Chopsticks Chinese Cuisine

Called my order in 15 mins prior to pick up. Got to the place, order wasn’t ready. Better yet, they didn’t know what I ordered. I’m on my lunch break, I don’t have a lot of time to leave and pick up food.
Now I only have 20 mins to eat, wait still got to drive back and eat. Lol. I ordered shrimp lo mein. Their menu says its 7.95. I got there and paid its 9.70. Yup. Not coming here again. They were nice the entire time but I’ll pass for the amount I paid and amount I received.

Everything about this place was excellent! First of all we were on the way home from Sea World to Murrieta and Unilocaled/​Googled/​OnStarred everything in between and decided on this place. When we drove up we saw that two other restaurants (Original Pancake House & Lumpia’s Filipino Restaurant) were within 3 doors. Since my wife is Filipino I thought for sure we’d end up switching our choice but after walking in and checking out Lumpia’s we decided to stick with Chopsticks. The Waitress told us to sit anywhere and about half of the dozen or so tables were open. After checking out the very impressive options on the menu we decided to get the «Meal B» for $ 13.95 per person which included 2 Entrees (we chose Sweet & Sour Pork & Garlic Chicken) 2 bowls of Egg Drop Soup & 2 Appetizer plates of 1 Fried Shrimp, 1 Egg Roll & 1 Cream Cheese filled Wonton. Honestly I’m not a big fan of Garlic Chicken so I can’t comment on that myself but my wife loved it! I can comment on the Sweet & Sour Pork however and I genuinely thought it was the best I’ve ever eaten, hands down! To me there are two crucial criteria for Sweet & Sour Pork. 1.) That the taste of the Sweet & Sour sauce needs to actually be sweet but not so sticky sweet that you feel like you’re eating fruity Chinese pancake syrup! 2.) That the deep fried pork tastes fresh and not rubbery and that the batter has a fresh crunch to it so I know they didn’t just pull it out if a frozen Costco bag and drop it in oil the second my order went in! My Order met both of these criteria and more! We were also given a squeeze bottle of extra Sweet & Sour sauce which I took liberal advantage of on my rice! Speaking of rice by the way, being married to a Filipina I’ve become an «expert» on rice and the proper «stickiness» that separates it from what we white people grew up eating. The rice we were served was very good and our waitress generously refilled ours at no charge! In addition to that she loaded a to-​go box with nearly a full order of rice to take home with my wife’s leftover Garlic Chicken! The Fried Shrimp, Cream Cheese Wonton & Egg Roll on the Appetizer plate were all outstanding and each would make great individual full orders on their own! In summary I definitely give Chopsticks Chinese Cuisine 5 of 5 Stars! I absolutely wish this place was closer to home in Murrieta. We will definitely be hitting this spot again on our very frequent trips back & forth to San Diego. By the way, this is obviously not a secret spot since the take-​out traffic we saw coming in & out while we dined was a very steady stream. For two people to get stuffed for dinner after an appetite building day of walking around Sea World for $ 30.30, with half of one Entrée remaining to take home along with a complimentary order of rice is quite impressive in my book! BTW this is the first review I’ve ever written for any restaurant but it was so good I decided to break my silence!

This food is amazing. The owner treats you like her own family, always friendly and approachable. They have a lot of great menu items, but one particular is their «chicken noodle soup», I am not sure the exact name, but it is similar to the american soup. It is amazing, helps you recover from sickness and tastes almost better than «mom’s homemade soup».
The cream cheese wonton’s are a must as well.

This is the first review I’ve ever written. I feel so strongly about the bad experience that I’m compelled to share it.
The food was average, about what you’d expect from a strip mall Chinese restaurant. I wasn’t disappointed with the food but it wasn’t anything to write home about. I arrived at noon on a Wednesday and there were no other guests so that wasn’t a good sign.
The reason I give this place 1 star is the service — and because 0 stars was not an option ;) The waitress hovered over our table. It didn’t feel like she was providing quick service but more like she was rushing us out. After the meal was over I visited the unisex restroom. The hallway to the restroom was filled with restaurant equipment and supplies (like a dive bar/​restaurant). I wasn’t surprised by this but definitely not what one would expect for a «nice» restaurant (or even McDonald’s).
The real reason for this review is that when I returned from the restroom the waitress was soliciting/​pressuring my date for a $ 20 donation (I’m not sure what the charity was). Pressuring a customer and making them feel guilty in order to get a donation is very inappropriate. There was no receipt provided so who knows if the donation went to a charity. Is «I need to pay my rent» an official charity?
Because this business treats its customers with such disrespect, I question what goes on in the kitchen. I didn’t see any of the kitchen operations, but I imagine the cook dropping a piece of chicken on the floor, brushing off the dirt, and using it in the meal.

