China King Express

St. Louis has the best Americanized Chinese food, hands down, so it was a no-​brainer that I try this spot.
China King Express is located on Gravois in the Benton Park West neighborhood. The building originally was a Pizza Hut spot back in the day before being converted. It’s literally placed on one of the busiest intersections in the city, so you might see a little bit of EVERYTHING, lol.
There’s parking and dining if you choose to stay, but honestly, I wouldn’t. It’s best to get take-​out or have your food delivered. There’s just too much activity around that area (traffic and otherwise lol), and my anxiety is too bad for all that.
Now, the most important thing is the food! When you enter, you’ll walk up to a buffet line and a worker will serve you — just tell them what you want. For the entreé, you have a choice between low mein or fried rice. After that, you have a pick of sides, which includes a choice of chicken (fried, general tso, peppercorn, etc.); egg rolls; crab rangoon and some other items. You get THREE sides or a double portion of a side to whatever entreé you choose. It’s A LOT of food given to you; they basically pile it on. Two people literally can share one order.
The food is really good, hot and super affordable ($ 6). The people have always been nice, and I’ve never really had an issue with going back. If you’re on a budget and want to feed two or more people, I would suggest China King Express.

mediocre standard cheap chinese food. Its food so you don’t die.

I have ordered from this restaraunt for several years. They know my number and address. The food is ok, but they deliver. We get along well.
Tonight a strange woman answers the phone. I can’t have delivery, even with a cc. and my r Rangoon connection is severed…
3 stars for food. minus 10 for the person on the phone. hope to eat you again…

Very excellent place to get a good meal at a very affordable price. Ming & her entire staff are great. The buffet is one of the best in St. Louis. You must stop in an get of the food.

I love Chinese food. .. well, Americanized Chinese food! For carryout Chinese in South City, I LOVE China King Express at 3505 Gravois Avenue in South City — near Grand and Gravois.
Don’t be alarmed when you step inside — it is a converted Pizza Hut and the inside is quite lacking, but the food is delicious.
My favorite is the chicken fried rice — whole portion — and I always get a side of red sauce (sweet and sour sauce) for a whopping $.50 to go with my two fried egg rolls. The total bill was $ 8.82.
They do offer delivery, but it usually is 45 – 50 minutes before they deliver. .. and I can’t usually wait that long! Your order will be available in 10 minutes from the time you call them.
I love this place.

I was definitely not a fan of this place. However, I was on a date and the guy was really excited about it… Trying not to judge him for it.
I ordered kung pao shrimp, he ordered mongolian chicken. We got wontons and hot and sour soup. I really thought you couldn’t mess up hot and sour soup. but you can… and they did. Yuck.
The shrimp was well cooked and he liked his mongolian chicken. However, everything was especially greasy – even for chinese food.
While you can order from the buffet, if you order off the menu they’ll cook it fresh for you.
Just don’t waste your time.

This is affordable decent Chinese food. Nothing special, but everything is done well and the food arrives hot and the order is accurate.

Blargh!
I’m all about cheap Chinese. It is an essential part of any diet. However, it has to be just above grade-​D for it to be worth eating. However, I’m not entirely sure where the quality of CKE lands.
We ordered our food over the phone for pick-​up. They do deliver, but it’s only a mile or two up the road. We received a mailer some time back with coupons. We got four free crab rangoon with our $ 15 purchase. Not too shabby.
The pick-​up experience was a nightmare. We got there, and weirdos were just hanging in the parking lot, which is tiny and awkward. Once we dodged the vagrants, we were greeted inside by a woman with a neck tatoo. She grabbed our order and was visibly annoyed when I didn’t write in a tip on the card receipt.
And what’s up with that? Why do people think that they deserve to be tipped for handing customers food? Delivery, I get. I did that myself. But people who work counters? I get the same weird vibe at West End Wok. I just don’t understand.
We got the food home, and were pretty pleased with the crab rangoon. By far, the best part of the meal. Also, the portions were pretty bountiful. Overall, the sesame chicken was about average with the cheap Chinese that I’ve had around town. Unfortunately, the General Tso’s chicken was pretty disappointing.
After a while, I just didn’t feel well. I couldn’t decide if it was the amount of food or the lack of quality that was ailing me. I had to cancel plans for later that evening because China King Express didn’t sit right in my tummy.
Definitely a bummer. I would have loved to love you, China King Express, but it’s just not meant to be.

