How Lee Chinese Food
How Lee Chinese Food
Eggplant with Mala Chili Sauce
garlic eggplant
a plate of noodles
Fortune cookie
Scallion pancake
dry sauteed green beans
a bowl of dumplings
Inside shrimp spring roll
Shrimp egg roll
Not very high quality shrimp
food
Dry Sauteed Green Beans
ramen, noodle dish, noodles, food, noodle soup, ramen and noodles
Fried Scallion Pancake
Mala fish with tofu
SP17. General Tso's Tofu - fantastic!
Passion fruit green tea Boba
Twice Double Cooked Pork Belly
Sauces (duck, mustard, dumpling)
Pork fried dumplings
Left: Chongqing Fried Dry Hot Chicken; Middle: Fish Filet with Cabbage in Paste Chili; Right: Shredded Pork with Dry Tofu
About to get my eat on love the scallion pancakes and shrimp fried rice
Eri L.
Nov 1, 2024
Very solid option for Szechuan cuisine in squirrel hill-- I especially enjoyed the mala-style fish with tofu which had an addicting numbing spiciness (the sauce went great with rice). The eggplant was tender and chongqing chicken was very crispy (though would not travel well if eaten as take out). This is a no-frills spot but service is attentive and fast.
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Gloria W.
Oct 28, 2024
Short wait time to get everything. Loved the saiteed green beans. Chongqing chicken and scallion pancakes were decent, but more soggy-oily than crunchy-oily if that makes sense. Next time, I'd order something else but the restaurant itself is nice!
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Terry B.
Feb 24, 2024
Pretty classic Sq Hill Chinese joint. It's a little greasy but like I said - classic. The people are very nice, but don't go when they're getting near closing time - they won't serve you in person.
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Tonya J.
Feb 5, 2023
The front desk customer service was less to be desired here... But...the food made up for it once I finally was waited on and got my order home to try it. I was very hungry after work.I walked in and stood in what I thought was a line and noticed there were a bunch of delivery drivers there in line and some appearing to be waiting on orders.The front desk worker (I think her name was Shirley) was busy however, she got off the phone several times and never asked me if she could help me. Never acknowledged me. Some people came in from outside after me and she gave them orders. I am thinking hello...I moved to the counter directly in front of her. Stood there. I noticed she picked up the phone again - then got off, gave a few folks their orders and then busied herself with checking bags until I finally asked her if she can assist me please. I asked her if she saw me standing there. I let her know that I had been there waiting and was ignored / overlooked for about 10 minutes. She said she did not. She then said you could of said something too. I guess a random person standing there was not a customer? Ok, No apologies. It was what it was I guess. Breakdown in acknowledgement and communication I guess.My order was $ 95.66 and because of the poor service experience I wanted to hate it because I was annoyed with her but, some of the food was decent but, a little pricy for the portion size.Egg rolls were tasty almost $2.00 eachSteamed $7.95 and fried dumplings $ 7.95 with the sauce they provided was goodGeneral Tso good but at $16.95 the order was super small like lunch size smallVegetables Lo Mein good $ 9.95Egg drop soup lacked flavor $ 2.00Sesame beef meh was used to the meat not being as slimy and more fried - just my preference $ 16.95Beef egg foo young was good. 13.95I had wonton soup too but did not taste it yet.I will try other places in the area before recommending them to see the comparison or to see if I have a better experience. Left with a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Money earned can always be spent anywhere.
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Laura L.
Sep 19, 2022
My dad is the greatest food critic of all and he actually enjoyed the meals he has had here! So that's saying something. Growing up with home-cooked meals and living near New York Chinatown and Philly Chinatown, we have high standards for good Chinese food. My dad said How Lee has food ON PAR with both Chinatowns and that's a huge statement coming from my dad who would say something good as "not bad". I've read and seen the poor reviews here and I'm convinced that they're just ordering the wrong things. We ordered the CHONGQING FRIED DRY HOT CHICKEN (chicken deep fried), CHENDU FRIED DRY HOT CHICKEN (chicken pan fry), FISH FILET WITH CABBAGE IN PASTE CHILI, SHREDDED PORK WITH DRY TOFU, WEST LAKE MINCED BEEF SOUP, AND MAPO TOFU.The fried dry hot chicken explains itself and is very spicy so be careful! Many items are spicy and/or are cooked with chili oil so look closely at the menu if you want to less/no spicy food. The shredded pork and other stir fried items have great "wok hay", meaning the chef is experienced with the wok and how to maintain it well. Also the west lake minced beef soup is my all time favorite, and what I order when I'm homesick. Cantonese soups tend to be thicker than what people are used to, and it gives a different experience where you "eat" your soup.Whenever I'm craving Chinese food, this is the place to go. Service: The service is also on par with typical Chinese restaurants. Don't be offended if it's not "as friendly as American restaurants", that's just how our culture typically is. Interior: Every time my parents come here when they visit, they wonder why there's a big discrepancy between the food quality and the foot traffic in the restaurant. It has such a good location in Squirrel Hill and there's plenty of foot traffic on the corner of Forbes and Shady. We concluded that they probably should take initiate to market more and to modernize their interior a bit. The seats are taped up showing wear and tear, the decor is sparse and dusty, and their blinds are always closed making the restaurant more fluorescent and could mislead people to think they're closed. I think small changes can lead to big results! tldr;Food 5/5Service 4/5Interior 3.5/5
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Ulyana K.
