Chinese Kitchen

5607 West Friendly Ave.

Greensboro, NC, 27410

852-0827

After weeks of eating at local restaurants and writing about the experience I realize that I’ve been lucky. I’ve not had a truly bad meal in all of this time. Have I had a mediocre meal? Sure. Have I had a borderline bizarre meal? Well, yes. Have I had a meal with too much grease and too little flavor? Affirmative. But a truly gut-curdling, gag-provoking meal had, thankfully, eluded me. That is until I ate at The Chinese Kitchen.

I was greeted by a friendly, but somewhat abrupt, hostess who hurried off after seating me. Munching on fried wontons, I waited for my server for a little longer than seemed necessary, and when she came she bossily asked what I wanted to drink. She, like the hostess, hurried off.

The menu offers $4.95 lunch specials and I was tempted to try an old standby, sweet and sour chicken, but decided on chicken with black bean sauce instead. The server took my order impatiently, as if I was infringing on her time.

I waited for what seemed like an inordinate amount of time for my food to arrive, even though the restaurant was only one-third full. A man in an apron and dirty jeans, presumably a cook, shuffled around from table to table asking how everything was. I continued to work on my diminishing bowl of wontons.

My meal finally arrived, and it looked promising indeed. The fried rice was of a brown variety, and although the vegetables in the stir-fry outnumbered the chicken by about seven to one, I thought this wasn’t bad for five bucks.

Then I dug in. The rice was good, perfectly cooked and fluffy. As I started searching for pieces of chicken I noticed how many bell pepper strips there were. I moved them out of the way and continued my search. Finally I gave up and picked up a red pepper strip and popped it in my mouth.

The pepper was mush, but not from overcooking. It was rotten. By the time I realized this it was too late, the pepper was part of my digestive tract. A wave of nausea came over me. I took up a carrot and examined it. It was slimy and gave off a pungent smell. I pushed the plate to the edge of the table.

I’ll eat just about anything unless it is spoiled. Fresh yak yogurt, I’m there. Sea urchin roe, bring it on. But never again do I want to eat a spoiled bell pepper. Pit-bull celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has thrown people through plate glass windows for serving less. This time, I have to go with Chef Ramsay.

The Chinese Kitchen is cheap and convenient, but that is all I can say to recommend it. Oh yea, avoid the rotten pepper stir-fry.