Chef's MessageWelcome to Lai Lai Chinese Restaurant. We specialize in Szechuan, Shanghai, Cantonese, Taiwanese and Singapore. Vegetable Delight is also on our menu. All our food is freshly prepared and individually cooked to your preference from start to finish. Come in and enjoy your meal with us!
...not anymore. Ordered as usual for NYE, at noon for 8 PM delivery. Food arrived at 6, and cold. They were sold out of their famous dumplings by noon. The Chinese Broccoli in my Beef & Broccoli was not a change for the better. The lemon Chicken sauce was coloured water (The chicken itself was separate, and quite acceptable) All of the dishes seemed to be missing something; the food has gone from one of the best in K-W to barely average.
Disappointing.
I ordered the sesame chicken, fried rice lunch combo for 7 bucks. It came with soup on the side and an eggroll.
Service was quick, restaurant was very clean and smelled nice. Their sesame chicken is probably one of the best I've tried so far. But the stir fried bean-sprout that came with my plate was very tasteless and soggy. I did not enjoy it much.
Other than that, I'm coming back in the future for lunch.
Well, the Lai Lai was sold and new owners have taken over. We didn't know that when we ordered and so we stayed away from the disappointing dishes of our last visit and went with fried dumplings, their wonderful spicy beef noodle soup, and the Moo Shu pork which has always been great here. Everything was delicious!
The owner was intrroduced, and we were told of the change and the retirement of the previous chef. The service was impeccable, the food delicious and well prepared and we are now very optimistic and eager to go back and try our favorite dishes again.
We've come here to enjoy the dumplings and Sesame Chicken since the mid 1980's. See my revue below. Well, the last visit a few weeks ago, we were quite disappointed. We spoke to the owner's daughter about it and were told that the chef (her father) had been ill and so there was a new chef in the kitchen who wanted to do things his way. We've been told he will be relaced and that the original chef will return, but in the meantime... diner beware. Nothing tasted like the dishes we normally have. The sauce, the texture, everything was off. Worst of all for some unknown reason they are substituting white chicken breast in the dishes. I can't even describe how nasty that is, texture and flavor wise, when its used in these dishes. The orange flavored chicken totaly lacked oranges and was in some strange brown gravy... Hopefully they will get this problem fixed, but when people want to retire it can mean a whole different ballgame at a restaurant. I hope for Lily's sake things get straightened out. Oh, and they did not offer to change any of the dishes, or refund our money. Lily would have, but Lily was not there.
We've ordered from here often without incident. We ordered in on August 28th, 2011. Immediately after eating our food both my wife and I got stomach cramps and diarrhea that last until the next day. I returned the left overs the next day and asked for a refund. They reluctantly gave my money back, then accused me of just wanting a free meal. I'm a middle aged man with sufficient means to buy dinner and a repeat customer. I was polite but I was very insulted by how this was handled.
We've eaten at the Lai Lai for about 20 years. Some wonderful dished you do not find elsewhere. Sesame chicken, fried dumplings with sauce, the hunan beef is delicious. Yang Chow rice is top notch as well. Almost everything here is delicious in fact. The owner Lily is great - the servers are friendly. Service is quick and well - did I mention the food is just about the best around? Yes they also carry the more ho-hum dishes like chicken balls and chicken fried rice, but you are missing an experience if you don't take a walk on the wild side! The spicy beef noodle soup is out of this world as well. You can also order a 'meal' for $10.88 that includes your rice and a choice of hot and sour or won ton soup. What a deal. The lunch menu is even better. Oh yes - must try the orange flavored chicken too.
I've been going there for years. The people are great and remember us each time. The best food is off the menu and not "dinner for 2" selections. For $40 you can stuff a family of 5 with decent quality, nutritious food.
I have been going there for years, The food is great and really fast. I hate the service they are nice but no one speaks English. The place is a dump but the food is great. Too bad no more soft shell crab. They made the best crab in the world. Try the General's chicken - great !
My DH and I love Lai-Lai! Many reviewers have mentioned chicken balls and thier ilk as not being good; I cant comment on this as we've always ordered the more spicy dishes and with few exceptions they've been excellent.
