Mai Place

At my sister-in-law’s suggestion of a restaurant serving great Chinese food, I stopped in for lunch following a medical appointment on Thursday, December17, 2015 at approximately 1:30 PM.
As I walked in the restaurant, I noticed the sign on the door read, «American Express Cards Welcome». The food was fine, but when I asked for the check and it was brought to me, I put my Amex card in the check holder. When the waiter came for my payment, he looked at my American Express card and lied to me saying the restaurant did not accept the American Express card. I wasn’t feeling my assertive self, took my Amex out of the holder replacing it with my Visa card. He came back to my table, took the holder for the second time. He left the table went to the cashier station, came back and asked me if I had cash because credit cards aren’t accepted for checks less than ten dollars. I didn’t have cash to pay the bill, and he was obviously upset with me.
I won’t be going back, nor will I recommnd this restaurant to anyone. I also suggest they take the «American Express Cards Welcome» sign off of the door. In my opinion, customer service is crucial no matter how good the food.
Sandra Kirk Roston

We came here mainly for Chinese set dinner during special event like birthday or friends visit. It is because they have pretty good set dinner menu and big table. The food is not bad and they serve roasted quall.

I love this place! Their food is very authentic instead of Americanized Chinese food. I’ve been coming here for many years now. The lady who normally works week day nights is very sweet! She makes good recommendations, just tell her what you are in the mood for!
Price is good. Fried rice and chow mein dishes are large.
This place was alittle hard to see while your driving down the street but it’s right next to the rite aid!
This is a great small family business and regardless of the negative reviews, I urge you to just try it yourself!
They also have a great lunch special your choice of dish plus soup and egg roll and your choice of fried or steamed rice.
They don’t have a lot of staff, and being in the service industry myself, I understand what it is like to be expected to take care of many guests by yourself! Regardless of their service, I still love their food.

I like it here, no matter what anyone else says! We come here often for family dinners and my sister has even hosted a baby party here.
Location is convenient, right up from the freeway with a full parking lot. Chinatown quality food without the hassle of street parking and Seattle traffic! The only downside is this place is too small to host a larger banquet. There are maybe about 8 – 10 large tables and another dozen or so smaller tables. Service is always good, and the menu and pricing and competitive.
They offer a set dinner menu different from most Chinese restaurants. You can choose any combination from a list of 40 or so dishes and depending how many entrees your order, the price and the dishes it comes with varies. You could easily feed a table of 6 people for under $ 50!
Food is consistent, in a good way. My son loves the fried fish filets that comes with a side of the sweet soy sauce used for fish. One of the more simple dishes that we love as well is the steamed tofu. It’s really just steamed tofu also served with a variation of the seafood soy sauce.
We’ve never really had to wait to be seated (we do usually show up right before the dinner rush though), will usually get water the first time we ask, and our first dish never takes more than 15 minutes or so to show up after we order. Faster if it’s not busy!

We dined here yesterday on Labors day and waited one hours for the first dish to be ready. Then the subsequent 3 dishes were available as we finished the prior one… Like a 4 course meal. The total duration was over 2 hours and it would have been an OK experience if the dishes were good. ¹⁄₃ meal was undercooked and 3 boys ended up spitting out the honey glazed ribs. Other dishes were salty and we could not consume much although we were all starving. THEN we got a receipt with the full amount for the ordered food that were not only late but below acceptable quality level. It wasn’t even worth spending time to request discount on our meals.
Came home and make a small dish for my starving boy.
Never returning to this place again. HORRIBLE customer service.

I hate giving bad reviews, but this place was awful! My boyfriend and I only chose it because it is so close to our house, and we recently moved to Renton, so we thought we’d try it out… We ordered to go since it seemed a little busy, and when we arrived the outside smelled horribly of trash. It may have been because it was a hot day? Anyway, we weren’t acknowledged for a good 10 min after we walked in the door, and then waited another 15 for the preordered food to be finished. Like I said before though, it was busy so that May have been a factor. When we received our food, my Kung pow shrimp was lukewarm, and not spicy at all. I believe they also used an oyster sauce? This may be authentic, but I have never gotten Kung pow with oyster sauce. It’s always been a spicier red sauce. In the end, my dish and my boyfriends dish were mediocre and over priced. I won’t be back.