Dec 15, 2022
The food here was alright, but nothing too special. I tried numerous different items. The order consisted of fried dumplings (most likely pork), fried scallion pancake, and a shrimp egg roll. The price was relatively reasonable, although there are some cheaper options.How Lee offers mostly traditional Chinese dishes, but they also have the Americanized items like General Tso. The dumplings were decent, but I've had much better. There isn't much filling and the filling they do have isn't too flavorful (just a bit of cabbage with the meat). Too much dough around them, and they were not very crispy either. The side sauce was great, though! Flavorful and a great balance of sweet and savory. The scallion pancake I order came from the more authentic side. The portion was fair for the price. It was very crispy, almost to the point of being a bit burnt. There is not a significant scallion flavor, but you can feel them in the dough. Texture is similar to paratha (Indian bread) but even crispier. The side dipping sauce was the same as with the dumplings.The shrimp egg roll was tasty. It's a pretty thick egg roll with loads of cabbage inside of it. Quite crispy on the outside; great texture! The price was very reasonable too. I will say, though, that it was almost entirely cabbage. Very few pieces of shrimp. And, of the pieces of shrimp they did have, they were not very clean and had a strange flavor plus texture.All in all, definitely not the best Chinese food in the area. It wasn't terrible, but I'd recommend going to New Dumpling House or Szechuan Spice instead of How Lee.
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Bob N.
Apr 24, 2023
Just had a bad customer experience. We order from here frequently and the food is consistently great. Tonight, we decided to pick up instead of using Grubhub. I went to HowLee's website to place pickup order. The cart went over to Eat Street to process my payment thru my PayPal account. Eat street displayed an error but the money $154 came out of my checking account from PayPal. So, I called the restaurant. Whoever answered gave me a hard time yelling at me that they no longer use Eat Street and it is my problem and I should cancel the order. There was no where on eat st to cancel. I then checked PayPal after I hung up from being yelled at and there was a refund to my checking account that posted. How is it my fault that the ACTIVE website still processed orders through Eat St? the customer service was terrible and we will never order from here again.
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Julie M.
Nov 23, 2024
I love Chinese food. However.. worst I've ever had. I ordered the sesame chicken with only white meat, paid extra for that. It has an orange sugary sauce and the breading is terrible. Even the white rice was bad it was soggy and inedible, both dishes. Will never order that again. Ordered on Uber eats so I don't know how the customer service is.
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Hannah L.
Aug 11, 2024
the waiter looks at height I'm assume that i can't eat spicy I try the schez potatoes noodle hot spicy and it didn't had no flavor or taste and waiter keep say it spicy And she didn't like idea why I keep asking for chili oil I will ask 4 round of chili oil . When I eat at Thai restaurant I go for no10 for spicy level super tall Asian or some American ladies are the one that cant eat spicy and waiter assume they can eat spicy.I'm adult with short stature and I'm older then all those tall young Asian and American students unless they visit coun with spicy flavors
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Ellen B.
Nov 23, 2024
I ordered and picked up. Hands down the very worst Chinese food I've ever had, and it only took a few bites to realize that, and then I had no choice but to throw $70 of food in the trash. Green beans: soggy and flavorless. Eggplant: unbelievably oily and flavorless. Mu shu: visibly not moo shu, just a pile of leftover things recooked, I couldn't even make myself try it. Fried rice: Not fried, tasted odd and dank. White Rice: dank, smelling and tasting of old oil. Egg rolls: tasteless and just plain off, which summarizes the whole so called meal. I had wanted leftovers, and that is why I ordered so much food. When even white rice tastes dirty and yucky and off putting then there is really, really, really something wrong with the establishment. Unbelievably bad. Inedible. Throw your money in the trash rather than going through the ordeal of paying for food that is absolutely disgusting, and flavorless, except for the consistent presence of some weird unnameable taste, like so called food mixed with earth and spit and the taste of bad breath. This place belongs nowhere, but especially not in lovely Squirrel Hill, with its abundance of Asian food. They bring shame to the neighborhood. This place is beyond disgusting. Unbelievable. I've never thrown food away before. But it wasn't food, really.
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