The family has had this place for over 24 years. The mom and daughter are servers and do a great job. Nothing fancy about the place. Small with limited tables and very clean. The prices are good and good food. Good place to have a lunch special and good for a early dinner say 4−5pm.
Since it is in a shopping center, no problem with parking.
Mommy Sun has a great personality and will joke with you. Everyone speaks perfect English which can be a problem at some Asian establishments.

Every time I come my order is right and the lady who works the counter is so nice and pleasant. Every time. Food is great and better than some of the fast food Chinese places. Will definitely keep buying from Chopsticks!

Walked in for lunch today (Friday) & it wasn’t busy at all. The doors were wide open, which I see as very welcoming. It’s a tiny little place, with limited seating inside & about one or two tables outside. I was worried that I was going to look like a complete loner coming in here by myself but the sweet, older lady made me feel right at home. Reminds me a lot of my family. She told me to take a seat anywhere I pleased.
She’s so quick on her feet, she got my order and came out with egg drop soup and these fried cracker things. I’ve NEVER had egg drop soup before… so I decided to dip the crackers and eat them that way… uh YUM! I never really get the chance to eat Chinese food but this stuff is DA BOMB, holy smokes lol I can’t stop eating it.
I got the chicken & broccoli for their lunch special. It was ready so quickly! The plate came with a vegetable roll and a side of rice. DELISH! I’m so happy with it, especially since I never eat Chinese food, like ever… my tummy is doing the happy dance. I’ll probably end up being a regular here, good lord it’s so good!

OK, not as great as I wanted it to be. It’s one or two steps up from panda express, but didn’t knock my socks off. As with other posters I don’t know why there isn’t any decent Chinese food in San Diego. We had the sweet and sour shrimp which was good– had the prerequisite neon red sauce and the shrimp were cooked very well. Chicken lo mein which was sort of one note but tasty. And BBQ pork fried rice which wasn’t impressive at all. Might go back to try the lunch specials which seem like good deals but for now still on the look out for a stellar Chinese take out place in SD.

We have tried just about every Chinese food place in the area and consistently keep coming back to Chopsticks. The food is very fresh, high-​quality and dependable. The prices cannot be beat! Plus, the service is always excellent! The salt-​and-​pepper chicken wings are one of the best items we have had there — highly recommended!

Very friendly staff and delicious Chinese food! Definitely a Poway spot that I frequent!

So here’s the thing: Under normal circumstances I’d probably give this place a solid ⁴⁄₅ because this is the best Chinese food that I’ve had in the area. That being said, I’m bumping it up to ⁵⁄₅ because… it’s the best Chinese food I’ve had in the area.
Unfortunately most of the Chinese food in San Diego is garbage. Look no further than our crappy Union Tribune regularly including Panda Express among the best in the region. Seriously, Panda Express? I’d rather eat horse crap. I’d get sick just the same.
Most of the Chinese restaurants I’ve tried in the area are just one step above Panda, which isn’t saying much. Chopsticks, however, I’d say is a few steps up. It seems like there’s more care that goes into their food and the dishes seem to rely more on flavor than just oil and salt. The orange chicken is pretty good, peppered beef is tasty, fried rice, how can you go wrong?
Service is also top notch.
This is one of those exceptions that even though it’s more of a 4 I’m happily raising it to 5.

This is my favorite take out. We had sweet and sour chicken fried rice and wontons all perfect as always. The service is great.

5 stars for the friendly customer service! But the food was decent… I came here an hour before they closed & we ordered a lot of food to go which was surprisingly ready within 15 minutes & we realized that that was not a good thing once we started eating the food because it was not that great. Also, we should have checked our food before leaving, but once we got home we saw that some of the food we paid for was not in the box. We were missing our Egg Flower Soups & Cream Cheese Wontons.
Pan Fried Noodles BBQ Pork — The noodles were similar to those sticks that you dip in sweet & sour sauce. We were expecting actual pan fried noodles & after reading the menu I realized that the traditional pan fried noodles is their Chow Mein (Crispy Noodles).
Chicken Wings — Delicious!
Dinner B $ 12.95 =
Egg Roll
Cream Cheese Wontons (Missing)
Fried Shrimp
Fried Rice — Extra $ 1, Rice was dry
Soup — To go extra $ 0.75 (Missing)
Spicy Honey Chicken — Plenty of chicken pieces. But the chicken was supposed to be crispy on the outside & some of the pieces were soggy.
Dinner A $ 10.95 =
Same as Dinner B but no Fried Shrimp
Garlic Chicken — Tender, marinated pieces of chicken. But the box was filled with ¾ of vegetables & only ¼ of chicken.

