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I'm so glad I saw all of the positive Yelp reviews and tried this place. I'm a Chinese food novice, but this restaurant had some of the best I've ever had. The service was very attentive as well.
Tip: There is additional parking in the rear of the restaurant.
Went again, this time, on a hot date with Paul M.. That guy sure does slut it up and get around. I will say the waitresses are some of the friendliest I've ever encountered anywhere. Same waitresses since back to the 90's when I went here all the time. This day, they smiled a lot, were very nice, and never let my water glass go below half.
Ordered the usual:
Beef brisket
Deep fried spicy pork chops
Barbecue: roast duck, soy chicken, roast pork
Stir fried watercress
I let Paul M. watch me eat and then allowed him to smell my fingers afterwards.
Everything besides the watercress were good. Watercress was meh. Still 5 stars!
Just a friendly advice:
The main listed address is on Georgia Ave. This is where the front door is. Paul Kee virgins tend to always enter through the front door, but diehards know that the preferred entry is through the back door. Just go directly behind the front door location and you'll see a darker, less inviting entrance.
Just be warned: The back door can be a little messy, dirty, and smelly from buildup of a lot of in and out action, and a lack of frequent cleaning, but don't be afraid to go in it. Watch yourself when you're about to go in because the back door entrance itself can be a little sticky and slimy and mysterious fluid-y. Once you make your way down the long, tight, dark, narrow corridor, you'll know you hit jackpot by the aroma that defines delicious goodness.
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*** Thursday - Lunch
Back to my favorite Chinese restaurant in the DC Metropolitan Area. I love this…
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Absolutely phenomenal Chinese food.
Came here for lunch today - this is the first place I had bookmarked and it has taken me almost year to get there. I can guarantee it will not be a year before I come back. I rarely eat Chinese food - too many bad experiences, too many mall lunches, too many better options.
But when you come to this place you realize how good Chinese food can be and regret not eating it more frequently.
I was tempted to go full brisket and order the duck's blood with ginger and scallion - another day perhaps. The menu is worht salivating over - especially the page of gourmet options not for the faint of heart. You 're not gonna find this Chinese food in Kansas.
Instead me and the Honey split a Beijing Crispy Duck ( not on the menu, we asked if they did it) and the kids split a beef noodle. A few started and four beers and lunch for 5 is about $50. Absolutely tremendous value for the quality of food we got.
Insert when-I-was-a-lad-story here: First time I had Beijing Crispy Duck Beijing was called Peking and it was in a famous restaurant off Tianmen Square. I was the only dabizi in the place, and the food was magnificent. It was just like that today.
Two other points worth noting: they server beer, and half way through the meal our lovely server came up to us to ask if everything was OK.
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PK serves the best Chinese dinner food around! Hot and sour soup is amazing here! The shrimp toast is another appetizer I'd recommend. As for the main course, I'll list the dishes that I've had...
Mapo tofu: Tofu w/ pork. Delicious sauce! I always get it. Don't be fooled just because it's not on the menu. They definitely make it!
Shrimp in lobster sauce: It's basically how it sounds... shrimp in lobster sauce but with eggs scrambled in. Very good!
Beef & scallop with mixed vegetables: Fantastic combination! beef is super tender, and scallops are pretty large. Comes with broccoli, carrots and peas in a salty sauce. MMMmmm
Salt & peppered seafood combination: Scallops, shrimp, and squid in fried batter with salt and pepper. Pretty simple but definitely worth it.
Clams in black bean sauce: The clams taste good, but they were just too small.
Shrimp in black bean sauce: Shrimps are large, and the sauce is very tasty... Probably pretty similar to most restaurants, but that's okay with me. As long as it's good!
Chinese broccoli: I've had better, doesn't always taste like it's the freshest around...
Orange chicken: This is an americanized-chinese dish my brother loves to order. It's okay... I'm not so much a fan.
I've had a couple other dishes, I remember them being okay, like peking duck, and salt and peppered short ribs, and some of the lunch dishes... but it's been a while so I don't want to write a review about 'em just in case my memory fails me...
Probably the BEST part about this restaurant is that it serves late night! Opened until 1 on weekdays and 2 on weekends!
We've been going to Paul Kee since it opened and we just love it. When my husband was unemployed we went once a week just to keep our spirits up.
I don't know what the big deal is about parking out front. We can almost always find a spot, and if not, we park at the Chevy Chase bank across the side street.
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Two sichuan beef reviews today! But this one is quite the opposite of my review of Sichuan Pavilion in DC. This dish was perfect. Loads of crispy, fresh veggies, perfectly spiced, quickly made, and at just the right cost. I ate the whole damn thing, and I do NOT like to do that.
