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    Chin's Szechwan - Encinitas

    3.9 (706 reviews)
    ModerateChinese, Noodles, Soup
    Open • 11:30 am - 8:30 pm
    Updated 1 month ago

    Order Chin's Szechwan - Encinitas Takeout or Delivery

    Chin's Szechwan - Encinitas Photos

    Business Info

    CHIN'S SZECHWAN - ENCINITAS ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Casual
    Moderate noise
    Good for kids
    Good for groups

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    Reviews With Photos

    Jennifer A.

    "Feeling wok-ed up with happiness during our Galentine's celebration with @yeng.realestate @mkvang27 at @chinsszechwan ! Serving high-quality Chinese cuisine since 1976, they never miss -- from the legendary Honey Walnut Shrimp to those perfect Pot Stickers, House Lo Mein, Szechuan Garlic Eggplant, and the Imperial Double Happiness (scallops + shrimp = the ultimate foodie love story). Good food, good vibes, and the best gals -- the perfect night out." Love the remodel and location @cityofencinitas Vickie was really nice!!!

    Beef & Broccoli in Brown Sauce wife loved
    Peter I.

    OK, we have tried a bunch of Chinese restaurants in this area, we went to Chin's years ago and didn't find it really what we wanted but about a month ago we got some appetizers and one entrée and thought wow that's different than we had years ago. So tonight after football and a long day, we thought let's make it easy and get something that we really really hope we love. So we did Uber and ordered beef and broccoli and honey walnut shrimp. They were. UNBELIEVABLE! I don't know who has taken over this restaurant or who is the new chef but the difference is amazing. The taste, the texture. The flavor was perfect. I highly recommend this restaurant to everyone, next week we will go in person and have it fresh off the grill which we cannot wait to try.

    Tangerine Chicken
    Eric F.

    This was my first time at this Chin's location. The front desk and interior decorations were beautiful. It felt very inviting. The staff was friendly and attentive. I ordered a lunch entrée and it came with soup, fried rice, an egg roll, a wonton, cucumber, and an egg roll. I thought it was just going to be the meat, so that was a pleasant surprise. They weren't busy either. It's nice to know that Chin's quality doesn't change from location to location as far as I've seen so far.

    Cindy L.

    A decent spot if you're craving flavorful Chinese food, though the flavors didn't feel especially authentic. Many of the dishes tasted quite similar due to the heavy sauces. I'd compare it to Panda Inn. The staff, however, was friendly and welcoming.

    What can I say everything you ask for it's in one spot. Great service, delish food, and endless options with different meats like chicken, beef, or fish and all of them were phenomenal. Definitely a spot that I highly recommend to check out and perfect for big groups because you'll definitely wanna try different items and share them

    Salt & Pepper Chicken Wings (6)
    Laura M.

    Very open floorplan, bright& clean! Came in& was greeted right away& seated quickly. Their booths are super roomy and huge. The server was super attentive and quick. Like she was always there, but not hovering. Waters came out with cold&refreshing. The chicken wings were crispy and juicy. It was a little on the salty side though. Not sure if it was because I was eating the garnishes with the chicken. The lo mein, was good. I like my lo meins with thick thick noodles though, but it was still good either way, I tried to add some soy sauce to it& the little saucer wasnt working properly so I accidentally messed it up and made it too soy saucey. Good thing I was already about finished with the plate before that happened. I didn't really eat the Szechwan beef so I can't really speak about that.. but overall, this was a good random spot that we tried out!

    Spicy Honey & Sesame Chicken
    Joey R.

    I love Chins in general but especially their Encinitas location! It's always super clean and their staff is very attentive. The food is also always amazing. I love the spicy honey & sesame chicken, egg drop soup, lo mein and the potstickers! I will definitely continue eating here. I love it!

    Three Flavor Ma La
    Rhondi S.

    Let's see, yes it's Christmas Eve and they are only taking to go orders, placed order 5:00 would be ready at 5:30. confirmation at 5:17 an app said it would not be ready until 6:30, ok no big deal. Arrived at 6:30, order not ready, host had no idea when our order would be ready. There were 25 to 30 people in line waiting on their orders as well as as well as people waiting in their cars for their orders as well. We knew this was going to be an issue. Husband talked to the host politely asking when our order would be done he said "I have no idea" it would've been easy if he just checked into the kitchen to look at our order and give us an estimated time but no no Customer Service. Rude customer service would not help was just very rude to all customers. We couldn't cancel our order online because it was 8 o'clock already and they close at 8:30. There's no way we're waiting on food that would not be ready. Took another 20 minutes just to cancel our online order.... ridiculous. We have guests waiting at home, had to go to Panda Express instead, they will NEVER get another penny of our business, they just lost a $200 order and a 20 year customer!!