Our hands-down fav is the Szechwan Beef (no longer on the menu but they still make it to order) it's to die for! We also enjoy the General Tao's Chicken, Moo-Shu Pork, Kung Po Broccoli and the home-made plum sauce they serve with thier egg rolls. To be fair, the spring rolls can be pretty greasy and the Singapore Noodles are under-curried/bland but perfectly cooked.
The restaurant has a great atmosphere and service, something you'd NEVER guess from the outside ;-) Take-out is fairly quick and consistently good. Recommended.
Vegetarian Utopia!
Love the Lai Lai for their diverse selection of mock meat for vegetarians and vegans. The kids love the tofu dishes and all the vegetables are cooked just right. The sauces and flavours are vast and specific to ones preference for sweet or /and spicey. Would visit again and again!
We went here for take out a bit over a year ago...
We went here for take out a bit over a year ago. Nothing was really good. What stuck out in my mind was the orange chicken which was just chicken balls with concentrated orange juice as the sauce. It was so gross we couldn't even eat it. Will never go back and tell people we know never to go there either.
Every time I have chinese food it makes me ill afterwards. This didn't make me too ill, but still failed to really impress me. The restaurant itself looks cheap on the outside, but inside it is really nice. We ordered a couple things for take out. Ended up spending arounb $60 which was surprisingly high.
The food was average. Black bean beef was pretty good, chicken balls weren't all batter like what some restaurants give you, egg rolls were too small, lo mein was alright but a bit on the cold side, jumbo shrimp was a disappointed - it just tasted like fried shrimp, not much flavour, and the almond soo gui was lacking as well - no almond prices in the sauce only a few on the chicken itself and not enough to notice, it just tasted like over fried chicken with gravy poured on top.
Having said that, I think it would be more pleasant to sit down and eat inside the restaurant itself since it is quite pleasant in there complete with a couple of fish tanks, instead of eating the mass amount of food in front of the tv!
This is like the 20th time i've been here, right when you walk in you'll notice a big difference, the wall papers have been torn, no more carpets, new booths, all in all so much brighter and up-to-date (but don't worry, the manger, food, prices and everything else is the same.) Food was excellent, my friend can't have peanuts and she isn't a fan of green peppers, they were very happy to take out the peanuts and switch the green peppers to brocolli. And right when we came in we told the staff that we were in a hurry and even though it was a bit busy in the restaurant the food came out quickly. All in all great place, great price, great food, great service, just great everything. Will defenitely be back but hopefully with a big group of people so that I can sit in their back room.... it's just wow compared to before. It's so much brighter, cooler in the summer (NEW AIR CON :)), oh and the even have french doors to keep your party private. Can't wait to get a party together!!!
Their food is tasty, great selection, people are...
Their food is tasty, great selection, people are nice. I usually get delivery.
Make sure you ask for a 'Coffee Jello WITH Creamer', for they are cool and you will giggle.
Food was excellent, a must visit for vegetarians...
Food was excellent, a must visit for vegetarians, lots of varieties of mock meat dishes that you'd never know weren't meat. The real meat is great too. Attentive friendly service. Decor is a bit worn looking but if it's good food and service you're looking for you'll find it here.
My and my parents go here ALL THE TIME!!! We absouloutly LOVE it. It's convenient because it's just a two minute walk,great tasting food,awesome service,& the pricing is great! I would recomended this restaurant to anyone! If you're ever in town or you live and town, and have never heard of this place...well go out and try it you'll be SO satisfied!!!
Ordered take-out yet again from Lai Lai, It was...
Ordered take-out yet again from Lai Lai, It was good as usual. Placing the phone order was a little difficult as there was a language communication problem from Lai Lai's as they did not speak english very well.
Pickup was ready in 15-20min and the food was good.
Ordered extra Spring roll and Egg Roll and swapped the Jumbo shrimp for another dish. Total came to about $52bucks as they have a 10-15% discount for pickup.
It ws our anniversary and they treated us like royalty. We always have a wonderful experience when there. The food never fails to impress us and tried and true items always leave us happy and satisfied. We tried a new item this time. Mongolian Chicken...At first I thought it looked plain but my it tasted so good. We decided we would order a second order to take home next time!!
