Asian Cafe Express

Reviews

• Billy B.

  star star star star star 28 June 2026

  Mom's home cooking at a guilt-free price! Fill friends and familys belly on the cheap.
  
  Asian cafe Express has options for everyone that walks through the door. Orange chicken, Kung Pao, Hawaiian style pork? Got it. Hong Kong dishes, authentic salted fish eggs and tofu? Got it. Brown rice? Vegetarian? A quick bite? A family style feast? They will cook to your liking and surprise you with how fast it comes to your table.
  
  I can't count how many times I've been here to dine in or order out but they never disappoint. They are very kind and work very hard to make you happy. I've dined with acquaintances who don't necessarily have the best manners and nothing can take away the smile and generosity of the wait staff.
  
  I haven't ordered anything that disappointed but were maybe a bit out of my taste or comfort zone. I keep a running list of what I have and have not ordered because there are so many options.
  
  My always order or go-tos are:
  
  Ginger with green onion tofu fish fillet
  Hong Kong sweet sour pork rib
  Braised mushroom with tofu and bok choy
  Salt and pepper fried squid
  And anything with XO sauce (this is a little light on the spice but nothing some extra chili oil from the table can't help)

• Ashley T.

  star star_border star_border star_border star_border 20 June 2026

  This place got fantastic reviews and I DON'T KNOW WHY. The staff was very friendly and the service was quick but I thought the menu choices seemed rather lacking for such raving reviews. My husband is Chinese and we eat a lot of Chinese. We came from living in the San Francisco Bay area and are very familiar with very good Chinese. His mother also makes Chinese at home.
  
  We ordered the family meal which comes with rice and lo mein. I also ordered the hot and sour soup and the vegetable spring rolls. The hot and sour soup was bland and rather tasteless. It was also very thick and gummy. This spring rolls were like they came out of a package. The other dishes we ordered were beef with broccoli, chicken and vegetables and tofu and vegetables. I saw pictures on other reviews on this site that showed gai lan and there was nothing like that on the menu I was offered. So perhaps I was given the white people menu.
  
  Sadly we know that there are good Chinese restaurants in Mesa and have been reluctant to try new places because we have a couple of places where we can get OK Chinese food. With such rave reviews I thought for sure that this place would be an easy place to pick up something on my way home from work.
  
  When I am looking for an authentic Chinese food restaurant I expect to see lots of sautéed vegetables, especially bok choy, gai lan and cabbages. This to me seems more like a garden-variety bad white people American Chinese food buffet. I wish I didn't have to leave such a scathing remarks as the staff was quite nice but I just feel that the quality of the food that I was served was poor and the taste was very in authentic.
  
  I am also quite sad because it seems like several of the reviews are not accurate and the pictures appear to be taken by a professional so I suspect that these were hired by the restaurant in order to put good reviews.
  
  I hope to find a better restaurant to find real authentic Chinese food in Mesa soon.

• Lisa J.

  star star star_border star_border star_border 16 June 2026

  I am totally confused.  My beloved Yelpers really like this place.  I don't see what the attraction is.
  
  My friend and I were visiting the Phoenix area last weekend and I had Asian Cafe Express bookmarked.  We made our way and ordered from their VERY large menu.
  
  My first impression was the cleanliness of the restaurant.  The front door and windows were really dirty.  OK, I get it, not really something that effects the meal.  I made my way to the restroom, which is also used as a storage room, and it was dirty.  That automatically makes me wonder how clean the kitchen is.
  
  We ordered, after taking at least ten minutes to review the lengthy menu.  I appreciate having options but they are all over the place.  I copped out and ordered sweet and sour chicken with fried rice and an order of pot stickers.  My friend ordered the asian noodle soup.  She used to have this soup when she lived in New York.
  
  My pot stickers came out and they weren't even the quality of the frozen pot stickers you can buy at Costco.  
  
  My S&S was bland and the fried rice was dry and unappetizing.  My friends soup had large pieces of pork (which is a good thing) but it wasn't BBQ pork and had no flavor either.
  
  The portions are large but if the food isn't appealing, it doesn't matter.  Reasonable prices, large portions, questionable cleanliness, food that isn't edible = never going back again.
  
  It doesn't happen often, but my Yelpers let me down this time.

• Haeley R.

  star star star star star 13 June 2026

  My family and I have been coming here for years and we have NEVER been less than delighted with the service and the food here. The servers are friendly and kind, and remember our faces and our usual orders, too. We've genuinely grown to love coming here. No other Chinese restaurant compares, honestly. Their orange chicken is fabulous, their vegetable lo mein is DELICIOUS, and their hot and sour soup is easily the most incredible version I've ever tried (and that's saying a lot!) if you enjoy coffee, their Hong Kong style coffee is great.
  This place is a gem and I cannot recommend it enough.

• A.J. C.

  star star star star star 3 June 2026

  Excellent food! What a menu, there's an AZ side and a Hong Kong side! There are so many items, you will be confused. I recommended bringing a lot of people so you can try a ton of stuff. The staff was extremely friendly! Very rare to find in an authentic Chinese restaurant. The food came within minutes and was very tasty. I'll definitely be back!