Gourmet Express

This place used to be a sit-down, so the front of the house is unusually spacious and clean for a take-out. Bullet-proof glass, though. Gotta have that. I have only sampled their lunch menu, which is cheap, six bucks and change, fast, and middle-of-the-road in quality. At these prices, you're not getting culinary revelation. Decent Gen'l Tso's, decent Kung Pao, decent Lo Mein, reasonable sized servings. Always ask for hot mustard or duck sauce: it's not in the bag. Eat, enjoy, hold the diary entry for Minibar.

After sampling more Chinese take out places on the Hill, I have to downgrade Gourmet Express to 2 stars. Yes, they have the fastest delivery times on the Hill, and yes, their pork fried rice is decent and the prices are great. However, there's been too much sauce and not enough noodles in their dishes. Honestly, I also don't usually eat the leftovers either. The food is just really inconsistent, and there's enough competition in this area of Chinese delivery/takeout (Hunan Dynasty, Lucky, Fusion Grill, to name a few) that they really need to step up their game.

This place is alright at best. The prices are fairly reasonable, but there is a reason for that.

If you wander in to the location you'll see that it's built like a fortress, or something - heavy plastic separates you from the staff, and there is a rotating bubble to give you your food. I imagine that this is from when the neighborhood was somewhat less secure than today.

There is no place to eat on site- again, not surprising given the lack of any sort of decor. But if you decide to wait for food, have fun standing around without any air conditioning for 20 or 25 minutes, and nothing to look at but the washed out pictures of chinese meals that look like they were put on the board in 1983.

The food is decent. Sweet and Sour Chicken was alright, but the fried rice left something to be desired. Egg rolls were pretty gross and tasteless. There is nothing here that made me feel like I ever had to come back.

This place is cheap and they do deliver, but I would have to be pretty much out of options to consider giving them another call.

I've passed Gourmet Express a million times and always been curious. 90% of the people you meet wouldn't touch this place with a 10 foot pole, but I have an iron stomach and know you can't judge a book by its cover. There are tons of restaurants in DC like Gourmet Express where you can get subs/seafood/chinese/fried chicken and I had yet to try any of them, until last weekend. I got the General Tso's chicken combo which came with pork fried rice and an egg roll, I also got an order of wonton soup, which was great (it had about 10 wontons in it for $3.50 or so).

I'll definitely make many more trips to Gourmet Express. It's by no means elegant Chinese food, but if you are looking for a lot of food and a cheap meal this is the place!

Of the many "Chinese" food places in DC that serve food behind bullet proof glass, sell cigarettes, and serve the very authentically Szechuan "fried chicken wings" and "steak and cheese sub," I would say this one is pretty par for the course. Food is totally edible with enough of that fatty/salty combination that makes you keep eating even though you are full and the food is only totally edible rather than totally tasty. Completely A-Ok for the kind of cheap, crappy vaguely Chinese food it aspires to be.

That said, this place is kind of an adventure.
Once while waiting for my food, a man came in "I want cups. 5 cups. No 10 cups. " This must happen often enough because the counter girl sold them to him for 50 cents a cup. Mind you, Harris Teeter, Safeway, and CVS are all within 3 blocks and probably sell cups for much cheaper than that.

Also, these folks are honest enough to advertising their food as Americanized. And I admire that honesty.

Standard bulletproof Chinese carryout that sells fried everything. Their wings are cooked at too low a temperature so they're really greasy; you need to tell them to fry them hard and they're edible. Cheesesteaks are just okay, but they're still better than the sub place on 8th Street near the Marine Barracks. Not as good as Lucky Carryout on 15th. The Chinese is sauce heavy. This is pretty much where you go when everything else is closed, you're drunk, and you need a pile of cheap grease.

You know what you are getting into. House of Cards Fans can appreciate the similarities to the BBQ joint.