Just got charged a whopping $ 22 dollar for one dish to go. You be the judge. Is it a rip off?

My family comes here pretty often and it’s normally pretty good. Sometimes on weekends I’ve seen this place completely packed other times you might be the only table in there. I live about 5 minutes away and the crab and fish maw soup is my favorite any time I get sick.

I almost don’t want to tell the world about this place, but I have been coming here for over 7 years and it is a blast everytime and the food is good everytime. The service is always very attentive and the best is the homemade chili sauce at every table. The owner is a sweetheart and she will take the time to get to know you and remember what you order and the kind of things you like. She will recommend dishes if you ask her. Its very family oriented here as well.

I’ve been going to this Chinese restaurant for awhile now and I’ve known that their wait staff is really lacking. I mean they are bad to the point where they see you and ignore you even if the place has only 3 other tables. I went here because the food was really good, but I think I’m going to stop coming after yesterday’s debacle. We were waiting for a table for 15 minutes, then a 9 top came in and they got seated within minutes. Since we knew they were busy as soon as we sat we ordered before the waiter could leave so that we could beat the rush. The tea he dropped off wasn’t even hot it was already cold. It took about 30 – 40 minutes to get our first plate while the 9 top got their food before us and the 4 top behind us who sat 10 minutes after we did got there food as well. Which mind you they didn’t order right away they took their time looking over the menu. Then we asked three different wait staff to grab us 3 drinks since my daughter was basically dying of thirst. Each time we asked we gave them 10 — 15 minutes to accommodate us, we watched them say yes no worries and go to other tables to chat with them and help them place soups in their individual bowls. One of the dishes we got wasn’t even cooked right, the noodles was still hard which was really bad since the chow mein was one of my favorite dishes. So after getting fed up with the really rude way we were being treated they hand wrote the tip in the tip section of the credit card payment. I thought tips were supposed to be for the customer to give to the wait staff for a service well done or lack there of. The audacity of these people to write down the tip even though they didn’t even wait on us was just the tip of the ice berg. It was a horrible experience one I will never repeat ever again. I wonder if it was because we weren’t Chinese that we got such a bad bad bad service each time we go. I mean my husband and I are really good tippers regardless of the service but my gosh to write down the tip for us. It was just too much.

Not bad seen this place in the highlands always wondered so went in prices not bad for amount of food wished they had more combo meals to choose from but food was kinda bland but left happy

This place is a nice little secret. They have an awesome family menu and it’s cheap too with lots of good food. If you know what you are order you’ll walk out happy. Way better than going to Tea palace.

The lighting is so dark inside I thought they were closed. We came in Saturday night around 5pm for a family dinner and we were the only ones there. During our meal there were only two other tables dining in. The service was good and bad depending on which waitress happen to come by our tables. We ordered their family style dinners. The portions are generous but was barely warm when it was served. The dishes looked good but were not flavorful. I thought it was strange that the fried rice had pineapple and raisins in it. Not sure if I’ll be back.

I really wanted a cup of egg drop soup right when I woke up today so I went to this place because they were right down the street and open at 11am! I ordered a cup of the egg flower soup and my boyfriend ordered the hot and sour and then we noticed how good the prices were!!! It’s 5.95 for all the lunch specials. Chinese food isn’t my favorite but seriously how could we pass on that??? We decided on the mandarin crispy chicken because the menu said it was a spicy dish. It came with rice and an egg roll that was pretty greasy actually but the dish was good. I wasn’t disappointed with it and I’m a tough critic when it comes to Chinese food because it’s all just gross deep fried meat with a sticky gooey sauce BUT this actually had good flavor and tasted great with the spicy chile paste.
My only complaint is the waitress didn’t bring us water or an extra plate but we got jasmine tea so that made up for it.
if you like Chinese food the prices are great here!

Good prices. Better than I expected. They have squab or was it pigeon? Not as good as vancouver; but its the closest we get
The restaurant had a special. Geo duck in three ways.
We ordered that, squab, beef brisket and tendon casserole and Beijing pork.
The geo duck was made into a soup, combined with vegetables, and another plate by itself. The soup was very flavorful.
Everything was decent. As I said it’s better than expected. If I’m ever in renton and want Chinese food, I’ll poetically go here.

