New Kam Lai Chinese

Decent cheap Chinese food. $ 3 for a quart of wonton soup with 7 or 8 wontons in it. $ 7 for an entrée with fried rice and a egg-​roll. I had some general tsos and my girlfriend got sesame chicken. It wasn’t anything special for the price I can’t complain too much. Portion size was good and I had leftovers for lunch the next day.

This review is for the Pork Dumpings, Listen long story short I took one bite with a tiny bit of soy sauce and WOW really, really good! it actually surprised me how good they were. strongly recommend giving them a try.

Horrible customer service and the food is not good at all. I ordered takeout from work and they took forever to deliver it. By the time I got the food it was cold, the pork fried rice was soggy and way too well done and the chicken felt gummy. I’m so upset I ordered from this place, don’t bother, their food is horrible! (My coworker’s food was also bad; their brown rice hard and dry and their vegetables soggy) when we called to tell the lady about it she was rude and didn’t even care. Never again!

I arrived to NYC for the first time on a Thursday night — I was traveling with a NYC native, and he told me he absolutely needed NYC Chinese take out, as the Chicago version just doesn’t compare.
I had orange chicken (can’t remember what friend got), and we split some shrimp egg rolls. It was great — perfectly greasy, piping hot, take out. Only complaint was that the egg rolls were only barely warm, but we walked a few blocks in the cold, so meh. Not a big deal.
I still can’t say that there is a HUGE difference between Chicago and NYC Chinese take out, but I enjoyed my food, and we each got a pop to go along with the meal. Amazing price for the amount of food.

My fave Chinese carry out in the upper west side. Delicious large shrimp and broccoli and roast pork egg foo young – so inexpensive and large portions.

When I ordered takeout today, Kam Lai had shrunk portion sizes by a bit and raised prices by about $.50. Normally, this is not a big issue — but for a restaurant whose entire selling point of ‘a lot of a food for cheap,’ this is a pretty large blow.

Used to like getting from this place… Up until a few days ago when I found a clump of hair in my chicken and broccoli. I removed the clump of hair and sifted around with my fork and found another medium length black strand of hair. I don’t really believe in calling & complaining only at expensive high end restraints in fear of spit on the rebound. No more New Kam Lai for me anymore.

very very rude over the phone. they take your information (credit card). wait 5 minutes and say your card decline when you know damn well you have money on your card. then they hang up the phone and scream at you. these plp have no respect bad customer service. Won’t be ordering her ever in my life

Here’s what i’ve had that’s good:
Pork fried rice
Hot and sour soup (very good)
Twice cooked pork
Shrimp with mixed vegetables
Roast pork with broccoli
Egg roll
Fried dumplings
Fried chicken
Basically, it’s very good for a hole-​in-​the-​wall Chinese food restaurant.

Solid, although by no means outstanding, take out place. Prices are reasonable, portions big, and the staff is friendly and remembers their regulars. Wontons are doughy like you want them, but sadly, their fried rice is the more common yellow and not brown. Still does the job when you are in a fix.

i dont eat chinese take out anymore, the quality of the food is just too. damn. consistently. shytty. but then evar once n a while i pass one that’s frying chicken that just smells omg gud, so i stop, get a menu, and try ordering something low fat/​steamed/​with brown rice, usually later on and for delivery. and it always, always, always winds up failing. i had one place going pretty gud for a while, trained just right, steamed chicken and mixed vegetabels, brown rice, spring rolls. the guy was super polite, knew my order down cold, had it to me hot and steaming in twenty minutes, no worries. so what happened?
one friday night i call up and someone else answers the phone. no biggie, a young girl answered once or twice before, i figure, so what, so i have to repeat my order, whatever. half hour later, i get my food. cold. rice is hard, like its been sitting since yesterday or scraped from the bottom of the pot. the vegetables were hard, thick, awkward, unseasoned pieces. hardly any chicken, and what was there was also bland, tasteless, cooked poorly and at too low of a temperature to lock juicy flavor on the inside. it sucked. then i look at the menu. wait a minute… this is not the place i usually order from…
turns out my place went out of business, and this nasty place from up the block took over from my delivery. never again. having nearly vomited the one time i tried KAM LAI. now i remembered why. and had yet another reason to avoid it like the plague. so i call back. and am like, yo, you could have told me you were serving food from one restaurant, claiming it was another. this food sucks, i want my money back. and they were like, uhhhhh… we dont do refunds? whatever. tell you one thing i will NEVER eat at that place again. and at every opportunity, KAM LAI will feel my wrath on Unilocal lol
so to sum up…
KAM LAI = AVOID

