May’s Cafe Chinese Food

This is my second time eating from Mays. Let me preface this review by saying that I really don’t like Chinese food in general. I crave it about twice a year. So when I do want it, it’s always a struggle to find a place that won’t make me sick.
That said– last time I ate a bunch of food and did not get sick and that was amazing (that was April 2015). No clue what I ordered last time but I probably played it safe and got steamed veggies and meat of some sort.
Today I got the orange chicken which is batter fried and has actual orange peels in the sauce (am I supposed to eat those? I am…) and an eggplant pork dish. Can’t find the pork in the eggplant dish but it’s fine. Not outstanding but fine. (I mean, it’s mostly rice and I don’t eat rice… but this is probably standard if this kind of restaurant).
The chicken is good. I may be sick later as it feels heavy, but only time will tell. It is not super syrupy, and while it is breaded there is still more chicken than bread in each bite.
I ordered the spiciest options which look covered in pepper flakes but its still what I call «medium» if you are used to spicy food.
I don’t know how healthy/​natural this place actually is — but my sensitive belly leads me to believe they are less crazy with the MSG than other places.
I would return (and I have) but I still wonder if there is a better place for people whose bellies are jerks and don’t like most of the things that make up traditional Chinese-​American cuisine.

I don’t like chinese food.
This is the only place I will get it. The bone in spare ribs are actually grilled on fire in front of you. They are the best you will ever get. The rest of the menu is not a disappointment. Don’t be mislead by my abundance of 5 star reviews, I am tough to impress I just mostly review places I like.

The girl who answers the phone on Sunday
Nights needs to learn better English she does not understand when taken orders can’t take numbers down on the phone right and starts yelling
And puts you on hold constantly
And then gets upset and repeats herself over and over tonight will probably be my last order
I did it in grub hub but next time I will look
For some other place to order
The owner Raymond should be aware I spend at least 60 to 79 dollars

Mays is a small family business that provides wonderful food and service. The crab rangoons are the best you’ll ever have. Vegetables are crisp and well seasoned. The house rice is just lovely. Raymond and his family provide delicious food and warm friendly service. They have catered many occasions for me and I have always been very pleased. Thank you is not enough for the great food and service

This place is the worst! I live less than 10 minutes away and it took over an hour for a small order. Finally the order came and it was NOT worth the wait. The pupu for 2 was cold and the chop suey was disgusting! The sauce was so thick and the chicken was fatty and had a brown blood spot on every lazily cut chunk. NOT RECOMENDED!

A little pricey for takeout chinese. I ordered General Gao’s with my friend, and we both got 4 – 5 pieces of chicken. Very small portion for the price. However, the taste and quality exceeds those of many other chinese restaurants. The food was warm and tasty for what it’s worth.

My husband and I picked up food here. The service was friendly and the food was great. We’re from out of town and grateful to have a delicious warm meal on a snowy Christmas Day.

Okay, here is a really great Chinese food please. I really really love this place and I have been coming here for as long as I can remember. The food is really really great the only thing that I don’t like on their menu is their noodles.. Other than that everything else is really delicious the meat is cooked to perfection and I have to say that my favorite dish is the beef and broccoli. I am NOT an eggroll person so of course I avoid those but if I could order from here every night I really would. I am a big Chinese food fan and I am usually picky about my Chinese food but I can’t complain about this place. Chinese food is my favorite type of food so I go and hunt to see if I can find other places that are also amazing, and so far mays is in the lead. Getting the food delivered is pretty good because it doesn’t take very long. And picking it up goes the same way. The prices are reasonable although they have gone up but honestly it’s worth it because this place is great and they give you a lot of food. The boxes are filled to the top opposed to some other places that leaves a lot of space. I can’t really say anything about the people who work there because I don’t really know them and I don’t really say much to them but I do know their food and I do know that more people should try it here…

I tried to give this place NO stars. we ordered takeout last night. The food was absolutely the worst excuse for Chinese food I have ever had. The egg rolls consisted of re-​worked pork strips (so it was pink and had a horrid taste). The szechuan shredded beef had big slices of beef, gluey sauce, limp vegetables — no flavor, no heat. The Kung Pao beans with pork were similar: thick slices of pork, perfectly cooked string beans, but the same brown gluey sauce. AWFUL. The only thing that was remotely edible were the Peking Ravioli. We will NEVER waste our money on this poor excuse for a restaurant again.

