Review - Young's Chinese Food (Royal Oak, MI)

I love Chinese food. Well, I love GOOD Chinese food. I have yet to find any near where I live so I drive 45 minutes (one way) just to go to Young's (they don't have their own website from what I can find).

Young's is a little carry-out place on 11 Mile Rd. It doesn't stand out, in fact it looks like a dive, but it has rightfully won several awards for Best Chinese Food. There are no tables, no tea, no red carpeting or gaudy decorations. It's a counter, a cash register, a fuzzy TV (and if you go at 1pm you can usually catch either All My Children or Days of Our Lives), and a soda refrigerator. No frills. Every time I have gone there I have been greeted by one of the same two older Chinese people. Both have very thick accents, so I recommend going in to place your order rather than calling since it can be hard for you to understand them and for them to understand you.

I am a creature of habit so I always order the same things: Sweet and Sour Chicken (sauce on the side), Chicken Fried Rice, white rice,  Chicken Egg Foo Young (for DivaMom), and 2 Eggrolls. I love their Chicken Fried Rice mainly because there's no egg in it! It's mainly rice, sprouts, a few green onions, and chicken. The Sweet and Sour Chicken is fresh and crispy and the sauce lives up to it's name. I always get the sauce on the side because it's easier to warm up the leftovers (I put the chicken in the toaster oven to revive the crispy outer crust) and because DivaMom and I like to use the sauce for the Chicken Fried Rice. My only complaint is that the sauce becomes completely gelatinous the next day and doesn't pour. I haven't figured out what to use to thin it out without greatly altering the flavor. The eggrolls are amazing too. They are crispy, albeit a bit greasy, and filled with sprouts and veinless shrimp (you'd be horrified at how many places serve eggrolls with veiny shrimp, gross!).  DivaMom loves the Chicken Egg Foo Young, but I don't do Egg Foo Young so I can't give you any descriptions on that except they look like giant gravy covered patties with egg and meat.

The food is so good that I'm often sent of food runs for my southern-born grandparents. DivaGrandma loves the Shrimp Egg Foo Young and Shrimp Fried Rice, and DivaGrandpa likes the Pepper Steak, however he'd prefer if they made it with tomatoes.

I never would have given Young's a chance. Like I said, it looks like a dive, but when I read about the numerous awards they won I had to try it. I have yet to regret that decision! If you like good, quick, tasty (but not necessarily healthy) Chinese food, Young's is the place to go!