The Flower Drum Restaurant

My favorite Chinese restaurant! I have been going to Flower Drum ever since 1990. The best Almond Boneless Chicken in all of Toledo. (Actually the best ABC I have ever had.). Their lunch specials are so cost effective & a lot of food — soup, entrée, fried rice & an egg roll for around $ 5. Love Flower Drum!

Passable. A score above Magic Wok. You know when you settle for Happy Rose just to scratch the itch. Instead of going to Koto Buki. It’s like that. A rock in your stomach kind of food. The reason however, that I will not return. Instead of just charging a bit more to substitute for fried rice. They charge full price even when eliminating the white rice. Minor? Perhaps. But to me, that’s bad business, when every other Chinese restaurant has a respectable substitution policy.

Some of the best hot and sour soup I’ve ever had. The beef hot pot is delicious. A new favorite of mine is the salt baked shrimp and squid. These dishes are found on the Chinese menu, not the American Chinese menu.
The fortune cookies are the best I’ve had.

This is one of my grandparents favorite chinese restaurants, so when they invited me out to lunch to this place I was somewhat obligated. Strike one was the set up of the parking lot, essentially watch where you park or you will be blocked in. Strike two was the fact that it took forever to get our food. Strike three was the food. Very bland. I’ve had better takeout. On the bright side it was very cheap. Much better places for Asian Cuisine in Toledo.

After noticing a couple bad reviews I felt it was only fair to do my part in sticking up for this place. Flower Drum has some of the best Almond Boneless Chicken in Toledo. Hands down. For the reviewer who complained about the brown gravy, that is how it’s supposed to be served (!) This dish is native to the region and not to be confused with Almond Chicken, or Chicken Almond Ding, which is more of a stir fry dish with vegetables.
Compared to Chinese take-​out restaurants, which seem to be very common these days, Flower Drum is nice in that it has an extensive menu. You can get duck and prawns and stuff you won’t find at other places. I have never been disappointed from the dishes I’ve tried, and I’ve been eating there about sixteen years. The fried rice at Flower Drum is also excellent. I always get a pint of this no matter what I order. The soups are good and even the egg rolls are tasty in an out-​of-​the-​ordinary way. This restaurant offers some american dishes, like the pork chops. But should not be judged on those.

I have been going to Flower Drum since I was 10 years old. It is by far the best Chinese restaurant I’ve ever been to, and every time I am in town I have to go there.
I like the lo mein a lot, either beef or chicken. They use fine noodles and crisp vegetables. Delicious! The fried rice is very flavorful.
When I met my husband, he did not like Chinese food at all. When I got him to try Flower Drum, he loved it! He likes the general tso chicken, they make it a different way than I’ve seen at any other restaurant.
Their egg drop soup is fantastic, and we always order fried wonton as an appetizer. It tastes great dipped in the soup.
The staff is great, and the waitress recognizes us every time we come in. I highly recommend this place, and wish there was one up in Auburn Hills.

I was really excited to try a place that actually had some authentic chinese dishes on the menu, I bought some of my friends and encountered something really odd. My wife and I had the tea smoked duck which was pretty good, my friends went for the more traditional chinese fare, got Almond Chicken and Chop suey, even for an Americanized dish this was the worst tasting crap I have ever seen assembled at a chinese restaurant. I have heard of catering to Americans, but brown gravy in your almond chicken and chop suey is outlandish. Both were horrible and the brown gravy on both tasted the same which means they propably use a common stock. Never going back there!!!

Authentic Chinese food? Yes. Low quality dishes? Yes.
Ample portion sizes, broad menu, but like I just previously mentioned, poor quality of food. The salt pepper pork chops were heavily breaded, and I quickly discovered that the breading was so they could cover up all the animal fat due to the low-​grade meat. I also learned that more than 70% of the dish consisted of bones, which was very disappointing. Fat or bone… such a toss-​up. The crispy shrimp balls were quite savory, but sadly, the accompanying shrimp chips simply lacked a certain zing. And lastly, the beef brisket with bean curd hotpot. The tofu was clearly prepared days before as it reeked of stale bean curd. The beef brisket was good, but the smell and taste of everything else made the dish itself quite unappetizing.
One server was taking care of about 6 – 7 tables, so we had to flag her down to place our orders, never mind the refills (which never came, by the way.)
In conclusion, go elsewhere for authentic, regional Chinese cooking.