Lee Lin Chinese Restaurant

I’ve been going to Lee Lin since I was a kid. Always a family favorite. Now that I’ve moved across town, I still drive fifteen minutes out of my way for it. It’s hands down the best Chinese take out in Troy. From their awesome take on General Tso’s Chicken, to their Orange Chicken or HUGE pan fried dumplings, everything is consistently good!
I’m not trying to say you’re going to be skipping you next outing to a traditional sit down Chinese restaurant for Lee Lin, but if you’re hungry and you have that craving for something Asian, this is your place!

This place has been my scope to try for awhile, well I tried it, the call to place the order was time consuming and eventually was wrong. I order two combo platter one orange chicken, the second was sesame chicken and the third was another orange chicken which I didn’t order but the young lady taken the order was busy at the counter so wasn’t paying attention. That being said the food was just okay wasn’t horrible or made from other white meat that was not chicken, if anything the orange chicken was covered with too much sauce which was kinda thick and gooey.
I did however like the spring rolls they were good flavor and not greasy, but I’m not going to return back here just for them. They are busy and had quiet a few people waiting for their orders so it good Chinese for some.

Horrible all the food tasted like peanut buter, very disappointed and when complained they did not want to hear it.

We just had the worst service I have literally ever experienced, I am absolutely appalled at how they treated me. We ordered for delivery and told them we lived about 15 minutes away in latham and they still took our order. I called 45 min after we placed our order to ask what time we could expect them and they said they left 5 minutes prior. I called again 20 minutes later without food (1 hour and 10 min after the original order) and asked where they were. They then said they were on their way and I was confused and was kindly asking how they were on their way if they had already left 25 minutes ago and asked for a discount. Then a woman came on the phone and told me she would take 5 dollars off and «never call again». I could not believe my ears. She told me we live far away and to never call back. I said if we lived too far they should have told us they couldn’t take our order. She then asked if we still wanted our food or not in a threatening manner. I was just so appalled, I told her to never threaten a customer and she was incredibly rude to me. We loved their food from when we had it at a friends house in Troy but I will never order from then again. I cannot believe how rude they were to a customer simply wondering where their food was.

I got delivery from here recently and I’m new to the area so I’ve been trying whatever sounds appealing.
Well I was pretty disappointed with Lee Lin, the delivery took about 25 Mins longer than they told me. The dumplings were cold and overly doughy. The boneless spare ribs tasted like they were made with cheap premade sugary sauce.
Not the greatest experience but I will probably try them again in case it was just an off night.

not the best, not the worst, just standard chinese food. i consistently come back because they’re one of the only chinese places i know of that makes my favorite dish — coconut chicken. i drive 15 minutes to lee lin when i live 2 – 5 minutes from at least 4 other chinese spots. if they didnt have this item i would not bother driving that far, but if you’re close to it, or want to give a new place a shot id recommend it.

The worst Chinese food I have ever had in my life! Everything was extremely overcooked and salty, even the Chinese donuts which should have been sweet tasted like disgusting overused oil coated in sugar. They even over cooked the fried rice, which some places may do from time to time but they cooked it far beyond being edible. By far the worst experience I have had with a Chinese restaurant wish I could give it 0 stars.

The food is great. I always thought I hated Chinese food… but since we started ordering from here I have tried so many new dishes and each one is awesome! We did have a bit of a problem for a while ordering because the person on the other end didn’t know the difference between some items lile chow and lo mein etc. She was very nice tho. If you are looking for great Chinese def give this place a chance.

Pretty solid take out Chinese. Nothing fancy, but hopefully you’re not expecting that. Really hardworking, nice people. I’ve been ordering from here for years and will continue to.

I have been ordering food from LEE LIN since the early 80’s. Somewhere in the hundreds of meals I may have had a bad one, although none come to mind. These guys are the best around and when I am out of town I measure their food against LEE LIN’S. THANK YOU LEE LIN FOR 30 + YEARS OF GREAT FOOD AND GREAT SERVICE.

Extremely bad service. I called to order delivery and the person on the phone was downright rude and snippy. I ordered general tsos and the food was cold and there was so much sauce that I could barely see the chicken. Terrible terrible experience had to throw out the entire plate. Do not waste your money people. Even the person who delivers refuses to come up the stairs to deliver. Then I don’t understand why there is a minimum delivery charge!

