Oriental Cafe

Typical Chinese takeout place. Nothing fancy or special about it. I do however liked that the portions are really big which my fattiness is a fan of. The price is cheap too. The food isn’t anything special, just mediocre Chinese food which I’m fine with.
Overall, if you want to pick up some average, but good portioned and cheap Chinese food then here’s the place to go!

The food tasted fine (I got the kung pao chicken and sweet and sour chicken), but I was violently ill only 20 minutes after finishing my lunch. Never again!

I have been coming to this place for several years, the food is tasty and the quality is actually not bad, you can seat in and eat, order for delivery or pick up. I tend to just order and pick it up, the food is ready fairly quickly. There is at times a lady up front, she takes the orders but she isn’t very friendly. However, it may also be the language barrier. Overall it’s cheap, tasty and quick, perfect for those days you don’t feel like not cooking and just being a bum in front of the Tv or like me busy studying.

I ordered for take out (they said they didn’t have a driver for delivery…) and the order that I phoned in was exactly what I received. The prices are excellent; they have «regular» and «large» portions but I think the regular portion was a lot in itself. The food was delicious which would make me return. I like that they have healthier entrée options, which were still very flavorful. The ONLY thing I am upset about is that my order did not come with a fortune cookie or any packets of soy sauce/​duck sauce/​hot mustard — what’s up with that?

A wonderful find! Located next door to my physical therapist. Wandered in, as Chinese is my favorite and I was discouraged with the quality of similar restaurants in the area. Most were dirty and unappealing. Oriental café on Lee highway is unique. Clean, friendly, excellent food, and prices. I am pleased

3 star chinese food and it’s the best chinese food around — not that it’s that great, but should tell you something about the other chinese places

If décor and real plates matter to you, this is not your place. If you want huge servings of great food served hot and delicious by friendly people, then you must come here. Our standard order is the mushi pork, kung pao chicken, moo goo gai pan, and my absolute favorite, crispy beef. I could eat the crispy beef 3 meals a day for the rest of my life… mmmmmmmmm. The owner, Judy, is from Taiwan and is succeeding as a female small business owner by always providing a quality product at a fair price with a smile!

I did not have the greatest experience at the oriental café.
The manager working the counter was very high strung and rushed me to make my order when there was no one in line behind me. I ordered the steamed snow pea chicken. When I picked up my order, the meal had a brown gravy used for mashed potatoes all over it. When I took it back, they told me they wanted to just rinse it off instead of giving me what I had ordered.
When they finally gave it to me steamed, I got mostly carrots. — carrots in a meal called snow pea chicken? When I inquired, I was told that’s just how they served it. 75%carrot, 15% snow peas.
I would not recommend this restaurant.

Large portions of Chinese food for a $ 6 lunch for takeout or eating there. You get to pick two entrees of six offered that day and it comes with a side of rice. No waiting as the entrees are sitting at the counter waiting to be served.

After searching for a cheap Chinese Restaurant in Merrifield, I came across Oriental Garden. I looked at the menu listed on Unilocal (as the restaurant doesn’t appear to have a website), and ordered accordingly. BEWARE– the current menu on Unilocal is NOT CORRECT. I have notified them and posted pictures of the actual menu.
For pickup I ordered sweet and sour chicken, an egg roll and hot and sour soup. There was a bit of an issue with communication on the phone, when I asked how much it cost to ad soup, the gentleman replied «thank you». I repeated it a few times and then we got it cleared up.
The portion sizes are pretty large. The Sweet and Sour Chicken was good, nothing special, but not bad. Nice, large pieces of chicken with perhaps too much breading, but that seems normal. This was served with carrots, peppers, and pineapple, steamed rice, and a large side of sweet and sour sauce (the sauce was a bit runny and lacked any kick). The egg roll was nice and crispy and tasted like you would expect an egg roll to taste. The hot and sour soup, was a bit bland, but it had a good amount of mushrooms tofu, and egg, which I love.
All in all a pretty good meal, but since I was expecting to pay $ 4.95 in accordance with the Unilocal menu, I was bummed that it ended up costing $ 10.45. For less than $ 5 it would have been an AWESOME deal, but for $ 10, it was fine.

Pretty decent beef & broccoli

I’ve lived down the street from this joint for 8 yrs. This was my second time there and I love chinese food of all kinds. The line at subway was out the door. Walked down to this joint to order their express lunch from the chinalady. She said next! i told her what i wanted. Said 6.30 with disdain. Handed her my credit card. She grimaced. She swiped and threw receipt and pen onto counter. I signed. I thought about throwing my copy onto the counter as she did but thought without my backup she would charge up a huge tip. She poured the food into the container. Tiny portion of chicken and hefty scoop of rice. She shouted ok! I gave her a stare but she didn’t care. I’m thinking of boycotting this joint. Yes it would be yellow on yellow crime but I don’t care since she doesn’t care.

