China Cafe, A Little Dive With Good Food on Knox Road in College Park - Closed

[kcl]

Next to 7-Eleven and across the street from the main shopping center in College Park is a little flourescent-lit Chinese restaurant called China Cafe.

It's dirt cheap and you order from the counter, but the food is really pretty good.

I got turned on to it by the City Paper food critic last semester, and they're able to do a damn fine job with their food for the prices they charge.

[DonRocks]

Todd Kliman's review of China Cafe is here.

[synaesthesia]

Oh man... this makes me feel like a dummy for missing out during all four years of college. I always wondered how that place was still open. I guess it's the restaurant that's like the ugly girl with the great personality. Oh well at least I can be proud that it wasn't because I ordered Danny's!

[DonRocks]

I called in a carryout order to China Cafe the other day a good thirty minutes in advance, and when I got there, was told it wasn't ready yet.

Okay, so I waited, and during that time I went back to wash my hands. My goodness, this place can be best described with one word: it's a *dive*! It's not "dirty," but it's old, cluttered, and has that sort of year-over-year crust that only this type of restaurant can have.

On the way out of the washroom, walking through the kitchen, the cook - a friendly lady who was the only person working in the empty restaurant - said "the squid was frozen, so it's taking a little longer." Hmm, I've seen too many cases in the past where I call in a carryout order, and the restaurant doesn't begin cooking it until you arrive to pick it up (that would be you, Ravi Kabob).

I ordered Pepper Salted Squid Over Broccoli ($9.99), and based on the quality of the batter, I'm willing to believe they needed to soak the squid in warm water in order to coat it, so, no accusations here. The odd name is because it's a salt-based batter around ring-meat only (no tentacles), with a few sliced jalapeí±os (the "pepper") added into the mix.

This was a good dish, and would have been a *very* good dish had it not been salted to death. After the first third (or so) of the entree, I started getting salt-saturated. This was really, really salty, and even the steamed broccoli was almost too salty to eat with any degree of enjoyment. But it was high-quality frozen squid, the batter was otherwise delicious, and the dish was very well-fried (in a deep pan). There's also little doubt this entree was meant to be had along with other, less salty, dishes by its side; not scarfed down in its entirety by one person as a meal.

So, while deeply flawed on its own, the execution of this squid was deft enough to call me back the next time I'm at Ground Zero in College Park (Route 1 and Knox Road). With apologies to Ferhat and Fishnet, where my loyalties will take me the next time I'm anywhere in the general vicinity.

[DonRocks]

I called in a carryout order to China Cafe the other day a good thirty minutes in advance, and when I got there, was told it wasn't ready yet.

Okay, so I waited, and during that time I went back to wash my hands. My goodness, this place can be best described with one word: it's a *dive*! It's not "dirty," but it's old, cluttered, and has that sort of year-over-year crust that only this type of restaurant can have.

On the way out of the washroom, walking through the kitchen, the cook - a friendly lady who was the only person working in the empty restaurant - said "the squid was frozen, so it's taking a little longer." Hmm, I've seen too many cases in the past where I call in a carryout order, and the restaurant doesn't begin cooking it until you arrive to pick it up (that would be you, Ravi Kabob).

I ordered Pepper Salted Squid Over Broccoli ($9.99), and based on the quality of the batter, I'm willing to believe they needed to soak the squid in warm water in order to coat it, so, no accusations here. The odd name is because it's a salt-based batter around ring-meat only (no tentacles), with a few sliced jalapeí±os (the "pepper") added into the mix.

This was a good dish, and would have been a *very* good dish had it not been salted to death. After the first third (or so) of the entree, I started getting salt-saturated. This was really, really salty, and even the steamed broccoli was almost too salty to eat with any degree of enjoyment. But it was high-quality frozen squid, the batter was otherwise delicious, and the dish was very well-fried (in a deep pan). There's also little doubt this entree was meant to be had along with other, less salty, dishes by its side; not scarfed down in its entirety by one person as a meal.

So, while deeply flawed on its own, the execution of this squid was deft enough to call me back the next time I'm at Ground Zero in College Park (Route 1 and Knox Road). With apologies to Ferhat and Fishnet, where my loyalties will take me the next time I'm anywhere in the general vicinity.

Wow, I had no idea this place was to close on Feb 26, 2014 - just a month after I went in.

Does anyone know if Google Maps date-stamps their maps? Because if not, they're just as worthless as outdated restaurant reviews (*)

I don't remember the "Kimi and Phil's" qualifier being on this sign, but I was hardly a regular there, so I don't know if this is new ownership, or a picture that's outdated:

Yeah, this is more the sign I remember:

and the old owners were there for a long time, so I wonder if it changed ownership; yet, I can't find anything that says it's open.

(*) Never mind - in the upper-left, it's date-stamped Jul, 2008. So, I guess this place really is closed-closed.

Boy, this makes me realize what a maintenance nightmare Google has with their street-level mapping. I thought *we* were doing the impossible with 24/7/365 currency on DC-area restaurants; Google makes us look like ants. Can you imagine trying to keep current on *mapping the entire world*?