Lisa’s Chop Suey

The term embarrassment of riches is often thrown around in discussions of how much Chinese food you can get for $ 5. Rarely is it more appropriate than when it’s used to describe the combination plates at Lisa’s Chop Suey.
The combination plates – officially known as combination platters – at Lisa’s Chop Suey have a nice heft to them, like they accidentally gave you too much food, but if you walk at a brisk-​enough pace you can be in your car and down the street before they realize it.
But you know good and well a Chinese restaurant wouldn’t accidentally give you too much food. They count each and every thing they give you, down to the individual packets of red pepper dust (probably intended to get you to buy a can of weird-​flavored Vess soda), and they charge you $ 0.10 per extra packet of soy sauce… which I’m sure costs them like $ 0.10 per case.
I shudder to think what the punishment is if one of their employees gives you too many shrimp in your shrimp fried rice.
One sign I saw behind the counter said that they weren’t responsible for incorrect change given once you’ve left the counter, which must be an issue in this area (no shots). Another sign said they only take cash. There were at least three such signs, if not five of them, but I didn’t bother to take note of each one of them, because I wasn’t planning on writing a review.
I was just there getting lunch. I work nearby, and I’d been meaning to give this place a shot the next time I had a few dollars in my pocket. A few weeks ago, I wrote an important, controversial review of a Little Caesars in the same strip mall. This place is four doors down from it, and in between are four different Asian beauty supply stores. Go to North County and count them yourself, if you think I’m lying.
To their credit, there isn’t a piece of cardboard on the wall with a list of names of people who are no longer allowed to write personal checks. Is that because they only take cash? Checks could be viewed as cash, for accounting purposes. But I digress.
I’d already been informed by my boss Jimmy, society’s foremost expert on Chinese food, to avoid straying from the beaten path on this place’s menu, meaning don’t bother with much other than fried rice, a St. Paul and maybe a few other menu items. I figured I might just go with a half order of rice and a soda, but then I saw that they had combination plates. I’m a big fan of any takeout food that comes in a container that doubles as a plate.
Some places only offer A, B and C combination plates, with A and B being chicken wings and maybe hot-​braised chicken, and C being egg foo young. Lisa’s has at least as many plates as letters of the alphabet, but I wasn’t even about to read them all. I spotted the egg foo young, which was of course plate C, and as Diamond D would say, I went for mine.
Also, I suppose I should mention. The plates all cost $ 5.80, but the egg foo young plate is $ 5.50. At the top of the menu it says they’re all $ 5.80, but next to egg foo young it says $ 5.50. It doesn’t make sense, because egg foo young is one of the best things you can possibly order from a Chinese restaurant (do they not know that the price of eggs went up?), but I wasn’t about to argue.
They didn’t skimp on the eggs either. Hence, at least in part, the weight of the bag. You get two pretty decent-​size patties, a heap of pork fried rice that spills over into the egg foo young and three crab rangoon. You get a choice between an egg roll and crab rangoon. I was shocked – shocked! – to see they give you two rather than three. Though like I said, there’s literally no way this was a mistake.
The pork fried rice seems like it may have been scooped from one of those crock pot containers they sometimes use at a Chinese buffet, without giving it a go-​round in a wok, but I like the fact that the pork is cut lengthwise rather than cubed (it seems more like real food that way). But the egg foo young was obviously prepared fresh. The crab rangoon are the kind where the filling doesn’t seem to be anything other than cream cheese. #authenticity
It was more food than I required at that time of day, but I ate it all anyway (I would have felt bad tossing it out, regardless of its actual value in terms of food cost), and I can’t tell you I won’t be back.

Lisa’s is my favorite place for chinese food. Love the chicken St. Paul, fried rice, fried dumplings, beef & Broccoli, and everything else I’ve tried from here.

I have tried several items from Lisa’s over the years and found them all to be very Fresh and Tasty. Keep up the good work.

I don’t eat Chinese food that often but when I have the taste for vegetable fried rice I only go to Lisa’s. It’s fast, fresh, tasty and super cheap. I only get vegetarian items but I heard everything is good.

ordered cashew chicken and hunan beef. both were really good with large portions! when i come back to st. louis i will return!

I order food from here quiet often. Good food and friendly staff.

been going for years. great food, good customer service. and fast! never a problem with the order, even when we call it in.

Great food! Great eating!