It's bizarre. I've seen maybe like 2 Asian people in all the time I've ever visited Wheaton, but that place has the best Asian restaurants you'll ever have the pleasure to visit.
The only problem with this place is that Nava Thai is around the corner...and it's very hard to resist.
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As I'm getting older my tolerance for Cantonese gravy style dishes has been deminishing. Huge portions & reasonably priced. I was there on a Thursday at 1 PM & we were the only two dining.
Bottom Line up Front: Authentic Catonese restaraunt. I was the only non Chinese person in the joint. Stopped in for lunch after reading I could find Hong Kong style noodle soup there. I haven't had that in over 10 years-a fond childhood memory. I ordered Roast Duck Noodle soup, with the wide rice noodles. Yep, it was the real thing. Now I know where to find the stuff when I'm in the mood. Duck was good and meaty, not too fatty. Price? $6.95. No complaints.
Okay, so the service can suck, but the food is pretty good. I mean if you want service go around the corner to Full Kee on University Blvd., but if you want great taste for Cantonese/ Hong Kong Style cooking this is the place. And from experience most really Chinese joints don't treat young Asian looking customers all that well. Again, the wait staff don't think you're going to tip well. You get a rushed feeling because they keep coming to your table asking if you are ready to order even though you only got the menu a minute ago.
And you know what?! If you're Chinese and you don't mind strange delicacies the Intestine with sour cabbage for $9.95 that someone else mentioned is actually really yummy. However, if you chow down this baby the way I do with rice, you're going to need to do some cardio afterwards! It's very greasy and fattening, but aren't those the best?
Unlike a lot of places since Paul Kee has a consistent Chinese clientiel it doesn't try to hide delicacy and truly authentic dishes like other Chinese restaurants. That's exactly why you'll find things like Intestine and Sour Cabbage on the menu. I'm your average Southern Chinese girl and I'll eat just about anything that taste good, so give me! But...on that note there may still be some dishes that aren't on the menu just because those items might have seasonal ingredients.
Parking can be a head ache, but I know you can probably park in the Safeway lot which is adjacent to the street that Paul Kee is on. Otherwise there is supposed to be parking in front of the restaurant and at the back of it. There's a back entrance so you don't have to worry about walking all the way around.
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I've been coming here for nearly 15 years and there's good reason why I keep coming back. The menu's authentic, the food tastes great, and is affordable, especially in large groups. For lunch I normally stick to the wonton or shrimp dumpling noodle soup. Both the noodles and wonton taste fresh and the broth is worth sipping on even after you've finished. For dinner, I recommend coming with a group of 5-10 so that you can order a bunch of dishes and eat family style. Some favorite dishes and must-haves include: deep fried spicy shrimp, deep fried spicy pork chop, shrimp stuff tofu, chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, beef chow foon (dry), seafood/chicken pan-fried noodles, and roast duck. If you're adventurous, the duck blood and pig's knuckles are good stuff.
The service is gruff and to the point, but that's part of the charm. Don't expect to get coddled here, but you won't have to wait long to place your order or get your food. One of my favorite waitresses is the one that never smiles and has her signature "Whachuwant?" line.
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I must have passed by this place a hundred times before stepping in after reading Yelp. I was looking forward to a place similar to Full Key. Unlike Full Key, this place resembles more of the larger Chinese restaurants with large banquet size tables, and banquet type dishes. The menu is more extensive then Full Key, and resembles that of the larger Cantonese places in Wheaton.
We had our usual fare of congee, soy sauce chicken, and hot and sour soup. Unfortunately they ran out of pork rind turnip. The congee is more flavored due to added flavoring, but lacks the true deep flavor of a long cooked congee stock of Full Key. The soy sauce chicken is not as tender or sweet as the Full Key ones (perhaps due to lack of marinating). The hot and sour soup was very flavorful.
Overall, Paul Key is good in their flavoring, but I feel the true natural flavor of the food from slow cooking is short changed. Neverthless, I still believe this place to be one of the better in Wheaton. Just that I found Full Key before this, and we enjoy their congee and soy sauce chicken better.
A good place to go for the Hong Kong style noodle soups -- those and the "over rice" dishes are all I ever order here, and none of them is more than around $5. There are probably other places I could go -- Hollywood East comes to mind, although at the moment it's closed pending a relocation -- but this one is at least comparable.
This place has the best roast meats here. The Roast pork, Roast duck, and Cha Siu Pork is VERY VERY delicious. The restaurant's outlay is fairly messy. The food is sort of pricey, but rather delicious.
