Chinja

This place has closed as of the beginning of the year.

Love this place
Sesame chicken & rice w egg roll and a drink is less then 8 bucks. Cannot beat that. Staff is friendly and quick service.
Always come back.

This is one of my favorite lunch spots in Denver. The staff is very diligent, polite and has a great memory for your order if you stop by often.
I always get the beef and broccolli and the egg roll. The food is not gourmet by any means, but as far as cheap/​fast Chinese food goes you definitely have a satisfying lunch that is well worth the money.
This place does get really busy during the lunch rush though, so avoid going between 12 – 12:45 if you can. Would definitely recommend.

The food is edible to sometimes not bad, but its never good. Its never better than I could do myself with $ 7.00 of ingredients and a frying pan, and i’m no chef — just some middle aged white guy. I would think that these genuine Chinese chefs would be able to do better.

OVERALL: Rock bottom prices for some of the best lunch food on 16^th St. The fish dishes are their best offering. Go there before 11:20a when the weather is nice, and eat outside. The food court is an awful place to eat.
GETTING THERE: No easy parking, but the free 16^th St shuttle gets you there. It’s NOT street level, you must go down stairs to get to the food court. Chinja is at the very end.
SERVICE: Outstanding — the staff is efficient, friendly, and make it fun to wait the 3−5min for your food. If you get there between 11:30a and 1p, the line will be 30 people long (with no line at all the other providers, if that tells you anything).
FOOD: The ginger fish, spicy, is my favorite. Large portions, great flavor.
VALUE: All entrees are between $ 5.50−7 — it’s a steal.
ATMOSPHERE: Terrible. Picture the cafeteria from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest. If you would like to be less happy, eat here. If you are depressed, please go to the tables on the sidewalk above, lest you become suicidal.

Inside of this food court, there was only one place that I knew was off limits — Chick-​Fil-​A. Now, there are still 10+ choices and my phone did not have service for Unilocal.
So how does one pick a place if you had no preference for the type of food? You pick the one with the longest lines. The one with the stanchions and the line against the wall.
Chinja had about 5 – 10 minute wait to order and then another 2 – 3 minute wait for pick up. For $ 6, I got the veggie egg foo young (2 deep fried egg patties swimming in gravy) which comes with an egg roll. The egg foo young is not my favorite rendition, but it came with a lot of food and at a very reasonable price.

First time touring Denver and found this hidden gem! Lots of healthy alternatives, good prices and big portions. Staff was extremely fast and friendly!

Not a huge fan of the pad thai, but the stuff my colleagues got looked way better (and they loved it). Huge portions. Long lines which move pretty fast. Will have to head back and give it another try.

You know how to tell if a place is good or not? I got food poisoning because of this place (I’m pretty sure) but I STILL COME BACK. Food poisoning happens. Stomach issues happen. I’m over it, and I still come back to get some tasty Chinese food. That’s how much I like this food.
My favorite go-​to is the Chicken Chow Fun, spicy. Chock full of veggies and wide rice noodles which fill me up with all kinds of happy cheer.
Not a fan of the Pad Thai (a friend recommended it to me. I was disappointed, but that’s what I get for ordering Pad THAI at a Chinese place). Also not a fan of the sesame chicken. The consistency of the fried chicken and the sesame sauce just wasn’t jamming.
The food is cheap for the Downtown lunch crowd (thank you, Chinja, for being nice to my wallet). Fast service from super nice employees keeps the long lines moving rapidly. The man behind the counter calls everyone «guy or «lady,» and the woman taking the orders always has a big smile on her face, and she remembers what you order every time. I don’t know how she does it.
I will be back often (as I already am).

Something about going down into this food court is depressing. It’s a crowded space, and the olfactory overload when you walk in is sometimes enough to make you walk out. (Think Chinese, Mexican, chicken, and fried food all coming together).
Chinja is in the back, so you have to make your way past all the other shops to then stand in a line. There’s typically no cell reception, so you’re stuck there wondering if your clothes are going to smell like food for the rest of the day, like how you smell of coffee when you spend too much time in Starbucks, except worse.
The orange chicken came in tiny pieces/​balls of fried dough with minuscule meat inside. The flavor was ok, but certainly not «2 chili pepper» spicy like the sign indicated. I ate maybe ¹⁄₃ of it (the portion was large) and spent the rest of the day feeling like a greasy slob. I put the rest of it in the fridge, thinking I might eat it again, but it never did appeal to me.
I gave this place 2 stars because cheap, greasy food has its place in this world, but don’t go here if you’re looking for anything more than that.

