Fu Lee Chinese Restaurant

First time here at this restaurant. Usually Chinese food in St. Louis is great. This place was not the best. My dinner had shrimp and they were the really small ones. Not a great deal of vegetables in the dish either. Crab Rangoon were good.

GREAT RICE!
Had the sweet and sour pork combination to go. All the food was piping hot and tasty, the fried rice was exceptional. Best I’ve had on the city’s south side! Egg rolls were average. I will definitely be returning

After a wonderful dish from here (circa summer 2013) — a dish I remember being one of the best dishes form a typical Chinese restaurant — my opinion of this restaurant has drastically changed.
I had the GENERAL TSO’S CHICKEN and it tasted like fried chicken that had been initially fried in oil-​gone-​bad, and then had a General Tso sauce poured over it as a last ditch effort.
This was, if anything, Chop Suey, not Chinese.

FU LEE IS THE HIDDEN GEM OF ST. LOUIS! We have been to many, MANY, asian restaurants (and I am also from asian decent) and this is by far my favorite chinese in the area. The place is rinky dinky, pretty gross inside, they’re short with you on the phone (if you can even understand them before they hang up on you), and the whole place is smaller than a gas station– but the portions and quality of the food is delicious. We get the hot braised chicken and have had a very very hard time straying from that because it is SO good! So, maybe this review is based more on the judgement of the hot braised chicken– but the orange chicken, garlic chicken, and general tso were pretty good too. One egg roll is almost as much as three crab ran goons but OH my– they are HEAVENLY! I am so picky about egg rolls because they are usually tiny these days and taste frozen in most restaurants– not here! Also, another huge problem I have with most asian restaurants these days is that they charge you full price for chicken thats 90% breading and 10% crappy meat. NOT HERE– total opposite! They give you huge chunks of chicken with barely any breading. My boyfriend is a very large fit guy and he says he doesn’t even feel as guilty eating their chicken because its actually chicken. Now, the fried rice is a different story because its his favorite and he wolfs it down regardless of the caloric consequences :) It is located within walking distance of us and we go here multiple times a month– weekly if we are craving it badly enough! Yum!

Being a vegetarian at a Chinese restaurant can be tricky sometimes, but Fu Lee had a pretty good number of options. My co-​eater and I ordered the stir fried mixed vegetables, the Buddha’s delight, and the Szechuan tofu. The stir fried mixed vegetables were served in a mild white sauce. It was a little bland, but was nonetheless very fresh tasting. The Szechuan tofu had a good level of spiciness– it wasn’t too mild nor too hot. The flavor was quite good. Finally, the Buddha’s delight was probably the best thing we had. It had a flavorful brown sauce and a nice blend of fried tofu and vegetables. Rice was served with each dish; it was perfectly cooked and very hot. We ordered small portions of each item, but they were actually quite large, especially considering the low price. Definitely good value here.
We ate inside the restaurant for lunch, and were the only people doing so. A number of people came in to get carry out, and a delivery person stopped in a couple of times. The restaurant did not seem to have any heat on, which made the dining experience a bit unpleasant, although I personally appreciated that they were saving energy (we keep our thermostat pretty low at home). The woman at the counter where we had made our order brought our food out to us served on nice plates, although the cups for water were styrofoam. The woman was very friendly.
Oh and for those looking for it, they have our regional specialty, the St. Paul Sandwich. I didn’t try one on this visit however, so I can’t comment on its quality here.
Verdict: average to above average American-​style Chinese food for a low price with several vegetarian options. Dine-​in experience is pretty bare bones. I’d come back, though not necessarily in any hurry.

The fried rice and wonton soup were some of the best I’ve had… until I woke up six hours later, with a skyrocketed temperature and hot braised chicken shooting out of both ends. I do not believe I will be back, unless my insides need a good cleaning out.

