Kim’s Chow Mein

A little hole-​in-​the-​wall place, but the lo mein is amazing and the sesame chicken is tasty too. Large portions for your money’s worth that make great leftovers! Highly recommended.

Kim’s shorted our order. I had to go back in the middle of dinner to get the egg foo young.
The rice we ordered did not taste or look like what we ordered. I asked Kims to replace the rice. The gentleman wanted to argue with me and refused to replace the $ 5.99 order of rice.
Kim’s has lost a customer!!!

I will admit the Twin Cities has astronomically good Korean food. I’ve not been let down yet. However, i come from a place that has astronomically good (and simultaneously cheap) Chinese food. Since moving here I’ve been struggling to find a similar place locally.
Occasionally Hotdish, Tapas and I want to spend a Friday night in with Chinese take out and movies. The first three tries were abysmal. Barely edible. These places made the old, bad joke «Chinese food is really dog» believable.
On a trip to Izzy’s to wash the taste of horrid, old grease fried egg roll out of our mouths, i noticed Kim’s. We gave it a try on out next Take Out Friday.
Kim’s is not bad. I may be damning it with faint praise to say it was the best out of four, but it’s definitely edible and fairly tasty. It’s not Queens Chinese by a long stretch, but comparatively speaking it’ll do until i find something better.
They have odd things on the menu like fried chicken and french fries, but the usual suspects are present, with the exception of hot’n’sour soup, which is disappointing. Tapas loves the mini fried sugar donuts, which is pretty state-​fair-​y, but not a bad addition. They keep the kid happy and are cheaper than Izzy’s next door.
So. Kim’s is just fine. If you happen to be craving Chinese. And in the neighborhood. And hate hot’n’sour soup.

I got the Beef Lo Mein and I was very pleased with it. It was simple, but delicious. Noodles were not dry, veggies were cookies perfectly and the beef was tender and not fatty. It was a huge portion, but I’m happy to take home left overs.
The staff were attentive but didn’t hover, and saw to it I had everything I wanted.
Overall, not fancy, but worth it and very satisfying.

I love this place. Crazy cheap and huge portions. Good food and the best egg drop soup I’ve ever had!

I don’t know what everybody was expecting when they went to Kim’s, but I came away perfectly satisfied. No, don’t go here if you’re looking for fine cuisine, and no, don’t come here if you want to see a new take on traditional Chinese-​restaurant food. Portions are huge, costs are low, and that’s enough to make me a happy camper. Great for a quick stop or for take-​out.

Tried this place out because it is very close to where I live. It’s your basic Cantonese Chinese food, except everything is a little bit below average. Food quality is pretty low even for a hole-​in-​the-​wall Chinese place (especially the proteins) and everything we got was underseasoned and kind of tasteless. I would never get the lo mein again but might pull the trigger on one of the chicken dishes if I was really lazy and hungry. However, I would probably not recommend this to anyone and won’t be returning often if at all.

I discovered Kim’s in 2008 with some friends. It’s right near St. Thomas and is in walking distance which was great as a freshman with no car. Kim’s is a small very casual establishment with pretty typical food offerings.
The very top reason I continue to go back to Kim’s is there AMAZING, and I’ll say it again, AMAZING egg drop soup. The best egg drop soup in the twin cities, hands-​down. It’s fresh, not overly oily and has chives, peas, and carrots in it. I typically get a bowl of egg drop a side of white rice to eat with the soup, and a split order of cream cheese wontons with whoever I’m dining with.
The other great thing about Kim’s is the service. They are so friendly and accommodating and know me pretty well by now. In fact, they almost always know what I’m going to order!
I have tried the lo mein and fried rice before, which are both decent, nothing overly special, but not bad.
Overall, I love Kim’s for the atmosphere and the great soup. It’s a great, inexpensive, quick meal when you aren’t looking for anything fancy.

While i understand some of the issues pointed out in the negative reviews, I still love Kim’s Chow Mein. While I havent been particularly impressed with the chinese food on the menu, which isnt bad but is rather run of the mill, the fried chicken is my favorite in the area and a fantastic bargain. For 6 $ you get half a chicken and your choice of fries, white rice, or fried rice for a few cents extra. the chicken has a very tasty crispy batter and is always hot and juicy. Their prices are reasonable and portions large. While i certainly wouldn’t go here if i wanted traditional chinese food, you can get some excellent throwbacks to when chow mein and Egg foo yung were new and exotic. Interior is rather dated and I probably would recommend take out. Love that fried chicken.

