Kim Van Restaurant

For shame on me for never, ever trying a St. Paul sandwich and calling myself an OG from St. Louis.
The Shrimp St. Paul sandwich is not only reasonably priced but ultimately satisfying. Hot and fresh, especially from delivery!
Their Sweet and Sour Shrimp has a scrumptious breading accompanied with a tasty sauce. They’re thoughtful and serve it on the side if opt for carry out.
The ever so tradition of Vess soda with Chinese food is always available as well as Mystic drinks. A pretty nice selection of both! A free Vess can if you meet a certain price for delivery. To be completely honest, I never have a hard time making the quota and its a sweet surprise to be awarded more tasty treats.
If none of this has persuaded you pass the ratings which sometimes seem to be ungracious for some restaurants with those with too much free time. Let me add that the ordering process is a delight.
Always friendly and thoughtful as well as a family oriented business. The daughter or mother always waits on you and/​or takes your order, to whom are very courteous as well as nice people. The father is typically the delivery driver. He’s such a vibrant and compassionate fellow with vintage 80’s hats.
Kim Van is my only Chinese food spot on the south side.

We ordered delivery at lunch time for our office in City Hall. They do get the food to you very fast, I’ll give them that. I didn’t particularly care for anything I ate. I ordered the lunch combo of Orange Chicken, with fried rice and 2 rangoons. I only had the fried rice since I forgot to tell the girl calling in the order that I wanted steamed rice, so that was not going to be to my liking anyway. The fried rice was super dark, that’s all I can say about that. The rangoon filling was different and it had black stuff in it, not sure what it was, some kind of spice I was hoping. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. The orange chicken was also weird. The breading made it kind of mushy feeling when I ate it, but the chicken inside was nice and white. The sauce was so-​so, probably more orangy then I’m used to, but not bad. What did throw me was the little penis mushrooms! I’ve never had orange chickens with mushrooms (which I can’t stand anyway). I don’t know what kind they were, but they were whole small cap mushrooms. I gave them to a co-​worker to eat. None of the 3 of us were impressed with our food and have decided we won’t be ordering from them again. Oh, and they charged us for delivery (expected) and for parking (not expected).

Rough times man!
My search for adequate, cheap Chinese food continued earlier this week at Kim Van Restaurant on Gravois. And that journey continued right out the door!
At first glance, this place has potential. When looking for cheap Chinese, anyone would look at this hole in the wall and hope that it was a haven for some tasty creations. We drive by it all the time, so we finally took a chance.
The first thing that we noticed were the posters on the wall from 2002. Apparently, PBS came in to film Kim Van for a Sandwich documentary. What that sandwich might have been was beyond me. There was no mention of it from the girl who waited on us. We just ordered a couple of Chinese norms and waited for our orders in the lobby, which kind of looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since the PBS crew came to visit.
Gravois always has me on edge. The only action that this place saw when we were there was a gentleman coming in, ear to his cellphone, and requesting change for the bus. On the way out, he referred to the man at the counter as a «Chinamen» to the person that he was talking to. How very 19^th century of him!
After several minutes, our food arrived. I was put off by how dark our fried rice was. It was a shade that I had yet encountered in my Chinese food career. The chicken was overcooked and dry. The crab rangoon could have passed for Tic Tacs, that how small they were.
Overall, not a very grand experience. I don’t think we shall be returning.

Thee best hot braised chicken in STL! All of their food is mouth-​watering. Very decent prices. Love the fried rice (w/​gravy) and crab ragoon. When i was still living in St Louis, the hubby and I went every week for hot braised chicken combo plates. Kin Van is a must any time we are in town.

The food is actually pretty consistently good at this place. The owners work very hard, and I’ve yet to have a bad dish. Given that it is VERY cheap — I’d say it’s a bargain. The inside is a little tired and fraying at the seams. I usually get their take out fare. I usually get hot braised chicken, with fried rice and crab Rangoon. So far, its been fresh, tasty, and quite palatable.

The wisdom that ‘the seedier the place, the better the food’ in regards to Chinese restaurants does not apply in this case. Kim Van is seedy and the food is bad.
I had a craving for Chinese food but I have yet to find a place in South City that is good. Suffice to say that still stands.
The interior of Kim Van is dirty with litter on the floor and booths with taped up tears. The décor is dingy and not even passable for kitchy. Paint is peeling.
They have the typical Americanized Chinese menu offerings. My order was awful. I got sweet & sour chicken and the chicken was soggy and the white rice was bad. Pretty sad if you can’t make decent rice.
The crab rangoons I got were no better and they didn’t even come with sauce to dip them in! Who doesn’t serve sauce with their crab rangoons?
Steer clear. Blech.