Their fried rice is bomb!

Great Szchuan chicken in american portions as several reviews stated,
and get the same thing just about every time, It comes out a little different every time, When I ask for no scallions, I have to say it twice, calling them sping onions, then waiting for either name to register, then ignored.
The most curious thing about this place is they never close the cash register, or ring up the sale, I keep looking at the blank display, and seldom check for the right change.
Usually quite enoght to hear the TV when the cashiere is not screaming out the orders that are ready, not by your name, but by what you ordered.
«SZECHUAN CHICKEN»

This is, in a way, your standard Chinese Brown Sauce in the 55 Gallon Drum place. Grease by the tanker truck. Sodium by the bushel basket — though I don’t think they have bushel baskets in China.
The name, of course, is an oxymoron, as it implies that coffee is available here, which it is not. I don’t think they even have coffee in China. Japan, yes, where it is «Kohi» and tastes like Maxwell House Instant — but I digress.
Nonetheless, I gobbled up the generous portion of my Hunan Pork. Leaving only the suspicious brown sludge at the bottom of the styrofoam box.
All in all a nice place with sweet if curt and affect-​neutral genuine Chinese staff.
Try not to gape with your mouth open at the menu behind the counter.

I’m slightly biased in this review as Oriental Café is the restaurant that first introduced me to Kung Pao chicken back in 1996 when I used to work in Merrifield.
We Americans are infatuated with that dish it seems. They do it well with a minimum of vegetables (green onion and celery is all), and they load up on the peanuts. I would prefer their sauce to have more flavor, but I usually doctor it up myself.
I really enjoy their dumplings as well, they aren’t like other Chinese restaurants that are all dough and no filler. Their dumplings have a silky thin ‘dumpling’ and are loaded up with meat.
Anyways, this place is about value, the prices are good, it’s not a great spot to take a date, but they serve good American style Chinese Food.
Oh. And they introduced me to Kung Pao Chicken.
Which is why I can’t really talk about anything besides the Kung Pao and the dumplings here because that’s all I’ve had, about a hundred times.
I also love the serve your own side of Hot Sauce deal they have going on as well. I’ve never seen that in Chinese Restaurants and I always request for extra hot sauce on the side.

A hole in the wall type of Chinese restaurant, but it’s a good one. So far I have only tried their General Tso Chicken, Sesame Chicken, and Beef and Broccoli dishes and I have no complaints. The food was always piping hot and more than I expected for the price I was paying.
Overall, it’s a nice place to order from if you’re feeling lazy and just want something good and cheap to eat.

The place may not look like much but bring your appetite. Generous portions of americanized chinese food that is pretty tasty, cooked fresh and fast.
Though I’ve never been there for lunch, they apparently have lunch specials. 2 items for $ 6 including tax. You can eat there for take away.
Their General Tso is excellent. Though they advertise it as spicy, it’s not really that spicy at all.
It’s a good cheap-​eats, quick chinese take out.

4÷6÷10 lunch
I’ll rate this higher because when I compare it to other carry out places, the food is really nice. It’s not greasy, and tastes fresh. My wife, who’s from Hong Kong, and I stopped for lunch. We were both happy with the taste of the food. The service was quick… order at the counter and they call your # when ready.
I thought it deserved a thumbs up!

Located in Merrifield is this little Chinese restaurant. This is your typical mom and pop run shop. They are very fast when preparing your food and pretty cheap. They have some good lunch combos.
During the lunch rush they have dishes already prepared and I think you can pick two dishes and be out in like 2 minutes. If you want to order other things then they have lots to choose from. The food here is in my opinion very Americanized. It’s getting harder and harder to find an authentic Chinese restaurant. I’ve tried a lot of their dishes. The kung pao, fried rice, lo mein, yu shang pork, hot and sour soup, wonton soup, egg rolls. All of them are just basic. The kung pao lacks flavor and is too spicy for me, I don’t like how they add the celery and stuff to it. The yu shang is way too sweet. The fried rice and lo mein are pretty good. The hot and sour soup is very bland and taste too watered down, but the wonton soup is good. They use the little wontons with the thin wrappers.
The décor inside is nothing to brag about. It just a bunch of open table with soy sauce, salt and pepper on them. In the summer it gets hot in there so try and sit near the fan. Price is cheap. I use to work near here, so we’d only go here because it was cheap and fast.
On my scale of things, I’d have to rate this a 2.