Chinatown Express

I've visited D.C. four times and I've found my way to Chinatown Express on three of those trips. Ok, the place doesn't look like anything special but looks sure can be deceiving. The food is so flavorful and they have a great selection of. dishes. Aside from some handmade noodles, how about Peking duck or perhaps a fish prepared right from the aquarium.The servers hustle with not a lot of space and the place is usually quite busy. Great food in the heart of D.C. Chinatown.I'm happy to make Chinatown Express a stop when in the neighborhood.

I'm shocked by the ratings of this place. This review is a few weeks overdue.After seeing the delicious looking Peking ducks in the window, I told my partner we should stop by. It was after a caps game so lots of fans were rolling in but this place is larger than it appears. We were seated in the main dining area. Though seating is a bit tight, we made it work. We ordered Peking duck and the handmade pork dumplings. This was my first time trying Peking duck and I must say wow. Both the duck and the dumplings were delicious. The skin on the duck was crispy and everything tasted light. Be sure to ask that your duck is served extra hot/warmed up a bit longer. The owner was super nice and friendly and staff was attentive.

One of my favorite restaurants especially for roast duck noodle soup has reopened and the food is better than ever! I love their homemade noodles and the roast duck. We ordered dumplings also and they were excellent. The restaurant looks very clean and fresh and they have updated dinnerware. I'm so happy it has reopened.

Wish I took more pics of the food but everything was so good! We even had a talk with the owner afterwards and he was so nice and shared his story of the reopening after the fire. The service was great and food was great.

Used to come here before Caps games when I lived in the area! Now I come every time I'm in DC. Great place - love the redo!!!

Came here for lunch on a weekend with a friend. We ordered their Shanghai steamed dumplings, kung pao scallops and vegetables mei fen (I.e., wide rice noodles). Total ca,e out to approximately $52.What's hot- Menu variety. There's something for everyone, including vegans. Variety of meats, seafood, veggies, and tofu.- Quality. Reasonable. Good portions. The kungpao scallops had a good amount of vegetables. Their mei fun (wide rice noodles) was decently sauced and had a good amount and variety of veggies, such as baby corn, tofu, broccoli, Napa cabbage, and snow peas.- Location. Conveniently located in Chinatown and is located near many other Chinese restaurants in the area, which is why my friend and I picked this location.- Price. For the portions you get and the quality, it's a reasonable exchange.- Payment. They take credit cards and will split the tab. That's not something every ethnic restaurant will do, because cash is king for many immigrant run restaurants.What's not- Quality. Their Shanghai steamed dumplings are lacking. The dough wrapper is too thick and there's absolutely no soup from the steaming. The kungpao scallops were lacking in number of scallops.- Service. It's not terrible, especially given that they're a staff of immigrants catering to a customer base mostly of tourists, which translates to meaning that service is not a priority. They're catered to volume. When we were finished and after we finished paying, they cleaned the table and thanked us (I.e., meaning we should leave and make the table available for other customers).- Layout. It's a cramped layout, so be prepared to bump into others. It appears they have seating in a basement area in addition to he main seating area.Final answerNot someplace I would recommend. Not bad, but have definitely had better.

We stopped here for dinner on a Friday. Didnt have an issue getting a table. We were seated in the back room, which is could use an update. The space was small so everything sounded really loud.Our server was fine. She came by, took our order, and food came out pretty quickly. We ordered lemon chicken, salt and pepper pork, and beef chow fun. Our favorite was was the chow fun. The noodles were not super greasy, they were soft but not overcooked and seemed fresh. It was cooked with beef, bean sprouts,and green onions. Lemon chicken was ok. The breading was a little on the thick side, but the sauce wasn't as lemony as I'm used to for this dish. The salty spicy pork was also ok. I liked the fry/cook on it, but the seasoning was inconsistent. Some pieces had more seasoning than others.Not bad for quick Chinese food.

This place makes really really good delicious food, but the appearance and low maintenance of the restaurant don't sit well with the visitors. But you haven't done the Chinatown experience right, if you don't eat some duck and traditional Chinese dishes in a half basement establishment :PWe got pecking duck, lobster, eggplants, rice of course and had a full on feast. Duck was so so good. The lobster with garlic sauce is exactly what I want it to be. The garlic sauce eggplant was pure joy.The people at the restaurant were super nice to us. But the restaurant does lack in proper maintenance and appearance. The entrance and front side is much nicer than the back room dining tables. But I am happy ignore all that for the delight of my heart and tummy :)

After 14 hours of being on airplanes and airports, I felt like a hot bowl of soup. Duck noodles? That should hit the spot! Well, sort of. It was "okay", and having come from a place with lots of Chinese places, based on this one dish, this place would be below average. Roast duck seemed a bit dried out, broth tasted almost beefy. Noodles were okay. Limited amount of veggies in it. But for the price of 11.95, I guess it was okay. A no frills, "what you see is what you get" place to have Chinese food...It is right across the street from the Marriott Fairfield Inn. A little sketchy area so I made sure I ate while it was still lighted...

I'm disappointed to write that my friend and I didn't enjoy our recent visit to Chinatown Express. The menu looked good outside the restaurant and there were a good number of people instead, plus we love when Chinese restaurants have fish and lobster tanks at the front, so we decided to take a chance and go in. There is an upstairs space that has more seating according to signs, though we were seating in the first level so I don't know how many tables are upstairs. The service was very fast, we were in and out in less than an hour. The waitress came up to us very quickly and we ordered steam pork buns, steamed chicken dumplings, combo chow fun, and the shrimp in cream with walnuts. The food came out very fast which was nice. But about half of the pork buns were dense while half were fluffy, and all of the chicken steamed dumplings were really dense and we did not enjoy eating them. The chow fun was good but was a little greasy, though the shrimp was good. We felt the total cost of did not match the quality of food, which was a bummer.