The recipe has some how morphed from the original owners from many years ago and through the many changes in ownership. I have been coming to this exact same establishment for the past 25 years and unfortunately it is just not the same. The fried chicken batter is too thick, customer services is rude, and perhaps after all these years I have a built in expectation of the place that just no longer delivers the same quality, service, and friendliness that it once did.
Sorry old friend.

Worst meal I’ve ever had in the Twin Cities, and I don’t say that lightly. I tried this place with my son after visiting the nearby toy train shop.
The «chicken» is some kind of reconstituted spongy material, the egg rolls taste rancid, and the décor is nonexistent.
Avoid at all costs.

This place is a location restaurant. Don’t come here for the food. If you do the only thing that I have found to be at all good on the menu is the Fried Rice. Don’t order anything else if you have developed your palette at all as everything else will disappoint.
They could do a lot better. The market is there. look at the blue door… crowded every day of the week… while this place has 1 or 2 people who don’t work there sitting inside. Hire people that speak at least some English… which is funny is because in my opinion the only people that would like this place’s Chinese food are ignorant people who have never tried another Chinese place… and actually believe American Chinese food is accurate representation of food from China and Hong Kong.. . They love it because it’s «exotic» lol.. . Just like Leann chin’s — that’s an inside joke for all the Chinese Buffet buffs out there.
The fried rice isn’t bad though… just nothing else.

just a heads up, to all you Unilocalers out there… for a limited time, kim’s chow mein has pork greenbean on the menu board.($ 7.50)…i have had it 3 times now, and it’s delicious… also, the chicken broccoli, is pretty good too!.generous portions, makes both of these dishes a no-​brainer!

You don’t want to eat here. You want to eat at Kims Kitchen on Randolph.
That’s all.

Just bad.
I got chow mein here about four years ago, and I still cringe when I drive by the place.
The sauce tasted like it came from a can, and looked like slightly tinted corn syrup. The meat was (I swear) chopped up lunch meat, all jiggly and gross. Leann Chin’s is better, Chun King from a can is better, homemade hotdog chow mein is better.

Very good food, it’s been here for nearly fifty years! I spend a lot of time in Asia, and I have plenty of authentic Asian chow, but often I just want American Chinese food. Kim’s is the ticket.
While the Asian food is good, try the fried chicken – extraordinary. People who know about the chicken come from many miles around for it. Under $ 7.00 for a half-​chicken with either fries or fried rice.

Nothing to get excited about, trust me.
I had the Shrimp Lo Mein here, and boy, was it mediocre. This is very typical Chinese food, like 90% of Chinese restaurants in the Twin Cities. To it’s merit, the portions are gigantic! You could get two filling meals out of one order. Even though this is true, I’d rather have one meal worth of good Chinese food than two meals of average Chinese food. The weird thing is, there are quite a few people I know that make a ritual of coming here when they are in town. I don’t know what for… They always get the Chow Mein, which I haven’t had, because frankly, I don’t like Chow Mein. I guess if you’re a big Chow Mein fan, it may be worth a try.
This being said, it’s really not worth your time to seek this place out, there are better options out there for sure.

I can not begin to describe how awful the food was. Let me preface this review with a little information about myself: I eat trash. My entire life I have cultivated the ability to, through sheer force of will, convince myself that anything tastes good. Creamed pickled herring: awesome. Natto: I love it. If society collapses and the only sustenance left in the world is rancid jars of pickled pigs feet I will live like a king. That said, the food I was served here was disgusting. I ordered Chicken Chow Mein and got a plate of fried noodles covered in puke. They had taken the winning combination of fried noodles and vegetables and smothered it in a completely flavorless clear goop. It was as if Slimer from the Ghostbusters had taken a dump on some stir fry. Did I mention that the chicken was clearly canned? I view wasting food with the scorn of a religious fanatic but I could not bring myself to get more than two bites into this science experiment. My wife ordered vegetable Lo Mein, it was edible.

On our way back from the International Film Festival, my friends and I decided that we should grab something to eat before we returned home and went to our meetings, respectively.
It was 8:05pm and Kim’s working hours read that it closed at 8:00pm; however, a working student who is familiar with us let us in and we were able to order something to go. Apparently, if the door is not locked and the sign is still lit then there is a chance that you can still order food for take-​out.
For $ 12 I was able to special order broccoli and pea pods with garlic sauce and 6 cream cheese wontons. A small steamed rice and two fortune cookies came complimentary. This lasted me for two days and was decent for being a quick take-​out meal.
Considering how easily you can rack up $ 12 for a less satisfying meal at my school, I was pleased with what I got. They were able to make the food flavorful without being too spicy. Alas, it was a bit salty.