Lee’s Kitchen

Was in the area and stopped by for a quick bite. Happy that I did. Had shrimp fried rice and Mongolian beef, both were very tasty. The server walked by with a tasty looking dish and I ended up ordering it to go for dinner! Peking pork chops and sautéed string beans. Will be back to try more dishes. Service was really nice too! Yum yum!

It’s just impossible to find decent Chinese food in the South Bay. I had high hopes for this place, well, high hopes for Torrance. Just like every other Chinese place in the South Bay, this place strikes out as well.
I placed a to go order through Eat 24. When I picked up the food, the restaurant was empty on a Saturday night. Bad sign. The owners seemed very friendly so I feel bad about leaving a bad review but the food was just plain bad.
Ordered appetizer duck, sauted snow peas and Shanghai style noodles. All very bland and meh.
Oh well. I’ll just have to stop eating Chinese food in Torrance. :(

This is one of a few Shanghainese (chinese) restaurants that I know of in the South Bay and being Shanghainese myself, I have a sense of pride about this food. I have come to this restaurant for years. I’ll caveat this review by saying that I’m extra critical because I knew how awesome this place once was.
This place has switched owners/​chefs a few times but kept the same menu. The last chef REALLY did an excellent job where this became one of my top three Chinese restaurants in all of LA. Easily a 5 star for me. Unfortunately a new owner took over and the quality has suffered. One of the best dishes here is the mushroom and beef. It used to come with giant mushrooms and the most tender succulent beef slices you’ve ever had. The whole dish just melted in your mouth. Now the mushrooms are smaller and while the flavor is still good, the beef is not as fresh or as tender. You can tell the quality is not as good. We also got onion pancakes. They were very thin and dry. Not very satisfying.
For Chinese food the prices are okay. You are not walking away feeling like you got an excellent deal. We picked up our food at around 1130 on a Saturday and there wasn’t anyone inside. I guess my review is consistent with that. I’m pretty sad because I knew how great it was before.

Summary: Sure, you could find better Chinese restaurants but it is hard to find a better balance for food and price.
Atmosphere: Very Chinese, relatively clean but nothing fancy or anything.
Food: You can pick and complain out of anything, and sure you can say there are better Chinese restaurant out there. But I think they have a good food for the price especially that South Bay has limited numbers of Chinese restaurants. That’s all I can say.
Service: Maybe I have a stereo type. I don’t expect a good service for Chinese restaurants. You know. They come to the table and ask what you want and they look or sound somewhat angry… you know what I mean. But, staff here smile a lot! It is funny to say, but I have to admit I was somehow impressed LOL.
Parking: They share parking spaces with the motel, and they are limited. Good luck!

First off the egg rolls WERE STILL FROZEN in the middle… bad enough they were prefrozen but they werent even thawed out. the hot and sour soup was cold and tasted like tap water. absolutely zero flavor. EVERYTHING i ordered was garbage. I just cant eat it. oh and they even forgot to bring my drink… unbelievable…

I’ve been here two days in a row, & expecting to come back for more very soon!
Pleasantly surprised, specially the lunch specials!
Fantastic!
:-)

First time back after a couple of years. I’m glad there are new owners. Warm friendly service, but it’s the food that led to 4 stars. the salt pork, vegetable, and tofu casserole was as good as I had many times in Shanghai. the broth was superb. The baby bok choy with crab was a nice blend of properly cooked bok choy with a very tasty sauce made of minced crab and crab oil. The ma po tofu was a little oily and a bit too spicy. All in all, we’ll be back soon as it is a little gem in the Cihnese food wasteland that is Torrance and the PV peninsula.

This restaurant has lunch special 7 days a week. The price is very competitive especially in Southbay.
The food is great here.
Lunch special is from 11:00am to 3:00pm.
Come try for yourself.

This is one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in the South Bay Area! Service is really important to me, and this restaurant kicks butt at it! They’re always really friendly, even when we go in close to their closing time. Their food is great too! I feel like a lot of their dishes are really special and they’re not dishes you typically find at other restaurants. Love this place!

We enjoy the beef chow fun, seafood noodle soup, pork chow mein, drunken chicken, duck. You need to inform them that you do not want it too oily. We love their noodle dishes.