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Reading some of the other reviews, in particular, Michael C.'s made me want to try this place. I can't say I agree with the assessment that it is the best. Perhaps I ordered the wrong thing? I had Taiwanese-style noodles, Spicy Dumplings, and my fiancee had wonton soup. It is always very strange to me that Chinese food is so oily, since culturally they seem so much more keen on being healthy than we do. So, the food was less than stellar.
The location was good, right off Georgia Ave. and with enough parking around back. The inside was, as others have said, a total dive. That's fine by me, I'm sure it would be a great place to go late at night with a bunch of drunk friends.
I ordered food to pick up, and got there within 15 minutes and it was already ready. So they're speedy, at least on a Wed. night.
The menu is good, there were a couple of things on there I've never seen before, although I can't say they all looked appetizing (Stir Fried Intestine with Sour Cabbage, and only 9.95?). With that in mind, it's impossible to say the place isn't "authentic", they even have roast ducks hanging up inside, but my first experience with the cuisine left me unimpressed.
A link to their menu can be found here: http://www.dc495.com/w...
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One of my first Chinese restaurant loves...and for that alone I bumped up the rating to 5 stars. I don't visit as much as I should, but I always leave happy.
I pretty much refuse to get the salt & pepper squid anywhere else but here. The ma-po-tofu is always a good choice, along with the deep fried pork chops and snow pea leaves. I've tried a pretty good range of some other things, but I just can't remember right now.
I'm not sure if you'll still see the ducks hanging by the neck in the display case, but I love peking duck so it doesn't really bother me at all. Bring on the yum!
People thought this was:
One of my favorite places to go for Chinese food (Far East comes in at a close #2). This place may not have the greatest decor, and it may seem like they hold meetings for Chinese gangsters somewhere in the back (that was a joke), their food is great. Even if you go with the "Americanized" Chinese food (aka stuff you order like "#2 with fried rice and egg roll), it's still top notch. I would recommend certain dishes, but I can never remember the names. It's even better when you can get one of your Chinese friends to order stuff thats "not on the menu." THOSE DISHES ARE SILLY!
Parking kind of sucks in the front, but go to the back and you'll usually find parking there. And then you can see the shady backside and walk past the fish tank that always has too much fish.
4 for taste. 1 for being a local favorite.
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Been eating here since the early 90s. Wheaton may be ugly as hell but I can never write it off as long as Paul Kee is there. Best variety of southern-style noodles in the DC metro area IMHO.
Foods r great.....BUT!!!....
I DONT UNDERSTAND Y EVERY CHINESE RESTAURANTS R DIRTY LIKE S^%$ AND THIS ONE IS EVEN WORSE!!.
They seem to never take care of their restaurant, I mean, outside at the parking lot is dirty enough, they didnt even at least to try to clean the opening door!!!!. Wait til u get inside, its 10x worse. The bathroom, I saw small cockroaches runnin around through the back of the toilet LMAO. The smell is really stink. Part of the problem is the smell from the carpet. They seem to never change that in like a 100x years. The ceiling is filled with dust . Everyone, I saw "a huge dead pig" being carry through the same door as u walk in lol.
The cleanliness of this restaurant is "A JOKE" I mean it never amaze me how most Chinese restaurant can run business like this. They only care about how their foods taste but not the cleanliness of the place and that y I give them 1 star.
IF I WAS AN INSPECTOR I WOULD CLOSE THIS PLACE DOWN IMMEDIATELY. if u never go to this restaurant, go see it for urself.
Their slogan for most chinese restaurant is now seem to be.......
"eat like a pig, HECK live like a pig"
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I admit, I've never been to China, but I can vouch for the authenticity of the choices in Paul Kee's menu; There's something to be said about a Chinese restaurant whose patronage consists of mostly Chinese people.
That being said, Paul Kee has great Chinese food! And although they have the "Americanized" Chinese food that you'll never find in China (General Tso's, etc.), they also excel in preparing the CHINESE Chinese dishes you know and love - salt & pepper squid or pork, chow fun, etc.
If you live in MD and don't want to go all the way into Chinatown to get some good Chinese grub, head over to Paul Kee's and you won't be disappointed.
Another perk: They're open late! 1am Sun-Thurs, 2am Fri-Sat. Amazing.
Is anyone else surprised that Paul Kee hasn't made it onto Zagat yet?
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Chinese Cuisine
A good place to get some small eats or a quick meal when it's kinda late. I've come here to have roast pork on rice and my friend who had the wonton noodle soup. It's not really alot to rave about, but the service is quick and the food is good. If you are in the area and you want a quick meal, head over here for a quick pitstop.
