuce and a crap ton of vermicelli noodles. It was very bland and the roll didn’t even come chilled, it was about room temperature. Unfortunately this was the worst spring roll I’ve ever had in my entire life. I give it ⁰⁄₅ stars.
— crab rangoons– one order comes with 5 or 6. It’s evident that these are frozen rangoons that are deep friend, but most places never make them from scratch. The filling only has a small dollop of creams cheese. Nothing too special about this appetizer. I give it ³⁄₅ stars.
Would I come back to this place? Most definitely!!! — at least for the veggie pad Thai!

Great place. Fairly priced. Good service. Food was out quickly and it was great. I got the veggie pad-​thai. The tofu was nice and firm, just how I like it.
The downside was the amount of waste the meal used. It was actually served in a styrofoam to-​go box.
One other great thing was the DIVERSITY of the clientele. There were students and people who lived in the area; students from Greek life and not; old folks, young folks; families; well-​off people and folks who were poorer. It was SOOO nice to see such diversity in a restaurant.

A hole in a wall kind of a place. Delicious Chinese and Thai food, made fresh to order. Clean, very friendly people Many great selections. Recommended to us by our Über driver.

Pretty amazing food, great prices, and great service. Even the chicken fried rice is delicious. Been here a handful of times even when there’s a few people in line. Never had a long wait and the foods never been sub par. The only downside is there’s no fountain drinks and the bottled sodas manage to be mildly cold and a little flat. No clue how. The seal isn’t broken and its not expired, but its always just a little flat. Not terribly enough to ruin anything. Just an annoyance.

Holy moly! I have never been a fan of Chinese food but my boyfriend assured me this would change my view on it and he was so right!
The fried rice is the best I’ve had anywhere but the cashew chicken is what really stole my heart. You can really taste all the flavors of the veggies and cashews and they use actual pieces of chicken as opposed to whatever those Chinese buffets pass as chicken.
The crab rangoon is pretty delicious also.

Ate here tonite with my daughter. She had the beef and broccoli and I had the Imperial
Shrimp. My dish was very good… the bean sauce wasn’t as spicy as i wanted, but the
portion were large and still quite good. I tasted my daughters beef and broccoli and is was decent. the brown sauce was abundant and really softened up the dish a little too much but it was still tasty.
Overall I’d recommend this place.

Although a daughter was disappointed with a Chinese beef dish, I have been a huge fan of their Thai dishes. The PAD KE MAO is outstanding. I’d give it 5 stars for the Thai food, except that they serve everything in styrofoam carryout boxes, even if you eat there.

China Inn has cheap food in large servings. They don’t deliver, but if you call ahead they’ll have your take-​out ready very quickly. Sometimes I eat there & sometimes I get take-​out.
PROS: cheap food that ranges from meh to tasty. I’m not usually a fan of fried rice, but they have really good fried rice. The portions are large enough that I can often get 2 – 3 meals out of a single dish, especially if I expand the leftovers with some sauteed veggies. The fortune cookies are cheap & some of the best I’ve ever had. (I love fortune cookies, so this makes me happy.) Free wifi. They’ll leave you alone to sit at a table & read — I’ve occupied a table for about two hours during the slow part of the afternoon with no one bothering me, but I was able to get service whenever I went up to the counter.
CONS: My alternate name for this restaurant is «Drowned in Brown Sauce.» Many of the dishes are drowned in the exact same brown sauce. They pour enough damn sauce on those dishes for 4 times the amount of food. Chicken with cashew nuts? Drowned in brown sauce. Beef with broccoli? Drowned in brown sauce. Bok choy? Drowned in brown sauce. (On the west coast bok choy is usually served in a white or garlic sauce, so this one surprised me.) Lo mein? Drowned in brown sauce. As far as I can tell even the fried rice is seasoned with the exact same brown sauce. However the food that is under this brown sauce is pretty good and if you ask they will go easy on the brown sauce. Sometimes the restaurant is a bit cold. They close early.

I was on a long road trip in which I avoided tornadoes in Ohio when I finally got to Louisville to eat lunch and take a break. I found this restaurant on my gps and I mus say their food is the best American Chinese food ever. EVER! I ordered Mongolian Beef with fried rice. It took me awhile to get to the Mongolian Beef because I couldn’t stop eating the fried rice. Their food is great, end of story!

Good lo mein, though it was a little bland the first time I tried it. It was saved the next time by adding Penny’s Special Sauce, some kind of spicy oil. Good portion sizes (makes two or three meals for me) and good Chinese doughnuts too.

Cheap Chinese food close to UofL. If you call for carry out they usually have everything ready in ten minutes. Rather than portions being in traditional chinese food boxes (apparently called oyster pails — thanks Google), it is in styrofoam boxes, so I’m pretty sure it fits more food (although I haven’t technically compared the container maximum capacities, this is just based on appearance). So I guess what I’m saying is you get a lot of food for the money. Good stuff.

I live just down the street from China Inn and its a staple at my apartment. Just about everything I’ve had here is very good, ESPECIALLY the Thai dishes. The Lad Nah is a unique noodle dish with a delicious brown sauce. The Pad Thai is a perfect blend of sweet and savory. The REAL thing to order though is the Mon/​Tue lunch special, a soup called Guay Theo. The bowl is huge and the soup itself a savory, rich broth of stewed beef, celery, broccoli, and spices with rice stick noodles. I get it almost every week, its THAT good.

I go here a lot because I work right across the street. For a cheap lunch, it’s not bad. I really love that they have dim sum and some other dishes you can’t find at most Asian take out places. I highly recommend the spring rolls, and the fried tofu comes with a really good spicy peanut sauce. YUM.

Let me begin by saying that I do not eat rice. There is something about the texture that makes me want to cut out my tongue and dissolve it in acid.
I will eat the fried rice here, and only here. In fact, while I was knocked up with my oldest kid, I ate the fried rice here at least twice a week.
Penny (the proprietor) is a kewl, friendly lady.
The crab rangoon is the only disappointment. It’s sweet, weird.