Critic's Review
I hadn't been to Ruby Chen's in over a decade; time for an update.
They have online ordering for delivery only, and you can't order a lunch special for delivery. So I had to call them up and deal with a person with a thick Chinese accent. You remember how it was back in the day; having to repeat everything 4 times to make sure they get it right. And then you're never sure if they actually understood you.
Much like Chen's Garden (no relation), they've built a fortress with a sliding door. When it was time to pay, the girl opened the door and slid out a pinpad for me to slip my card into. Overkill, of course.
There's no dining at Ruby Chen's; this is a 100% take out operation.
As I was driving home I thought maybe I should have asked for the egg foo young sauce on the side; it can be a mess otherwise. Oh well, too late now.
But when opened up the bag I saw that they gave the sauce in a container; clearly this isn't their first rodeo. Nice. 2 shrimp pancakes, pork fried rice and a pint of soup. They lose a star because their current menu says $6.50 but they charged me $7.50., so it must be $7. for the lunch special. Another problem with the old school method of calling in your order; you don't really know how much it's going to cost. Still a good deal.
You can't tell too much about the pancakes from the outside, except that they weren't burned.
The rice wasn't half bad; no stuff in it other than some strips of pork, but better than white rice for sure.
The soup seems out of place; a very nice offering that actually tastes hot and sour.
If you like hot and sour soup; this is a good version. Probably the best hot and sour soup I've had in Fort Lauderdale.
I portioned 1/2 of this onto a plate; the gravy was still warm. No fix up needed today.
There was a good amount of shrimp; although they used something other than bean sprouts for the crunch; not even bamboo shoots; i'd rather they use cabbage than whatever they used.
All in all, not too bad.
If you have the right ingredients, you can turn the leftovers into something special.
Conclusion
There's no better deal in Fort Lauderdale, and the food isn't bad.
Review 6/17/2010
On the outside it says Ruby Chinese, but the name of the place is Ruby Chen's. Its basically a chinese take-out place, but they have 4 halfway decent tables inside so you *could* eat here if you had no better choice. They have the usual extensive menu; the major difference here is that they have combos that are available all day. They have lunch specials for $5.99 which include rice and a pint of soup, and dinner specials for around $8 that include rice and an egg roll. I ordered the hunan beef lunch special along with an order of steamed dumplings.
The portions certainly are adequate; for $5.99 the combo with the soup is a man-sized meal.
I got the hot and sour soup and it's a very good soup; with little specs of chili and a nice balance of hot and sour.
The dumplings are bad news; they're way too doughy and I actually had to cut them open to eat the filling to save from breaking a tooth. The hunan beef and fried rice were fine; not fantastic but certainly passable. I'll reheat the remaining dumplings in a steamer to loosen up the dough; but you can't eat these things after they've cooled a bit.
In summary, Ruby Chen's is pretty good food at a fair price, but skip the dumplings.