Chang An Restaurant

We ordered Christmas dinner for our family group of 14, not many places open so we decided on Chang An. It was a decent 3.5 overall First impression: it looks like a typical fast food Chinese spot we see in NYC. Straightforward take-out-place decor. They did have cute Chinese 2022 calendar scrolls for customers. There were plenty of customers for 7:30pm on a Christmas night. Service: Nothing special to note. Food: mixed reviews from family members. Chicken Fried Rice-only onions and chicken. Nothing special. Tasted fine. Clear chicken stock flavor. Perhaps a Little underwhelming Mongolian Beef-very tasty. Orange Beef-tasty. Held its breading well Sesame Chicken and General Tso’s-the same damned dish, one has sesames sprinkled on it. These dishes did not hold their breading well and were soggy. Flavor wise was underwhelming but was ok. Pepper Steak-good flavor and sauce, but the beef was tough. Chicken with broccoli-more veg than protein. Ok flavor overall. Fried Dumplings-very soggy but great flavor. Fried food should not be that soggy. Dipping sauce was standard. Egg Rolls-soggy and chewy. We’d avoid this. White Rice-hard to mess this up. It was what you’d expect from of white rice. Overall: it wasn’t bad. Didn’t blow our minds but it was to be honest better than we had expected. Family members went back for second and thirds. You should know that the large portions are huge, enough for 3 people. We ordered way too much food. Another point to note is that our “spicy” dishes were very mild. We’d go back under the same or similar circumstances.

I hardly ever leave a review but I don't want any other out of towners like us, looking for a good chinese spot to think they found a good spot here! If I could give this place no stars I would. I ordered a general tso's chicken combination plate with shrimp fried rice, a sesame chicken combination plate with lo mein, and a 12 piece fried chicken wing with a large shrimp fried rice. The chicken was dry looking but was super mushy. Like the breading was not holding at all, it was like some type of chicken breader stew with sauce. The sesame chicken was the exact same chicken as the general tso's except the did like a salt bae motion with the sesame seeds and it landed in a perfect little pile in the middle of the pile of chicken. The shrimp fried rice had more sautéed onions in it than it had shrimp and the fried chicken had feathers. Once I tasted the chicken, I didn't give the rice a chance. It was an instant no for me. The only thing I did eat and enjoy was the egg roll. We will not be going back. Also, no I did not call to complain because I chose to patronize it blindly, I just won't do it again.

I have eaten at Chinese restaurants in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, and Boston. I love Chinese food and am a fair hand at cooking it, but whoever is cooking at Chang An is a 5 Star genius. Cantonese, Hunan, Szchuan, northern noodles, all outstanding. Do not be put off by the storefront and Covid plexi barricades, great food is just the other side of the wall.