First Choice Chinese Restaurant
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Delivers: Yes
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
12 Reviews for First Choice Chinese Restaurant
Dont let the half lit sign out front fool ya. I was shocked to see no one else in the restaurant on my first visit. But let me tell you, this place is the bomb. Actually I am glad no one else was in there, because that meant we get our food faster. =) Everything had good flavor and tasted different from the other dishes. They have a special that includes four dishes, soup, and rice for like $20. There was 7 of us so we go 2 specials. They let us pick 8 different dishes. We had the Fish, Fried Eggplant, Fried Porkchop, Green beans w/ pork, General's chicken, Chinese brocoli, Peking spareribs, and walnut prawns. One of the more memorable chinese meals I have had in a long time. Thanks to the Lee's for taking us there. Will definitely be back next time I am in town.
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more like last choice. where are all these good reviews coming from...family members? yeah the food is cheap, but i'd rather eat a rice cake wrapped in styrofoam and dipped in cow dung. if cheap is your number one priority, feel free to indulge. otherwise stay away.
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I read from the Sac Bee that they closed down...thank god!!
AVOID THIS PLACE!
Employees are rude and food was awful. We JUST sat down and the two waitresses kept asking us, "Are you ready to order? Are you ready to order?" So annoying, we didn't even open the menus yet. They were in a hurry ... as if they both had a hot date to go to or something.
They had a huge party of 10 who came in, they had the audacity to ask one of the young boys to help them move a table...the hell?? Isn't that your job, lady?? Don't go...don't go!
The food at First Choice is very good, fresh, fast, and inexpensive. Their cooking would reminds me of the home cooked Cantonese meals that my mother would make me. One thing that they don't have in the menu but they will make if requested is my favorite seaweed-tofu soup, minus the pork, and a dash of white pepper. I also love how they make their steamed Sea Bass with ginger and scallions, with a side of steamed rice.
The service is great, don't care for the decor, and I like coming in for their $5.00 lunch special combo plates. If they change the decor I would give them five stars.
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This place isn't bad for Chinese food in Sacramento. It's almost similar to the asian food in SF. The chef is really nice and can cook dishes that aren't on the menu. It's never too crowded when I'm there for dinner so it may be more for the downtown lunch crowd. We order the dishes off the chinese menu only because my dad can read it, but if you can't read it, just ask them and they'll serve it to you. I think it's cheaper - about $5.25 per dish.
Ahhh...real chinese food. Thank god. Seriously, a vegan from SF would know a good braised tofu when they have one. And this one is too die for. The veggies are crunchy and the sauce is yummy. They know us by name as we get take out from them once or twice a week. YUMMY!
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With the cornucopia of fabulous ethnic cuisine in this town, Chinese restaurants are I think often overlooked, so incorporated are they into the melting-pot melange of middle America. Even the most staid and conservative of towns in the flyover states tend to have an Americanized outpost of the Orient in their midst. And likely too are people to pass this one by, since this place is set apart near the corner of 21st and Capitol Avenue, with nothing around it except the hippie haven Pieces Pizza and an accompanying head shop.
All that being said, I urge you to simply try their food. Lunch specials in particular are quickly and freshly prepared, literally for pennies. Alright, so four dollars and change isn't truly pennies, but what a bargain for the price! Daily-made soup accompanies an entree with an egg roll and one's choice of rice or chow mein. There are several from which to choose, from Explosion Chicken or Beef* to the typical sweet-and-sour varieties of meats. Standard fare, I'll agree - but well made, fulfilling and delicious. Diners may be in and out easily in thirty minutes, or even twenty if one is in a particular hurry. There are also fancier lunch versions available for $6.50 - $8.50, with more expensive appetizers or soups, an entree, and two side dishes to select from a menu.
Of specific note are the egg rolls, large, crisp-crackling wrappers filled to bursting with fresh, flavorful vegetables and glass noodles, never overly oily or overcooked. An especial favorite dish of mine is the house special spicy chicken*, with a pungent and savory sauce enrobing the lightly-fried chicken chunks; garlic and pepper and ginger all join flavorful forces to create what is truly one of my comfort foods. The laughing buns, creamy-smooth folded rice envelopes overfilled with succulent barbecued pork, makes my mouth water as I write. Such noodle favorites as chow fun and chow mein are all prepared in a flash in the wok, with tender chewy noodles and ripe market vegetables. I believe that the staff actually purchases many of their ingredients every day or two for the majority of the menu, and it shows in their creations.
Service is quick and competent for the most part, with none of the usual Asians-preferred-over-Caucasians that I sometimes see to outrageous and insulting effect in some other locations. They treat all their customers on an equal footing, that is to say, properly. Return more than a couple of times, and the manager and some of the servers will likely greet you as welcome visiting friends.
Do not bring a date to this establishment expecting fine dining and haute couture cuisine. It is not to be had. There are many traits of the previous occupant of this building still present, from the pearly-pink walls to the slick halogen lighting descending from the drop ceiling; neon tubes abstractly arch along one wall, and a forlorn bar sits abandoned in a back corner, demoted to storage duty. But it is clean, and cheerful, and smells appetizing when one walks in the door. And of course, the meals are terrific and pleasing and easy on the wallet. And that, I think, is all anyone could ask for in such an environment.
* For connoisseurs of the heat, be forewarned; First Choice prepares all of its dishes to a WASP's concept of spicy - which as I've seen countless times in ethnic restaurants, is not necessarily a bad idea. Specifically ask for the amount of peppery spice you'd wish in your dish, and the staff will be happy to prepare it as you request.
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I don't like this place. The food is over rated.
Really horrible decour.
Like really bad early 90s soft pink-grey-green thing goin on.
BAD.
But the food is pretty good, and it comes at the appropriate price.
They never seem to be super-busy, so its a good place to go to eat in a quiet restaurant.
The waitstaff has always been helpful, the restaurant always clean, and they stay open fairly late... which is why it gets the rating it does.
pros:
-cheap and fast chinese food
-surprisingly good chinese food
-great customer service
cons:
-location, i would only come here during lunch since you will never find it at night time
-outdated decor
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First Choice Chinest Restaurant is by far my favorite Chinese Restaurant in Sacramento California thus far. They are very clean and very down to earth type of people. The food is so fresh and very delicious. You can never be let down. My dishes that I would recommend are: 1) General Tso Chicken (not the typical general chicken that you would find in a chinese restaurant, believe that! they do not throw hella sauce on the chicken. not a lot of batter. they give you chicken! :) it is also served with broccoli that surrounds the entire plate. the sauce is perfect! garlic type of sauch that is sweet!), 2) Green beans with chicken in black bean sauce! (gotta have those greens now) 3) Salt baked shrimp without the shell. I love my shrimp that way. 4) My family usually orders the fried fish! YUM! 5) Sizzling rice soup! So hot when you get it. I just love this soup period! 6) You pick the rest! Whatever your mouth waters for! The food and service is pleasant and I am never let down. I absolutely love the food and truly believe that it is different than every chinese restaurant that I have been to in Sacramento!
good cheap chinese food. i like tea cup's food slightly more, but first choice has better service.
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