We stopped in here for a quick warm dinner and it is a small, cute place with a few dine-​in tables. The service was fabulous. The lady who works there and served us I assume is the owner because she was on top of everything and so kind (she must have said «thank you» 50 times). The food is very fairly priced and delicious. Everything came out quickly, fresh and tasted great. I would definitely go back there if I am ever in the Poway area.

My favorite Chinese food place in Poway! Always greet you nicely and treat me like family when I come in. The food is great and comes to your quicker than a regular sit down restaurant.

The little Asian Grandma is the best! I would come here more often if I lived closer. Great atmosphere and food was fresh
We got the food to go but when I called, she was very nice and accommodated to my late arrival, making sure my food was fresh and hot when I arrived.
Best Chinese food in Poweezy!

Can I give them 3.5 stars? I definitely want to give the service and the adorably sweet lady who works here 5 stars but I was a bit underwhelmed with the food.
My friend and I stopped by for dinner one night last week. It was about 40 minutes before closing and we were informed that they had ran out of soup so we wouldn’t be able to get the full dinner. I’m a big fan of egg drop soup and was slightly disappointed by this news but I guess we should have came earlier.
We decided to share the beef lo mein and garlic chicken. I typically order my Chinese dishes with no veggies but since I was sharing with my friend, I decided to keep the order simple and not deprive her of the veggies. I think after we got our food that we were both overwhelmed by the quantity of vegetables in both of the dishes. The garlic chicken had wonderful flavor but the amount of chicken was far outnumbered by the abundance of veggies. The same was true with the lo mein. There was maybe ten small pieces of beef in the noodles and a bunch of veggies, including bean sprouts and cabbage, that were intertwined with the noodles and difficult to eat around. I also thought that the quantity of food was much less than at other Chinese restaurants.
However, as I mentioned at the start of the review, I simply adore the woman who works here. She is the sweetest lady and I’ve never felt more special at a restaurant.

If you are in need of a confidence boost, this is the establishment to go to as the sweet woman who works there is full of ever flowing compliments. My friend and I decided to stop by because she had a buy one get one free coupon and we were amused that throughout our dining experience we were referred to as «beautifuls» and «sweethearts».
We arrived at 8:28PM and were told that we came in late and that they closed in 20 minutes… their sign said that they closed at 9:00PM so our first impression was a little strange and confused. They no longer had soup for the evening so my friend was a little disappointed because she was contemplating ordering the egg flower soup since some of the Unilocal reviews claim that the soup is delicious.
We decided to share the garlic chicken and beef lo mein. Both dishes were good. The chicken in the garlic dish was cooked perfectly had just the right proportion of garlic, but there was simply not much chicken. Honestly, it was just a plate of veggies (mushrooms, water leeks, onions and red peppers) with a sprinkle of chicken. My friend does not like vegetables at all and though I do really enjoy veggies, I was disappointed in the quantity, or lack there of, of chicken as well. There was a similar issue with the beef lo mein. The noodles were great and the flavor was on par, but there was just not enough beef, though the small amount we had tasted good. I was a little happier with our meals than my friend, but neither of us left really impressed.
We agreed that we would come here again with the BOGO coupon or if we were with someone else who really wanted to go, but otherwise would not go out of our way to go.

Such a wonderful Chinese place! Food was excellent and the service was fantastic! It was VERY reasonably priced,;94 my husband and I we paid only 20 $ for two full meals! We are stuff!
I’ve never been called Beautiful so much in my life, our waitress, the older women, called me beautiful every time she came by to check on us… and it may not seem like something to write home about, but to a pregnant lady, it’s a wonderful compliment!
My husband and I will be back!

The little chinese grandma that works here is the nicest person ever. The food could have been panda express and I might have still added a star.
We’ve come by here several times for picking up quick Chinese eats. This was the first time I dined in. I seriously cannot get over the grandma who makes you feel like she took you underwing and adopted you.
The food is. Chinese — somewhat Americanized. Overall pretty tasty, and it’ll definitely satisfy your craving for Chinese take out.
Chicken wings: Delicious! Highly recommended. Crispy, meaty and tasty.
Cream Cheese Wontons: Nothing unusual but tasty bits of cream cheese and crispy wonton.
BBQ Pork Slices: Think BBQ Pork buns with not bun. Very tasty and soft meat.
Honey Chicken: Very much like orange chicken with a kick. Tasty. Good breading to meat ratio.
House Fried Rice: Nothing special. It wasn’t bad. But it’s your standard fried rice.
Overall, prices are cheap and the service of the wonderful lady just makes everything taste so much better. It’s our go to Chinese take out place in the area. Recommend the humble dine in experience. Will return.