Chen’s Kitchen, 7166 Renner Road, has every appearance of being one of the typical family-owned Chinese restaurants that dot the surrounding area.

Resting in a strip mall across from the Westglen complex, Chen’s is dwarfed by its neighboring restaurants. The inside décor is also unimpressive; four mismatched and cracked tables are pushed against the walls and are only joined by two small wall hangings and a single checkout counter, at the back of the one room restaurant. The physical appearance fails to leave an impact on the customer.

However, the food has the complete opposite effect. I ordered the House Lo Mein dinner special, lo mein paired with white or fried rice, an egg roll and two crab rangoon.

After waiting for a few minutes, the egg roll and two crab rangoon came out and looked absolutely beautiful. Both had a light tan color and an equally light taste. They were obviously made fresh and fried to perfection. The top part of the crab rangoon melted in my mouth and had a great doughy flavor. The egg roll tore easily in half and tasted slightly musky, yet sweet.

The lo mein came out steaming on a paper plate about five minutes later. It was a mound of foot long noodles, sprouts, celery, shrimp, chicken and beef. After taking a bite, I quickly decided that it was the best lo mein I have ever had in my entire life. It was so good that I had to put it in a to-go box to stop myself from eating it all.

To top it off, the staff was friendly and the food was decently priced. Chen’s is now my absolute favorite Chinese restaurant.

Overall score: four out of five stars.