Great Delicious Food, Super Fast serving and very friendly staffs + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Awesome restaurant. Great authentic Chinese food. Regularly come here with my family. New management has got the food right this time and prices are decent! I highly recommend coming here!

Lee’s kitchen is the best! Good authentic Chinese food that’s within budget. Good portions even for their lunch special. Nice cozy atmosphere and very friendly staff. They also have free wifi. Me and my coworkers come here almost everyday. I highly recommend Lee’s anytime.

I live about an hour away and find myself driving out here to Torrance just for their food. The spicy shredded beef in particular. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. I usually order that, orange chicken, and a side of steamed rice. Their wonton soup is also delicious. I look forward to my next visit

The food and the prices are a good bargain. The pea shoots and stir-​fry black mushrooms are excellent. However, we noticed in the back room there is a fish tank that contains about 8 fish and one snail. The tank has nothing in it but water and a pump! There is no gravel, plants or décor and the poor fish were all hiding behind the pump looking terrified. Was the tank put there purely for Feng Shui?

The food here is awful. The people who work here r horribly rude. After eating I got a headache. The old restaurant That was here was way better and the old owner was much nicer. Never again will I eat here.

Best Shanghainese restaurant in the South Bay! Must get the boneless ‘drunken chicken’, so tasty and goes great with white rice. Other dishes are lightly sauced and not heavily savory like the Cantonese or Szechwan (you can always add your own extra hot sauce or pepper). I love it. Same exact menu & off-​menu items as before the restaurant name change. It’s a refreshing alternative to those tired of heavy-​handed Cantonese and Taiwanese cooking.
Only con: there’s literally only 3 parking spaces for the restaurant. Try street parking or pray the motel next door doesn’t tow your car.

I’ve been to this place several times and my feelings are a bit mixed, that’s why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. The food is good, if not very good, for all visits. It’s a bit oily, but that’s what I expected from Shanghai style, which is famous for «thick oil and red sauce».
The service I received was improving. The first few visits the servers are very aggressive. They try to promote expensive dishes very aggressively, which I don’t like. The last visit things seem to change quite a bit. The servers are nice and keep things easy and friendly.
I’d like to try some more times to decide if I’m confident enough to put the fifth star there.

So I’m struggling with how many stars to give this joint. I was skeptical on this place since it looks like it was erected in the ’60’s and connected to a Ramada Inn from Mad Men. AND I’m not usually a fan of Shanghainese food but my grandma is and we came to celebrate Mother’s Day.
I was pleasantly surprised by the food and very happy with the service. I don’t think I can give it a 5^th star just because it ain’t no fancy joint and I wouldn’t say that I would ever crave this food again but it was good and we had no complaints with food or service.

Hmm plastic forks and spoons?!? Am I at a fast food place or am I eating at a sit down restuarant? I am lost…
I came here for dinner one day and asked for some silverware because my friend and I are not really that great at using chopsticks. My friend and I were given plastic forks and spoons. I have to admit that I found this a little weird considering this is a sit down restaurant and not a fast food joint. I found it even stranger when I saw another table was given actual silverware and not plastic! Hmm was something different from my table versus that other table that we get plastic and they get silver?
Anyways my friend and I were already there and just went with the plastic fork and spoons given and ordered. We got the beef with ginger and scallion in casserole and the shanghai style chow mein. Prior to the main entrees being given, we were given hot tea, a salad with celery and carrots and a seaweed soup.
I’d been to this place before when it was Shanghai Palace and liked it. I was quite curious to see how Lee’s Kitchen was. Unfortunely, I was a little dismayed with the plasticware but was hoping the food would make up for it. I found the food to be so-​so. The salad and soup were a bit on the bland side. As for the beef with ginger and scallion in casserole, I was expecting more of like a hot pot style dish because it said «in casserole» and instead found a beef dish that was more like typical Mongolian beef versus casserole style. The shanghai style chow mein was a bit better. I did like the thick, long noodles and the spinach that could be found in the shanghai style chow mein. Taste wise however this was just ok. It was the spinach that gave it flavor.
I found Lee’s Kitchen to just be ok but plasticware, really? What if someone brought guests here or someone came on a date? Hmm… real forks and spoons, please and just maybe a little more flavor in the food…