If I had to eat only one type of food for the rest of my life, it would probably be Chinese Food. And as a result, I’m pretty picky when it comes to Chinese food.
I’ve ordered from Lee Lin a few times now, and it’s always been consistently good. It’s not the BEST I’ve had, but it beats a lot of places and is one of the better places in Troy. Plus they’re open until midnight, as I work until 10 or later most nights, so it works with my schedule.
Most recently I ordered the General Tso’s chicken, and was pleasantly surprised when they asked how hot I wanted it. I love my food to be spicy, and I can never seem to find good spicy General Tso’s. Lee Lin’s was awesome. My fiancé got the General Tso’s shrimp, and loved it. I tried a bite and enjoyed it as well.
We also got the veggie dumplings, which weren’t my favorite. They weren’t necessarily bad, I just wasn’t a huge fan. My one main complaint that I have, is that I wish they had more 2 Liters to choose from for soda. Other than that, a solid Chinese food place that I would recommend next time you’re in the house for the night.

Ordered the Sweet and Sour Chicken Combo with White Rice instead of Pork Fried Rice, pretty simple, right? Well, I received the pork fried rice instead so I called to tell Lee Lin and the lady I talked to accused me of not saying that I wanted that substitution and then said that next time I should maybe say it twice that I wanted that substitution. Whatever.

The food here is excellent — but the place is positively filthy (do not eat in — take it to go or delivery) —

What a huge disappointment.
For starters, don’t order from here expecting speedy delivery when you live all of 5 minutes away by car. We called about 35 minutes in from ordering, questioning where are food was. We were told our order was done and was awaiting the driver to return to pick it up. 30 minutes later our food arrived.
We ordered General Tsao chicken combination platter, Chicken and Broccoli combination platter, Crab Rangoon, Wonton Soup and Chinese Donuts.
The chicken in the General Tsao was not cooked all the way. Some pieces were considered raw. Imagine the surprise I had when I bit into a slimy and chewy piece of chicken. I thought that maybe it would just be the one piece I took a bite of. I was wrong, it was about 6 other pieces as well. The vegetables had no flavor at all. Not even from the dish itself. The only decent part I could manage to choke down was the rice.
Not much to say about the Chicken and Broccoli. Lacking in flavor and slightly over cooked.
The broth in the wonton soup was the only good part about that. The wontons had an unappealing texture and bad after taste. The crab Rangoon was okay at best. It was oddly very sweet.
We never even attempted to eat the donuts, we were so beyond disappointed. Thirty dollars on crappy Chinese food, all thrown out in tonight’s trash. I suppose not much is to expected in regards to Chinese food in this area.

We have been going to Lee Lin for over a year with no problems. We were ordering weekly, but this last order cost him our business. We had company over and we ordered four meals. But when the food arrived we noticed that one of the dinners was missing, so we called to see where it was. They INSISTED it was in the bag and even went into detail about what the entrée looked like. She also stated that people call all the time to screw them over. Then she hung up on me, After this is insisted on talking to the manager and he gave me the same song an dance that it was there and I just didn’t know what it looked like. I was also told that it is the customers responsibility to check the bag before letting the driver go to insure the correct food is in the bag. He then hung up, so called back and I stated why should i do «your job» and we told him we order twice a week and we just want the dinner we paid for and we were not trying to screw him over. But he insisted it was in the bag. So with that attitude he can keep his food to himself, be warned that if you don’t get you food they wont bother to redeliver or give you what you paid for.

Personally, I have never, ever been disappointed with Lee Lin’s service, and I have always ordered delivery. Food arrives hot, fresh, and on time. The delivery driver is a fantastic man who is always polite and patient with how long it takes me to run down from the third floor. He’s also willing to park and hand me my food when I forget shoes. Lee Lin also surprises me with free extras every so often. Who can argue with personal service like that?
I think the shining stars of Lee Lin’s menu are the crab rangoon, the dumplings, and the egg drop soup. No matter what I order, it’s always delicious, but those three appetizers/​additions are simply fantastic. I’ve never had as good of pan-​fried or steamed dumplings anywhere else, short of the nice but expensive sit-​down restaurants.
If you’ve never tried Lee Lin before, you really need to give it a try. I hope you get to share my experience!