Food was good, quick, cheap and plentiful. Packed 3 containers with leftovers. If you want something fancy go elsewhere.
Seamless Delivery: small boneless spare ribs, pepper steak with chicken fried rice and egg roll, szechuan wonton $ 16.75
Ribs were greasy, flavorful and a good size portion for «small».
Pepper steak had tons of veggies, but meat was a bit stringy.
Chicken fried rice was tasty & satisfying.
Wontons were different but good — had never seen fried wontons in same container with szechuan sauce and veggies.

Reliable and reasonably priced takeout, the one marked just «Chinese» in my contact list. I only order about once a month, but the lady behind the counter remembers what kind of soda my kids like. Love the General Tso’s tofu (not on the menu).

Please do yourself a favor. Do not order from this place, for many reasons:
1) dirty and nasty, you can see the workers how dirty. Don’t clean their hands…
2) bad service, especially the person who is taking orders over the phone. Twice forgot to send my food. First time I paid and never sent it. Second, took 2 hours and when I called she told me sorry my friend. we are so busy. …plus, they fried with old oil. Everything in the same place.
I would never ever go or buy from this place. Again, Nast and dirty place and service. I understand, food Taste good, because too much Soy sauce.
Stay healthy every one.

Is there something wrong with me? I actually like this place, and it’s my new go-​to for seamless UWS Chinese delivery. It’s fast and cheap and bad for you. Basically, the holy trinity of chinese delivery.
Keeping these three things in mind, the food is in the OK to decent to sub-​deece range, depending on what you order. American and not authentic in the least, just how I like it. So, I give it 2.5 for the food, up to 3 with the other factors.
Dinner for three for 22 bones in 20 minutes? Done and done.

THE WORST Chinese take-​out we’ve ever had. Ordered General Tso’s Chicken: there was hardly a piece of chicken to be found. It was like they shredded chicken and then just rolled dumplings out of the coating with a single shredded piece of chicken in it. Absolutely awful. We were eating the coating, not chicken! It was terrible. How do they get away with that???
We’ll never waste our money again. Plus the whole experience made us feel ill afterwards. Not sure why. Awful stomach burning.
DON’T risk it.

A lack of flavor is the biggest issue with this restaurant.
I decided to try it because it’s one of few that actually have crab wontons. Unfortunately, they looked pretty but had little-​to-​no flavor whatsoever. The sweet and sour sauce did little to help.
The sesame chicken portions were big, but again, I wasn’t blown away by the taste, so it left me unsatisfied.
I suppose if you’re OK with mediocre food at a reasonable price, you’ve found a match in New Kam Lai, but if you’re able to go elsewhere, do so.

Despite all the bad reviews I tried this place because it’s just so close to home and i was craving Chinese like craazzyy
Yummy tofu. HUGE portions. Fast Delivery. Cheap– especially lunch special!
The only thing I didn’t really like was the veggie fried rice — it wasn’t bad just not my taste — it was very commercial/americanized…yellow rice with frozen veggies thrown in and no egg

I am all about cheap, delicious, greasy, all-​around-​bad-​for-​you American Chinese food. Read approximately half of my other reviews for proof.
But this is just not okay.
New Kam Lai – seriously, go easy on the MSG! Chicken should not bend and wobble (much less taste) the way mine did. To further complicate my selective food-​stabbing, the pork pieces in the fried rice were almost pure fat. I have never eaten around the protein in my dinner before.
Also, not all THAT cheap. Maybe their fried food and vegetarian dishes are worth trying, but I’ll be looking elsewhere for grub.

Everyone has their favorite CHEAP Chinese delivery joint in the city which is usually neighborhood based. I have been ordering from this place for over 5 years now. I don’t often order but when I do, it is from here.
The food arrives hot and quickly. I sometimes wonder if they already have it made? Doubtful though. That being said, my favorite thing they have is their pork fried rice that comes with the combination plates. Sweet chunks of delicious swine are like little treasures buried in the rice. All the other dishes are pretty standard.
If you live in the 80’s or 90’s on the UWS, this a great place to order from. Not sure if you actually want to eat there, but delivery is always quick!