China King, one of Lower Burrell’s newest entries in Chinese restaurants, was enjoyable. Small but mighty fits the bill. The narrow dining room has just a handful of tables, because takeout makes up the bulk of the China King’s orders. The tiny kitchen offers an unbelievable number of choices. China King has one of the largest menus we have seen at a Chinese restaurant. You can choose 10 combinations for an appetizer platter, or you can have one of the 22 quick express-lunch choices that have an entree and fried rice or white rice and an egg roll, or you can choose from 19 categories of a la carte items, combinations and chef’s specialties. You better have an idea of what you want, or you could be all day trying to decide. So many dishes and a limited number of belt loops to ease our girth. From the Combination Appetizers portion of the menu are 10 choices of combos of good starters, all for $7.95. We opted for the eye-catching platter that came with four chicken sticks, skewered and fried lengths of chicken, four crab rangoons, boneless spare ribs and a hefty mound of pork fried rice. The fried rice was packed with colorful veggies and diced pork. The boneless spare ribs offered a sweet sauce, and if you enjoy ribs, here they are without the hassle of pulling them off the bone. We deemed the crab rangoons our favorite. We just loved the creamy crab filling inside the wonton wrappers. The chicken sticks had great potential, but they stayed in the fryer just a tad too long and toughened a bit. The Pineapple Chicken ($8.50), one of the chef’s specialties, proved to be a delightful dish. The chicken was done much like General Tso’s chicken — tender, crispy, chicken chunks are fried in a special house sauce with slices of red and green pepper. The sauce, however, unlike the sauce served with General Tso’s chicken, has a light, sweet taste with a hint of pineapple. And there was plenty of this tasty sauce to soak up the white rice. Three huge pineapple rings topped the dish. Leftovers were taken home, and a family member who always orders General Tso’s, declared that the Pineapple chicken was a nice change. From the seafood portion of the menu we tried the Butterfly Shrimp with Bacon ($10.25), a departure from our usual General Tso’s Chicken. Eight shrimp were butterflied and covered with thick bacon that was on the top of a casserole-type egg mixture that held everything together, much like an omelette. Digging in to our lunch we discovered that combo floated atop a mixture of onions, carrots and mushrooms in a thick sauce. We didn’t care for the tails and veins on the shrimp. That’s a personal no-no in our book, but we know sometimes they can’t be avoided. For the express lunch menu where everything is $4.99, one of the Bunch chose the Chicken & Shrimp with Peanuts and found it to be a terrific choice. This dish was replete with thinly sliced chicken and several medium shrimp, plus vegetables galore in a zippy brown sauce. Included were celery, carrots, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, green pepper, baby corn and onions. The entree was topped with a generous sprinkling of peanuts and accompanied by a mound of white rice. The dish also came with a crisp vegetable egg roll. This was a filling and delicious menu choice. We couldn’t believe it was less than $5. What a bargain. Compiled by Rebecca Killian, Barbara Daugherty and Sis Reola. Meals are paid for by the Valley News Dispatch and are unrelated to advertising. Additional Information:

China King

Address: 2803 Leechburg Road, Suite B, Lower Burrell. Phone: 724-335-1218. Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 9:30 p.m. Sundays. Reservations: No. Credit cards: Master Card and Visa. Dress: Casual. Smoking: Not permitted. Handicapped accessible: Yes. Prices: Appetizers$1.10 to $7.95; express lunch, $4.99; menu items $3.35 to chef specialties up to $11.75.

---

Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---