I’ve had my ups and downs with Lee Lin, but the fact of the matter is: it could be a hell of a lot worse.
The Pros:
— The house lo mein is TO DIE. Normally I don’t care much for lo mein, but this is now a staple in every order I place.
— Very good boneless spare ribs. I have yet to find better in the area.
— The crab rangoon is amazing, and they give you sweet and sour sauce to dip it in.
— Fast delivery.
— You can pick your heat levels for each dish you order.
— You can get free food, depending on how much money you spend. Anything from a free eggroll to a free pint of General Tso’s.
The Cons:
— If you deviate away from the standard Chinese dishes (General Tso’s, lo mein, fried rice, etc.) things get a little dicey. For instance, the Mongolian beef was nothing like I expected and didn’t taste very good.
— They use the same sticky, brownish-​red sauce for General Tso’s and sesame chicken, and probably anything else with a similar sauce. It’s not bad, but sometimes it tastes a little burnt.
— The people at the counter are generally nice, but the delivery people not as much. They’re usually in such a rush that I’m surprised they don’t throw my food on the porch and bolt when I take more than 30 seconds to answer the doorbell.
I can definitely deal with the cons because at the end of the day, there’s no better Chinese food than Lee Lin in the area. If you really want Chinese food and aren’t sure where to go, check out Lee Lin.

I chose this place for takeout tonight, because it was close and it received high reviews.
After having the food and dealing with the service, I have no idea why people rate Lee Lin so high.
Ordering was easy enough and we were quoted 30 minutes. An hour and fifteen minutes passes and we call to ask if they’re still bringing our order. We ordered after a major storm so we figured that was why they might be late, seeing some roads were closed. The woman handling the phone says «we canceled the order, the driver can’t make it to your house». Guess what? I made it there. All seemed surprised and taken aback by my arrival. Funny, I arrived via a fairly main road (Campbell). Putting it bluntly my sense of direction sucks, I can’t even tell you some of the streets I take to my hair dresser or gym and I’ve been to both dozens of times.
We get the food home and it’s warm, which is good enough. Most places are closed or I can’t get to them so everyone was just happy to have something to eat. Then we actually start eating the food and it’s disgusting. First off was the sesame chicken, it was salty, had a light syrup taste and the texture was off. Crispy walnut shrimp, it had a ketchup or some other sort of tomato tasting base to it, was soggy, and had the shells and tales left on. Google Crispy walnut shrimp, there’s no hint of red sauce to most versions. Lo Mein, was absolutely plain tasting, my dog didn’t even want it. After a few bites I said to everyone «just stop, and put it in the bag. I’ll take it out to the trash.». We ended up having bagels for dinner, should have done that in the first place.
I don’t think this was on off night. As I walked in, the woman at the counter was taking orders and seemed on top of things. The kitchen was fully staffed and things looked to be running smoothly.

UPDATED ⁰⁴⁄₀₈ in response to a recent review:
Formerly an old Grand Union Market (with the noisy automatic doors), Lee Lin has been the Chinese takeout/​delivery place of choice by my family for almost 20 years only because the choices for Chinese food are VERY LIMITED in the Albia and Wynantskill area. Lee Lin is the only game for Chinese food on Pawling Ave and Okinawa (former A&P) in Wynantskill is better for Japanese food & sushi. The only other Chinese place, the Happy Garden (merged with Okinawa) closed down a few years ago and it’s now Chris’s Pizza. Remember Mango’s Pizza from back in the day.
We could make the drive across the river to Albany County for expanded Asian choices such as Dragon Buffet, P.F. Chang’s, Bangkok Thai, CCK, Ichiban (Albany & Guilderland), and too many more places to name, but my family prefers sticking close to home and orders delivery from Lee Lin. However, I enjoy venturing out to try different Chinese places (I’ve reviewed a few hundred Chinese restaurants on Unilocal).
Lee Lin serves up basic Chinese dishes including lunch and dinner combinations at reasonable prices. My favorite dishes are the Shrimp Lo Mein, General Tsos Chicken and Hot & Sour Soup. The Egg Rolls here are thick and very good. We order around $ 30 worth of food for the whole family and still have leftovers for the next couple days. Back in the mid 1990s, Lee Lin also offered a small Chinese buffet in the next room, but that was very short lived.
In general, the food here is not the greatest we’ve ever had, but good and filling enough to satisfy the hunger. We once found a large insect in the soup, an isolated incident, which occurred 10 years ago. Yikes!