    (L) House Lo Mein Soft Noodles (Shrimp, Beef & Chicken)
    Kitty C.

    What a beautiful remodel they went through. Everything is new and modern. The original red doors are gone and replaced with modern ones. Although everything is new age, it's still elegant. The food was still amazing as always. Hot and sour soup is my favorite, you can never go wrong with that. we also ordered hunan fish, lo mein, and sweet and sour chicken. If Chin's was too dim for you before, come back! They went with an elegant white interior, no more lead with red interior design. Great place for a little get together. The tea pot is adorable too. The aesthetics were well thought out

    Salt & Pepper Chicken Wings (6)
    Angel R.

    What I love about this restaurant is the amount of thought that goes into my experience from start to finish. The environment is very welcoming and always clean. The staff always greets you with a warm and familiar smile that makes you feel like you've been there before. The food always satisfies and I love the fact that you can add a spicy level to the entrees. Whenever I don't know what to order the wait staff is always prepared to offer suggestions. The wait for the food is very little. Come here if you want an escape, bring your family and loved ones and you'll end up making more memories at a place like this. Thankful to have this in Encinitas. The egg rolls are SO GOOD!

    Garlic eggplant with tofu. A very generous serving!
    Cathy G.

    Ordered the spicy garlic eggplant and pork, but they made a mistake and made it with tofu. I almost sent it back, but after tasting it to confirm it was tofu, I was amazed. It was delicious. The level 2 sauce had flavored the tofu so well, that I didn't want to switch! If the order had not been botched, it would be worthy of 5 stars!

    Egg Roll (2)

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    Chin's Szechwan - Encinitas Reviews in Other Languages

    Ask the Community - Chin's Szechwan - Encinitas

    Is there MSG in Chin's food? I had the hot and sour soup and the chicken chop suey?

    Yes, I remember asking for no MSG when I ate lunch there

    IS Chin's Encinitas mvoing locations and when will the new one be open? I saw a sign next to BevMo

    No we aren’t moving locations, we are completing a full remodel. That is not us, thank you!

    Are you guys open for dine in? Yelp says closed?

    Hi we closed to finish remodeling. Should be finished by tomorrow! Thank you.

    Do you have reservations?

    Yes! Please call the store directly. Thank you.

    Do you have outside seating?

    No sorry thank you

    View All 6 Questions

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    4.0(395 reviews)
    1.3 mi
    •$$
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    Finally tried dumpling bar after seeing countless videos online and overall really loved it and…read morewould come back! I was bringing a party of 7 all of us trying it for the first time (two folks from Europe/South America visiting the US/San Diego for the first time) per my suggestion. It was important that I suggested a good spot for them to try since I wanted my out of town visitors to have the best experience and thought AYCE dumplings would be exciting and different. Since it was a Saturday afternoon, I called ahead to ensure there wouldn't be a significant wait since we already pretty hungry and were traveling from about 30 minutes away. The person who answered the phone informed me that they don't take reservations and that they have a waitlist but they cannot add someone who calls in to the waitlist, we must add ourselves in-person. He estimated an approximately 45-minute wait once we arrived but said we could get lucky and it could be less. We decided to give it a try anyway in case we would get lucky. We arrived and I realized how small this place is and every table was full. The waitlist had 4 parties in front of us and estimated wait time on the waitlist kiosk said approximately 45 minutes, and it wouldn't allow me to add a party larger than 6, and the kiosk has a note that says "for larger party, speak with our staff". I added us as party of six but I then stood there for about 7 minutes trying to get a staff member's attention to let them know we were actually a party of 7. Understandably, the staff was just focusing on serving their tables, and while they did notice me, I believe they were not aware or thinking about the kiosk message directing patrons to speak to them so they just went about serving their tables. Finally someone came and said that a party of 7 is fine and it would be about 45 minutes from that time (now already 10 minutes since we got there, almost an 1.5 hours since I called) We ended up wandering around Trader Joe's a few doors down in the meantime and buying some snacks to kill some time. (Not great for a business, you want us spending money at your business, not next door) At about 45 minutes, we came back to check and were informed our tables were ready, it was two tables of four one behind another so our party would be separated. We asked how long the wait would be for tables we could put together and they said maybe another 30 minutes so at that point we decided to take the tables that were available. We asked if we could rotate the orientation of the put the tables to put them together if it didn't cause any issues for the staff to be able to get around them (again, a very small and tight space), and at first were told no, but then another staff member said it was okay they do it all the time, so they let us which we really appreciated after waiting so long to be able to sit together. The ordering process was a bit confusing because there is no separate menu for AYCE, you just order from the regular menu and tell the server you are doing AYCE but then there are some restricted items you have to watch out for. Our servers were fantastic and did a great job of taking orders and keeping the food coming. The food did take a while but it just seems like the kitchen is small and for that many patrons it's difficult to keep up. The food was absolutely fantastic and I really enjoyed the cucumbers, the short ribs were surprisingly tender, sweet, and savory. We also tried the pork XLB, and the chicken won tons with chili oil (broth was so savory) and the beef pot stickers. The garlic edamame was served cold which I wasn't expecting and wasn't really a fan of. The green beans on the menu stated that it's a cold dish so it didn't sound appealing and we skipped although I usually love that dish. The chocolate quality inside the bao buns wasn't very good but still an enjoyable dessert. The Chinese churro was unique and really nice! The ice cream choices were great and the area is self-serve and was kept clean. Only problem with self-serve in such a tight space was a line was forming and blocking the access to the kitchen. A few suggestions for improvement: Turn on the setting to allow people to join the Yelp waitlist from the Yelp app when they are within a certain radius of the restaurant to prevent the excess waiting for people that are on their way. This will keep customers from spending money at nearby businesses while they wait or deciding to go somewhere else all together. Serve the garlic edamame and green beans as warm dishes (or at least state that garlic edamame is a cold dish on the menu) Create a separate menu for AYCE and use numbering so people can order more easily by number. Label the pictures on the menu so people know what is what, but ideally have pictures of each item. We wasted a lot of time Hoping this business keeps improving enough to expand perhaps to a second location to help with the overcrowding/tight space issues!