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One of my favorite chinese restaurants in the DC metro area, and that's saying something considering that we have so many good chinese restaurants. It's been awhile since i've eaten here as it's a bit of a hike now that i live in germantown, but i absolutely loved the chinese broccolli last time i ate here. Also the salty spicy pork chop and seafood. Yes it's a bit of a dive, but when the food's so good who really cares?
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Paul Kee can be a slap in the face to those who are sole believers that food is only part of an overall going-out to eat dining experience. Here, food IS the experience. Here, it is and it never was about the dcor, the ambiance or as much I hate to say it, it's not even about service. Don't get me wrong, the service isn't poor by any standards, but you have been warned if you get a slight feeling from your waitress that she abhors your presence. Toughen up, if you don't, the waitresses can actually make you believe that you live an odious existence before your meal is over.
You won't find pedantic debates over the food presentation or the selection of ingredients that went into your dish. Although by all means, you really should; given the caliber of the under-raved chef who works only behind the scenes like most other true masters of Chinese cooking. On top of that, consider the Chinese history and culture in which the recipes were born. Paul Kee is unrivaled in its authenticity in the Washington DC area. They are what every single other Chinese restaurant in the area wishes they could be, leaving them behind in a distant second leagued. (Such as Full Key, just down the street.) Paul Kee succeeds by sticking to its roots. Nothing is compromised under American alienation. Not Americanized. I love that.
Even the prices are unamericanized. Dirt cheap combination meals can be ordered all day long, and oh! The noodle soups. Their duck noodle soup (with wontons, of course) is the only bowl of yum that can peel me instantly away from a severe case of dysania on any given day. I can also have for a whole meal of just pork intestines stir fried with sour cabbage. Normal menu dishes are also very reasonably priced, way too reasonably priced for this area in my opinion. But hey, I'm not complaining. This fact alone always leaves me wonder why would anyone pay more to eat Chinese elsewhere for food that is simply of lesser quality.
Complete with full ducks and chickens hanging by the neck in the grill window like any respectable Cantonese restaurant should, food here is served the way it was intended to be, the way it should be. They boil away the misconception that people have today that a 5 star meal means being treated like kings and queens, paying an exorbitant amount of money because somehow, the more money you dish out makes you feel like the more quality you are getting, all the while you practically enslave a server to your side. It is not about any of that here. While this precious point gets lost in translations through other Chinese food joints because either they try too hard to please Americans, or it's because they just have no pride, Paul Kee makes genuinely good food at a price that is easily accessible to everyone. I would even to go as far to say Paul Kee is on par to some NYC Chinatown joints I've been to. You can have your cake and eat it too; there is no need to pay out of your behind for 5-star food.
People thought this was:
Great place for Cantonese comfort food and take out too. Too bad, Zagat DC book has yet to pick it up although we always vote for it annually. Easier parking than its competitor Full Kee a block away. If only they delivered!
***Revised March 2009****
I have to lower the bar on this place as it has been on more than one occasion where we found the food foul (meat and shrimp) or past its prime. Rather than being apologetic, the management and waitresses have pressed us to reorder the dish claiming a new replacement. Would you take the risk of food poisoning especially when the bar next door has been shut down the the county for safety violations (same owner)?
I think we might have to patronize Full Key across the street where the menu is similar but parking options are more challenging.
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I started coming here back in my undergrad days at Univ of MD. Lots of times we studied and crammed into the late eve / early morn hours. Paul Kee was a straight-shot out Univ Blvd, and they had soup noodles late into the evening. After graduating, my wife and I would hit this place up on any night when we were too tired or too hungry to cook.
Soup noodles with some of their BBQ items (BBQ pork is my favorite) is great, as are any of their wonton noodle soups (shrimp wonton is another good one). Best HK style noodles in the DC area.
If you need a chinese restaurant that offers late night yummies, look no further! I loved coming here when we were living closer in Silver Spring especially during the winter times sitting down to some yummy shrimp wonton soup or their tender beef with thick noodles. Add some spicy sauce and it's heaven! The atmosphere is a bit run down with shabby carpets and peking duck hanging up near the chef counter but the food, there's nothing to complain here. The other food on the menu rocks as well!
I've been going here ever since I can remember and the food has always been good. I usually get the food to go, but there is a seating area which can accomadate mid size groups. The looks like a NY Chinatown restaurant. If you've never been to one you're probably going to think it should be closed down by the health dept. There are dead ducks and pigs hanging upside down with their skin missing. But with presentation aside the food is amazing. I always get the roasted pork or the sour cabage and beef. Both are delicious.
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Silver Spring, MD
Category: Chinese
Silver Spring, MD
Category: Chinese
Silver Spring, MD
Category: Vietnamese
Silver Spring, MD
Category: Dim Sum
Silver Spring, MD
Category: Latin American
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