It’s a great place for family dinner. The server is very nice and friendly.
We had the following dishes today, all are good!
* baby pigeon
* geoduck two ways
* beef brisket in a clay pot
I heard the chicken is good here, will definitely come back to try next time!

I have been coming here for a few years now. It’s nice that Renton has a good Chinese restaurant.
I alway order the sticky fried rice, spicy green beans, seafood egg tofu, and the sizzling fish (comes on a sizzling plate like carne asada). I’m not sure if I have all the English names right since I typically order in Chinese, but it’s pretty close. The food is very flavorful! The green beans aren’t too spicy and have great seasoning. My favorite veggie dish anywhere!
I have always had great service when coming here. I know they get busy especially during the weekends for dinner and they are always short handed. Patience is key. They are not ignoring you, just busy.
The food is always consistently good. It’s my go to place when I’m craving Chinese. Take out is quick and easy too!

Typical American-​Chinese menu, but there are some hidden gems if you just ask for them!
Having grown up in the area, I’ve eaten at every Chinese restaurant in the Renton Highlands. I’m not saying Mai Place has the best food, but they definitely have some unique items that I don’t see at other local Chinese restaurants. In an attempt to salvage this restuarant’s reputation, I’ll introduce some of my favorite items on their menu with the hope that you’ll give them a try. If you’re unsure how to order it just show the server your phone of this review or try to describe the dish.
糯米炒饭 — Sticky fried rice — This is definitely my favorite carb option on the menu. It’s a slightly sticky rice fried with Chinese sausage, cilantro, egg, and baby shrimp. It has a very unique flavor and Mai Place does it right!
干煸四季豆 — Spicy green beans — The menu says green beans, but they’re actually string beans that are sauteed in a spicy pork mixture with shrimp paste. It’s hands down the best veggie item on the menu and I could honestly eat these with a bowl of rice for dinner!
铁板魚 — Sizzling swai filet — My best way to describe this is Chinese fajitas. This is a stir fry of strips of swai (a light white fish), bell peppers, and onions in a black bean sauce. It’s served on a sizzling cast iron skillet and has excellent flavor.
龙鯉魚 — Fried fish filet (I think it’s swai) — This is a very light flaky white fish lightly breaded and fried and is topped with green onion and a sauce similar to soy sauce. It’s delicious and not heavy at all!
玉子豆腐 — Egg Tofu — I’m not sure how to translate it, but I love this dish because even though I love meat, I find myself craving this tofu dish. It has little rounds of tofu in a gravy-​like sauce with a veggie that I’m not sure what it is. The veggie adds a needed crunchy texture to the soft tofu rounds.
椒盐排鼓 — Salt and pepper spare ribs — While this can be found at many Chinese restuarants, it’s not typically ordered by Americans. Spareribs are lightly breaded with diced jalapeño and lots of garlic.
It makes me sad to see the poor reviews regarding the service. I thoroughly enjoy the people here!

We started going here years ago, and a few years ago I would have given it 4 stars. I’m not sure what happened to the food but everything taste extra corn starched and a bit sour like.
I don’t know how to explain it. We use to go here about twice a month, but now we are back to maybe once every 6 months.
There are some dishes here that are good and some I don’t recommend.
The unique lamb hot pot is great if you like lamb, and the fried fish was good.
Service is good though and that is rare at Chinese restaurants. Given the location and availability of Chinese Restaurants in Renton, it isn’t a bad choice if you need to come here.

I would have never known this place existed if my uncle didn’t suggest we eat here. It’s nestled between Rite Aid and the teriyaki place on Sunset.
The pictures on Unilocal build it up more than it needs to be. The place is fairly small and poorly lit although it seems clean for a Chinese place.
Nothing really jumps out at me about our dining experience. Because my relatives spoke Chinese to the waiter, I never really interacted with him. I assume everything went okay since the food was brought out quickly and no one was complaining. The food is better than your typical American style Chinese, but nothing to write home about… We ordered a banquet dinner and got red bean soup for dessert. The red bean was considerably less sweet than I’m used to, but it was still a nice touch to the meal.