    Extremely disappointing experience. We arrived at 8:00 PM (an hour before their 9:00 PM closing)…read moreand were seated right away, but that was the only prompt service we received. After sitting down, we waited for 15 minutes without a single employee acknowledging us. Multiple servers walked right past our table to check in on every other table around us, some of them multiple times. We were never brought water, never asked for our drink or food orders, and never checked on. Looking around, every other table was filled with white customers who received attentive service, while we were completely ignored. It was hard not to feel like we were singled out and overlooked. After sitting there feeling invisible for 15 minutes, we finally just got up and left. I will not be coming back.

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    CHIKO - Fried rice // ribeye & rice cakes // spicy soy wings // potstickers // orange-ish chicken

    CHIKO

    4.4(747 reviews)
    0.9 mi
    •$$

    for nearly two years, Scout, my orange, husky-looking mut and I have been driving by their…read morenow-shuttered Encinitas location four times a week after playdates at Power Lines Dog Park. every time we do, I think "we gotta back there for another visit." pretty sure CHIKO has aged out of my draft queue. now that I've finally gotten around to finishing the review, they've been closed for months. in the draft, I suggested CHIKO might not be a destination restaurant, but if you happen to be in the neighborhood, it's definitely a place worth stopping by for eats. if you wait long enough, like I did, the nearest ones are in the DC area and probably not worth a cross-country trip. sad.

    Post-mortem... I was sad to hear that CHIKO permanently closed their doors at the end of last year…read more It's rare for an East Coast based Asian chain restaurant to migrate to California, but that was what CHIKO did. As noted by its name, this place served a fusion of Chinese and Korean cuisines. Their Encinitas location took over what used to be a roadside diner along N Coast Hwy 101. The seating capacity was less than 40 people which included a few high-top counter spots. At my last visit, I came for a late dinner before their closing time. A large menu was posted on the wall behind the service counter that listed about two dozen food offerings. The items seemed to be comfort food like pot stickers, spring rolls, fried rice, and chicken wings but flavored with unique combinations of seasonings and spices. I started my meal with the Marinated Beef Tri-Tip Skewers which came as a set of three and a Chinese mustard for dipping. The meat was very tender and well-seasoned. I also ordered the Cumin Lamb Stir Fry which the cashier said was medium spicy. After tasting a couple of bites of the noodles from the serving bowl, I agreed that the heat level was moderate, even for my palate. I thought the portion size should have been more for the price. That was my main criticism for both items, otherwise the food was solid for an Asian fusion eatery.

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    Chin's Szechwan - Encinitas - chinese - Updated September 2026

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