The Short: Still the best Chinese food in the gre...

The Short: Still the best Chinese food in the greater Charleston area. Lamb, Snapper, & Flounder dishes are my favorites. The environment here is casual but not strip mall "China Wok/Bowl/Fun/Other Dumb Word" casual. You are more than welcome in your yoga pants and jogging shorts...your just gonna feel a bit weird. I only mention this as I watched it happen the last time I was there. Yes, it was hilarious!

Original Review: I have eaten at the Red Orchid many times and frequently order takeout from them. Today I decided to write them a review and on a whim I read their other reviews before doing so. I was surprised to find as many poor reviews as I did but after reading them I have to admit that a few are true...most however are not. They just miss the servers who made average Joe's feel as if they were regulars.

Food: Excellent except for one thing but I will get to that. At the Red Orchid the Chinese and Chinese/American classics you know are made with high quality ingredients and prepared with care. Their dishes do not contain last weeks half moldy onions, soaked in sauce, and covered in oil. The natural flavors of the food are allowed to shine and shine they do. Their snapper, flounder, and lamb dishes are among my favorites in the entire Charleston area. Now with that said...Red Orchid, your stand alone fried rice is awful, it has always been awful, and will continue to be awful until you actually fry it. That or please just rename the dish.

Service: I do agree with some other reviewers who stated that the overall level of service has declined a bit. The servers that made the Red Orchid such a great overall dining experience seem to have moved on and their replacements just aren't as knowledgeable or engaging. I will never forget the second time I dined there. I was seated and I recognized my server from the first time but by no means were we familiar. He however remembered me and asked if I would be having the same brand and type of sake that I had ordered almost two months before...This is the kind of service you generally receive at restaurants with Michelin stars people. This level of service was common at the Red Orchid until not too long ago. It is really what turned a very good restaurant that I liked into a great one that I recommend. Although I miss that excellence the newer wait staff have never provided bad service, not once, not a single time. Unfortunately they still lose a star over it...