Not very good. Well below average for chinese takeout. Surprised they got such good Unilocal reviews… Thats why i went.
The egg foo yong was inedible. Crab ragoon, beef teryaki, spring rolls were just ok… I didnt have the rice…

We recently had a 30^th birthday party catered by May’s Café for 85 people. When you have a party, the biggest concerns are the quality of food, set-​up, and arrival. May’s was over the top on everything!!! The food arrived on time, set-​up was flawless, and the food was hot and delicious! …and the price was well under our budget! People wanted to know where the food was from, it was so good! Menu was pork fried rice, vegetable lo mein, egg rolls, scallion pancake, boneless ribs, and chicken fingers, and fortune cookies! Was extremely satisfied with the food from May’s…from start to finish!!!

mays café has gone down hill fast!!! this place sucks ive been a loyal customer for over 23 years and they are not what they use to be… since when is lettuce put into the chicken low mein? also the chicken tasted like it was old, i dont know what happened to this place but this place was the best chinese food in the 90’s… the last 6 times ive ordered from there its gotten worse and worse and tonight i snapped !! MAYS CAFE SHOULD BE CLOSE! the beef teriyaki use to be the size of the entire skewer and now its the size of a business card (length) … boneless spareribs all fat, chicken fingers all batter pork fried rice all onions! come on guys!
im on the hunt for a good chinese place, mays is the pits!

I had Mays Café cater my friends 50^th Birthday Party. Raymond is such a professional, the food was OUTSTANDING and everyone at the party kept asking me where I got the food. Ten stars in my book!!!

I get Chinese takeout very often, and from all different restaurants. I did not enjoy this place. The delivery took over an hour (I live the next road over). They charged an extra $ 7 delivery fee without making it clear there would be a charge. Once the food came, there were several things wrong with the order (for example, moo shi shrimp. with no shrimp?).
I hardly ever write reviews here. None of the complaints above in itself would warrant me writing a review. Thing is, the food itself was pretty bad. I can’t believe reviewers who are saying it wasn’t greasy. I get that Chinese is greasy, and that’s a part of the deal when getting Chinese delivery. But, the items we ordered seemed WAY too greasy.
Crab rangoons weren’t great. Veggie fried rice had no veggies with the exception of 2 carrots and a few peas, and was pretty dry.
Other reviewers have said this is the best in the area, but I can’t imagine how it could be a whole lot worse than this. I will not be ordering from here again, and will try other local chinese places next time.

We got take out from here a few weeks ago, and the food was largely comparable to most Chinese take out I’ve had. It was definitely less greasy than other place I’ve experienced, and the ingredients seemed to be of a better quality.
We split a combo appetizer to start – an egg roll, some dumplings, and scallion pancake. I liked the egg roll a lot, and the dumplings were good, if a little bit breadier than is ideal to me. The scallion pancake was okay… it was somewhat too greasy for my taste and was one of those things that should probably be eaten as soon as it comes out of the fryer. For an entrée, I ordered Moo Shu pork, which was pretty good… I particularly appreciated the fact that the pork looked like actual meat, and found the ratio of meat to veggies to be a good balance. My friend went with General Gao’s Chicken, which we liked less… it just wasn’t as tasty as we’d hoped, and I found the breading to be a little heavier than ideal.
Overall, I wouldn’t hesitate to order from May’s again, although I’d be interested to see what else the Medford/​Somerville area has to offer.

The best in Medford, there is no comparison.
Get the egg rolls.

I also had tried seemingly every Chinese food joint in Medford, only to find crusty wadded oddly colored pork fried rice, overly glazed and low quality ribs… and so on.
I decided to to give May’s a shot based on some of the reviews here — and was VERY pleased — all the food tasted fresh and was really great tasting.
This is my new go-​to spot for Chinese.
Chris

I have tried pretty much every place in Medford. May’s is far superior to all the others unless you like super super greasy food and rice.
May’s food is really not overly greasy. The noodles and rice (any that you get there) are always jam packed with whatever goodies you ask for whether it’s veggies, or meat or fish.
We have become friendly with the owners over the years and they pretty much know us now. But anyone we ever speak to in person or on the phone is always polite and professional. A+ place to eat. Enjoy!

Ray and May do a good job and food is always tasty. I wanted to write this review not to rave about the place but to stand up to the few criticisms out there. I am friendly with the owners as a customer so let’s get that disclosure out of the way upfront!
Being a take out place, this will not be comparable to a higher end restaurant nor can Ray afford to serve all of the exotic Chinese vegetables that he would like for his target market. he does have bok choy but no pea pod stems, or Chinese broccoli.
Besides, most of his customers are Aku Aku types who think spare ribs, beef teriyaki, and chicken fingers are really Chinese food so cut him some slack!
Just want to address others’ concerns:
1. minimum credit card order of $ 10 — you all understand that cc co’s charge 50c and also their 2−4% fee? since most restos operate on a 15−20% profit margin, taking out half that for credit card fees would sink most places
2. costs rising — yes and blame the fools who send the dollar plummeting (Bernanke and our friends in Washington who rack up debt). Food prices are up huge globally over the last 10 years — pizza ingredients especially! I’m surprised Ray can keep prices where they are
3. Definitely Ray and May are going to give better service — they’re the owners. Some of his employees are great people but I bet from time to time, a few of his part timers are not up to par.
The key with any neighborhood place is to get to know the owners, then you can have honest conversations and they treat you like a friend — which is the way it should be!
Come here if you just want some good quality Amero-​Chinese food.

I’m not an addict, it’s cool, I feel alive. I love May’s Café for all my Chinese food needs. They still have the BEST duck sauce and pork fried rice this side of China.