Horrible delivery service. I live about 2.5 miles away told my order would be 35 – 40 mins. An hour and 25 mins later the delivery arrived.

Ok, I came in here by accident but have been meaning to try it out anyways. As a warning, I didn’t get delivery, which seems to knock a few stars off from other reviewers, but they have a lunch special 11 – 2 and a dinner special 5 – 8 that you just CANNOT beat. It’s 3 items and either lo mein or fried rice. This is in store only, you can take out, but u can’t get it delivered. I was kind of leary how much food I was going to receive when the guy pulled out one of those three compartment take home trays, but man do they heap that stuff on. After the first two meats I was like, I don’t even want any more food, jsut give me two crab rangoon. Now keep in mind this is your stereotypical americanized fast food, so don’t go expecting nothing gourmet. But for that kind of food, it was just what you’d hope for, and for $ 5, I easily fed myself for two meals.

Good quick food. The serving size is generous. Although the asthestics is not at the top of my list the food has always been good.

My first time ordering from them, I was told that my order would be at my house (less than a mile away) in 40 minutes (which happened to be a few minutes before they close). I called after 50 minutes, because it was already 10 minutes past their closing, to make sure than the food was still coming at all. I was told that «it has been sitting here ready, and we don’t know where our driver is». Half an hour later our food shows up, and SURPRISE (!) — it’s cold. And full-​priced, with no extras and no explanation.
The only consolation is that the food was average rather than terrible when it arrived cold — the reason that they’re getting 2 stars and not 1. That being said, delivery Chinese is all made with the same cheap ingredients anyway — don’t waste your time and money waiting for this place, which obviously cares nothing for customer satisfaction.

This place is in the old Pizza Hut near the Schnuck’s on Gravois near Grand.
Made a quick trip there this past Sunday to check it out.
It is set up inside as more of a buffet, but I was too early for them to be serving dinner and was interested only in take-​out anyway.
Ordered 2 meals «Extra Spicy», which for Kung Pao chicken and Chicken and Garlic, these should already be «spicy» according to the menu annotation.
The packaging was nice and spill-​tight which is a plus.
The fried «dumplings» or «pot stickers» were decent and the chicken-​fried rice up to par.
Problem is, both entrée items were entirely without heat and light on any discernible flavor. I usually enjoy a good cry if the Kung Pao chicken is up to par but I couldn’t even muster a sniffle. Same for the other dish. Zero spice and very little zing to the ingredients, which looked nice but were void of flavor.
I may have to try this place again and see if one of the cooks understands «spicy» or «hot.» Maybe the gal who took my order thought I meant «no heat» when I asked for «extra spicy?»
Regardless, the place has been open for a few months and still seems to be pretty clean inside. I believe I heard each of my items being freshly prepared or at least I heard a lot of sizzling behind the partition and everything was nice and hot by the time I got back home.
Other than that, I failed to ask for soy/​sweet sour sauce or chopsticks so none of that was included but I’ll take the hit for that.
If I can coax some heat and flavor into my next order I’ll consider adding an extra star.

OK so I have a serious addiction to Chinese fast food… the first step to over come any addiction is to admit it right? Well with places like this I am not going to over come my soft spot any time soon. On a busy day last week when my old car had decided it didn’t want to work anymore my gracious boyfriend was my chauffeur to and from work and then we had spent way too much time trying to get the car running again, needless to say by the time we were ready for dinner it was late and we were both exhausted and neither of us felt like cooking. To my surprise we had only one piece of mail and it was a menu for China King Express, so at that point how could I NOT get Chinese food for dinner. The menu is massive, almost overwhelmingly so but there is such a variety of items to try. The person taking my order was polite, they took my order and credit card then were at my door with my food in under 30 minutes. The rice, crab rangoon and spring rolls were all delicious and my boyfriend loved his teryaki chicken and egg drop soup. Plus I got 3 fortune cookies… can’t beat that! The delivery guy was friendly and said they had previously been open but then ownership changed hands and it was completely redone. I am glad they took their time reopening because I will definitely order from there again, plus they are one of the few Chinese delivery places near me open on Sundays.