Chopsticks

Your basic Chinese American fare, Chopsticks is not a chain, and it will fill your belly and include vegetables that didn’t come from a can, all for about five bucks. I think they do pretty brisk business here too, since the location is good, and there aren’t a whole lot of other non-​chain options in the immediate vicinity (although Chicken King is right down the street).
The restaurant itself is basically a dive, but most of the businesses along here are. Broadway offers seven lanes of blacktop for commuters to employ in order that they may eschew this whole area of town as they bolt between work and home. The large, crumbling concrete slab in front of the store, which no longer offers outdoor seating is emblematic of the hardscrabble businesses that function here, and I’m sure the profit margins at Chopsticks won’t allow much better. Still, the clientele knows that the food is hot, portions are reasonable, and prices are very cheap. Cash only.

I started coming here in the late 80’s when I worked for AAA, across the street. One summer, I ate nothing but Chopsticks’ chicken fried rice every day for lunch for three months. It was less than $ 2, and was pretty darn tasty, if basic. Fast forward to today, and one person I remember still works here, and they still serve up the same recipe for chicken fried rice and war su gai. The portion on the fried rice has shrunk (they used to pack those little clam shell containers!), and the price has gone up, but it’s still worth it.