Cate zone Chinese cafe

There’s a reason Cate Zone is a frequently celebrated restaurant in the St. Louis subreddit. It’s one of the best places in town and represents beautifully the diversity of the city. So many standout dishes: the crispy fish or shrimp, eggplant, tofu, cumin lamb, bok choy… Protip: go with a group of at least four and arrive at opening to get a table with no wait. Order n + 1 dishes and at least one order of crispy fish. Feast, everyone takes home a box of leftovers, and it’s never more than $30 a person.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 4

Having lived in Houston and LA and spent significant time dining in Chinese restaurants in SF and NYC, I was surprised to find this gem in STL which I believe would thrive in any of those cities. Honestly, we go here every 1-2 weeks, and have tried almost their entire menu. They have a relatively small menu for a Chinese restaurant, but most of them are absolute hits. I may be biased because they're a northeastern Chinese restaurant which I have quite high standards for.

Serving sizes are massive. My wife and I will order 3 dishes, and it's enough for us to split three meals.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

We had the dry chili spicy chicken and hot chilli fish, and braised pork with noodles. They were all so good and well cooked. Servers were attentive and food came fast. It's a solid Chinese food option.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 5

Service: 4

When it comes to Chinese food on Delmar, there’s no shortage of options, each with its own specialties. Cafe Zone has become one of my go-to spots, thanks to the welcoming atmosphere, attentive service, and authentic flavors. On our last visit, we tried the brisket noodle soup and the black pepper beef. The noodle soup came with plenty of noodles, though I’ll admit other places in the area make them a little better. But the black pepper beef? Absolutely outstanding. Tender, perfectly seasoned, and bursting with flavor. It’s the dish I’d highly recommend ordering here.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

Often busy, the sign of a good restaurant. Try the authentic sweet and sour pork, the delicious chengdu chicken, or the killer eggplant.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

Food was delicioussss. I got the Spicy Chengdu chicken and it was crispy and flavorful. Although our server was very nice, I gave service 3 stars because our entrees came out at different times - took 10 minutes for them all the arrive. It was honestly worth it though because it tasted amazing!!

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 3

Went here today intending to have lunch with my wife and kids. The service is horrendous. I came in and asked for a menu but the man at the cashier immediately pointed me to a take out menu. I then asked for the hours and he was irritated that I asked. I noticed ALL of the customers are Chinese. I’ve experienced this treatment before so I know what it is. I would know because I am part Chinese. Hell, my last name is Chinese. I know it’s a Chinese restaurant but this is the United States where there are others with different background. Just be careful how you treat people who don’t look or act like you.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 3

Service: 1

This is my favorite Chinese restaurant in St Louis. I prefer the Chesterfield location than this one. This location is smaller and crowded. We had to wait 30 minutes to be seated. You can't go wrong with anything you order so feel free to try new entrees.
Food comes out really fast, which makes up the wait time.
Btw, if have to wait outside... be sure to bring bug repellent. Lots of mosquitoes outside.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

We were quickly shooed off.. perhaps locking the door during non business hours would be ideal and changing the hours on the door.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 2

Queue time: 20 minutes. You need to open the door yourself and register your name and phone number on the machine to queue. There's nothing around to kill time.

Serving time: The serving time is extremely long. You keep seeing many takeout orders being packed. And guests who sat down later than me have already had four dishes served. My dishes still haven't made any progress.

Food quality: Poor. The price doesn't match the quality. If the quality were good, I would be willing to wait a little longer. In fact, the chicken and potatoes have very little flavor, or to say, the whole dish doesn't have a prominent taste. Every bite of eggplant makes the batter-made crispy crust get stuck in my teeth.

A very disappointing meal. Too many unreal info on social media！

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 1

Service: 2

Good food, attentive and kind service, prepared fast, fair prices for portions

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

After listening to the food critics talk about it on the Arch Eats podcast, I could not wait to go to Cate Zone for Chinese. I was not disappointed. My friend and I went for lunch and the service was great, the food was outstanding and it was a very enjoyable meal with plenty for leftovers.
I plan to go back soon after 5:00 so that I can try the lamb skewers. They looked fabulous on the menu.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Absolutely delicious. The spice level is 11/10 on the soup and that was regular spice so just a heads up. The spicy chicken was soooo good!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Split the spicy chicken and the boiling beef...good Lord almighty this is easily the best Chinese food I've ever had. I had beads of sweat pouring off my head, but totally worth it. I can't wait to go back.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

There were 3 of us, ordering 7 dishes, and we couldn't finish them all.

All of us were big eaters but still not able to finish them. Portions were huge, and all tasty, especially the 蚂蚁上树, 京酱肉丝，sweet and sour pork, and the 油焖大虾.

Service is excellent! Very quick to refill our water, and offered napkins since some of their dishes are indeed spicy.

Will visit again for sure, worth the 2 and an half hour drive from home.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5