Chen's Golden Palace in El Cajon (Since 1992):
We had started out to grab a quick bite at Popeye's but they were out of mild chicken and we didn't want to wait.
We'd been through that before there when an idiot manager refused to let us out of the drive thru line when they said it'd be another 20 minutes.
That's actually a crime (false imprisonment) when all they have to do is have the car in front of us pull over to wait for their order, standard procedure for just about any drive thru operation on the planet.
Needless to say, we wrote the company about this idiot manager's actions...
Ed Bedford who writes the "Tin Fork" column for The San Diego Reader had reported on Chen's recently and since it was right down the street from Popeye's, we decided to check it out.
It's a small store front operation and the menu says they specialize in Chinese Cuisine and Fish & Chips.
We ordered egg rolls (4), sesame shrimp, Mongolian beef, an iced tea for me and a couple of cans of Coke for the Boy. The egg rolls were a little too sweet for my taste (like Pick Up Stix, they used a lot of carrot), the sesame shrimp were morsels of shrimp meat in a lot of breading with honey and sesame seeds on top and the Mongolian beef came with slivered onions and red and green bell peppers. The Boy says he would have liked larger pieces of beef in the dish but it was OK other than that.
They also served us some fried won ton crisps with a sweet orange sauce for dipping and a couple of small bowls of generic brown rice. I asked for chop sticks for myself and a small container of hot mustard.
Service was prompt, eveything was hot and it was just over $25. Everything came in styrofoam containers, cups or plates, maybe a dozen items total.
The Boy says he enjoyed it but probably wouldn't go back again.
