I don't know if I've ever left or felt the need to leave a yelp review before, but man.... having…read moreeaten at this establishment and the location in Lawrenceville for a long time, the changes instituted with the new year have been a pretty big letdown. I don't know if Asian Express has new owners or what, but I truly hope that the owners take reviews like this and any possible dip in business to heart and see the error of their ways.
Firstly, they got rid of their sushi. it was cheap, but good and I enjoyed it.
Secondly, this restaurant that was widely and affectionately known as a "dollar scoop" or "scoop spot" is no longer such. Where they use to charge $1.50/scoop up until last year (and, typically, quite generous scoops that required your plate's lid to be pushed down to close it), they raised it to $2/scoop later in 2025. My traditional Saturday night order of lo mien, two scoops of honey chicken, two scoops of veggies and an order of teriaki chicken skewers (so 6 scoops, basically) came to 12 dollarydoos and change, up until the most recent changes that went into effect with the new year.
Now, they no longer charge by scoop, but rather by "plate size", with the "large" plate costing 15 dollars and only being 4 scoops. I forget what they were charging for the teriyaki skewers à la carte now, but whatever it was, I think my "large" plate plus a side of skewers was either just shy of or just over $20.
As a little cherry on top of this disappointing sundae, the servers must have been instructed to start being very strict with their scoop sizes, because not only was my "large" plate fewer scoops than I normally get, but the servers seem to be very, shall we say, conservative, with their scoop sizes. Very small portions. I think I counted literally like 15 little bites in my 2 scoops of honey chicken, pretty much halving the generous scoop sizes I'm sure accustomed to.
So yeah, tl;dr version is that what use to be a cheap but very good fast food takeout place has, in the span of a few months, more than doubled their prices while also reducing portion sizes. Not cool.
The value of the food at Asian Express has always been a huge factor in making it my weekly go-to Chinese take-out spot. I get that the economy is bad right now and inflation is through the roof, but man is this all very disappointing.
Bottom line, if this once cheap but very good Chinese spot is going to cut back on quality *and* quantity while also raising their prices to the same level or higher than the Chinese place I had previously been going to since high school, I may as well go back to patronizing their business instead... and I have.