This is one of the better places to get Chinese fast food at lunch. I would much rather eat here vs Panda Express. The dishes they cook here are more ‘authentic’ than the typical slop like Sesame chicken, etc.
So I ordered their new dish, Chicken Chow Fun. The chicken was nicely stir fried and the broccoli was fresh.
The noodles however were disappointing. It looked like it was soaked in the water too long and had a weird texture to it. It wasn’t horrible but just not what I’m accustomed to. So for that, I can only give it 3 stars.
BTW: the owners are efficient and knows most repeat customers by sight and their order. For example with the lady at the counter, she’ll say «Chicken Pad Thai, no peanuts?» before I can utter a word. The man at the serving counter refers everyone as «hey guy».
Don’t be intimidated by the long line because it tends to move fast.

I’m happy to report that Chinja is still totally awesome. This takeaway Chinese place in the bowels of Republic Plaza has good food at reasonable prices. No wonder there’s always a line stretching literally past the revolving door. If you haven’t been, I can’t stress how worthwhile it is for being a food court lunch place. (cell service seems to have improved in the bunker and now I’m able to check in regularly)

I stopped by Chinja today and ordered the pad thai. It was a depressing pile of greasy, salty, bland noodles. I’ll look elsewhere for quick Asian food in downtown Denver.

For a quick lunch, Chinja tops my list of 3 star downtown spots to which I’d happily return.
Reliably good combination plates at low prices, along with fast service and nice workers makes me a «happy family» (of one).
Spicy Orange Chicken with broccoli and carrots, fried rice, and an eggroll, along with a large coke, runs $ 6.85. That, my friend, is a good deal.
Jingcai! (= «wonderful,» in Mandarin:)

I am liking Chinja. I was all set to hit up my fave Thai cart, but when I saw the line 6 deep (which usually means a 30m wait), I had to ditch the idea and hit up the Republic Plaza food court. I wandered and noticed Chinja. It was cheap and looked relatively healthy — score and score!
I went with the Kung Pao Chicken for $ 5+change. It was a good size portion, perfectly hot and quick to come out! There were a lot of peanuts in it and even more water chestnuts (I am not a fan), but it was good lunch! I am thinking I will go back for some of their other dishes. The Pad Thai looked good and someone also got a Lo Mein dish while I waited that looked altogether yummy!
It’s close and cheap so I will be back!

So, it’s not bad but it wasn’t quite what I expected.
I ordered the General Tsao’s plate and cheese rangoons. The plate came with rice, entrée, and an eggroll. I also ordered a lemonade.
I am not used to the General Tsao’s having so much vegetables in it. In addition, it was spicy but it was missing the smidgen of sweetness I am used to.
I did not like the eggroll. It was bland. The cheese rangoons were okay but the sauce they served with it had a solid film over the top that I had to breakthrough to get to the portion that was still liquid.
I will probably try it once more before I count it out.

There is a reason the line is out the door…
(Its in the basement food court of Republic Plaza)
This is one of the best Chinese restaurants in the Downtown area and it is only open for lunch!
There is such a variety in their menu that it is hard to find something you will not like. You can custom order anything on the menu and have it down your way. Ask for extra spicy, more sauce, less rice, noodles instead of rice, chicken instead of beef, etc. They will make it how you want it and it does not take any longer. The food comes out hot and fresh.
If you don’t know what to order, tell the lady what you like and ask for a suggestion.
Since the line is so long, go early or late or just wait 10 – 15 minutes. The line moves fast.
If you can strike up a conversation with the guy serving the food, you get extra points! He’s a funny «guy».
–Provecho!

Chinja is now accepting credit cards!
I had lunch there today (the shrimp spring roll was unbelievably tasty) and was surprised to see MasterCard/​Visa signs posted above the register.
You now have one fewer excuse not to eat here.

READY? When he says that, you better BE ready to receive the goods. And what deliciously cheap goods they are!
When you first go there, you will be discouraged by the long line. Have faith that the Chinja machine is well-​oiled, hopefully with some really freakin’ hot sesame oil, and that the line will move quickly, because it will. When you get to the sweet old lady taking the orders, you may panic when you don’t know what to order. At this point you are screwed since if you diddle around you will be admonished for holding up the long line. Henceforth you will have learned to pick up the printed pink paper menu for perusal whilst standing in line. Next you take the ticket, move forward, and place it on the table in front of the guy with the wachovia hat. Make sure you place it in the order that you arrived in the queue or else you will feel the wrath of Chinja. Finally, stand back and let the man do his magic.
Some favs:
hot and sour soup
kung pao chicken (white, spicy)
Why not 5 stars? Well a couple things like the sesame chicken and crab cheese wontons are meh.

Chinja is the oddest place to me. It makes me feel like I’m 16 and eating lunch in the food court with my friends. Anyway, Laura L brought me here for lunch, or breakfast depending on your eating schedule, while I was recently in town. I’ve been on a healthy kick lately (aka the wedding diet) so I was really pleased to see plenty of healthy options and signs everywhere proclaiming «no MSG!»
I ordered up some brown rice with veggies and chicken. It was just as exciting as it sounds. But, they had little cups of sriracha on the counter so I took those and spiced up my dish nicely.
It was really affordable — around $ 11 for two of us with drinks, but it is cash only so don’t forget those all important dollars!