This is my favorite place to order Chinese delivery but I gave them 3 stars for a few reasons. 1. The guy who takes the orders speaks English TERRIBLY! And I mean bad! If you’re going to answer the phone and take orders, people should be able to understand you, and you should be able to understand them. Furthermore, he is not polite at all. I don’t know if he gets my order right, b/​c I don’t know what he’s saying! 2. Who puts raw white onion on EVERYTHING?! We hold it, but if this isn’t your thing, get in the habit of «holding the onion. 3. Their human vegetable delight looks and smells like vomit, this is no lie!
However, I love their veggie fried rice, their Buddhas delight & my hubby loves their chicken dishes. Their veggie spring rolls are awesome! If they could fix the details, they’d be rocking!

So I am not going to lie, I have passed by Fu Lee many times and never really given it a second thought, probably because of the appearance. The outside is essentially a shotgun house, with a very non descriptive «Chinese Kitchen» written on the windows. To be honest with you I had to do some searching to find out that «Chinese Kitchen» and Fu Lee were one in the same, however I am glad that I put a little effort into it because it was worth it.
I placed an order for a simple orange chicken, and have to admit that this was probably some of the best orange chicken I have had in St.Louis. The rice was great too, great flavor and taste. The crab Rangoon, actually had crab in it, which is rare at other places. In fact I think the Crab Rangoon here are right up there with the Crab Rangoon at Asia, which is my favorite.
Overall I recommend Fu Lee, and I learned to never judge a book by its cover when it comes to a family owned business. Sometimes the best food is in the simplest building.

Absolute worst chinese food in Saint Louis. That is saying something, because even when it’s bad. Chinese food is usually still pretty good. We threw away the bulk of what we brought home. Will not be going back.

Food had very little flavor. Chicken didn’t even taste like chicken, it was just mush. Won’t be going back.

On my commute home after an awful day with the prospect of two soul-​crushing exams the next, it hit me: no meat defrosting in the fridge, and a mountain of dirty pots, pans, and dishes rivaling Mount Everest. Cooking dinner was just not going to happen.
Enter Fu Lee for takeout, since I live in the neighborhood. I’ve always wanted to try them out since I’ve gone past them a million times on my way in/​out of QuikTrip next door. Good decision. Sarah F. is completely right – this place is definitely best for takeout or delivery. There were some people eating in, but out of containers (and watching NBC Nightly News on a dinky television in the corner).
The good: my beef and broccoli didn’t have that gooey over-​tenderized texture, the portions were generous, quick and friendly service, and (perhaps best of all) no MSG headache so I could actually study that night! Maybe a little heavier on the sauce than I’m normally used to, but I’ll take what I can get since it (thankfully) wasn’t oily. Will definitely be back the next time… the dishes are starting to pile up in my sink again.

Hard to park here. Staff were friendly. Food only ok

I love Chinese food, but do not pretend to know anything about authenticity. So read my review with that in mind.
The best thing that Fu Lee has going for it, is that it is cheap. Besides being cheap, they don’t use MSG (or at least not very much) so unlike some cheap Chinese places that load it on, Fu Lee does not.
You might miss this little place as you drive down Kingshighway. It’s tucked behind some trees on the other side of the street from Uncle Bill’s Pancake house. It looks like a tiny little elfin house.
Once I got inside, I quickly realized that people do not eat here; they order out. There were some vegetarian items: good olé’ standards like Happy Buddha, Ma-​po Tofu, Vegetable Mushu. Mostly mixed vegetable dishes.
When I ordered the Ma-​po Tofu, the woman working there had to go and ask the folks in the kitchen about it because I don’t think anyone had ever ordered it before. There must not be a lot of vegetarians in their customer base.
At any rate, the owners are extremely friendly. My food took a little longer than the carnivores who ordered before and after me, but I just figured that mine would be a little fresher because they had to chop more vegetables.
The flavor was pretty good. The vegetable Mu-​Shu was a little heavy on the oil, and slightly overcooked. It also came with an odd mayo-​based sauce instead of the usual plum-​sauce for the wrappings. Not sure what that was about. I don’t really like mayo, so I didn’t eat it.
Ma-​po Tofu was pretty tasty. Both dishes came with rice at no extra charge.
I might go back to this place if I’m really on a budget, but I’ll keep searching for better Chinese in South City.