Skip the Chinese and go for Vietnamese (or Thai, Japanese, Korean, Indian, etc).

all right, I'm gonna have to go with Nancy Chang's then.

Check out Thai Place in Sturbridge, it blows away Thai Cha Da, well worth the drive.

Min's Wok - West Boylston Street, Worcester

freshest take out in the city

I'm gonna have to try it, maybe this weekend. I haven't been down to Sturbridge since high school when my mom used to sell her hand made teddy bears there. Hope the red curry is as good as the yellow curry!

As for Nancy Chang's, it's right around the corner from me, I pay 8 to 10 per dinner, and I get 3 meals out of it. We ordered $ 27 worth of food on Friday night and ate for days.

where's that one Brendan?

The Hong Kong Island that Brendan mentions is probably the place on the corner of East Mountain and West Boylston streets in the Summit. I haven't eaten there in years. I recall that it was pretty traditional fast and greeesy food, but a guilty pleasure. They had a curry chicken dish that I used to get, which I didn't see at many of the cheaper places.

There is a new place called Happy Garden II that opened up a year or so ago in the ghost town plaza in West Boylston where the Salter School just made it's home base. I assumed it would be like every other small take out joint, but I was really surprised. The couple of times I ate there I recall saying to myself that it was well done and had a lot of flavor (I find a lot of Chimerican places have so much goop and heavy sauces on their dishes that it all tastes like it came out of the same tupperware tub). For some things, I prefer it to the above-average, but overpriced Cheoy Lee's II up the road where Nancy Chang's used to be.

Going a little more out of town, when I lived in Holden, right next to the famous Wong Dynasty, there was a tiny take out joint that moved in the the adjacent plaza that had the best boneless ribs ever.

Roger

hahaha...I can relate, the real veins in real meat freak me out too :)

Quan Yin is the best of the best of the best! Its incredibly cheap! incredibly fast and has an enormous selection.

Conte~face you'll love it! Seriously, its a total shack! it has folding tables an chairs and its run by a cult memeber. not a joke. They all worship The Supreme Master ching hai and have pictures of her all over the place. thier master is liek a 40 year old hot chick! (i wish I were making this up)
Up until recently, they had videos of her doing...stuff. Talking to millions of people, or at a fashion show, but my all time favorite video, was : watch the master pet animals. it featured the master sitting on a swinging chair petting a rooster, a bunny and a goat, and while she oet them, a lullaby was playing in the background....oh mna anyone else witness this spectacle? I LOOOVE Quan Yin, Ive been going there for over 10 years. I think they brinwashed me!

I love Quan Yin with all my heart but if you send someone there for good old American style Chinese food, poo-poo and rangoons they will be very disappointed. Quan Yin is serve chinese food with meat that is in name only, you can get faux chicken and beef etc. It is delicious and cheap but very different than traditional.

I have watched a lot of those Master Ching Hai videos and once I actually saw the woman who owns the place in the audience. It was awesome, she seemed pleased that I noticed her in the video.

Speaking of vegetarian Chinese restaurants, I miss the Lily Pad, anyone remember that place? It was on Grafton Street. Ironically it is a roast beef place now.

I like Nancy Chang. The generals chicken with faux chicken is fantastic.

I had Nancy Chang's food once, and was impressed with the food and atmosphere. If I want something closer, I am always pleased with the food from Yong Shing in Auburn...it's never greasy, and very good quality.  If I'm staying in town (Southbridge) there is a restaurant down the road from me called "Hong Kong"...good quality, great prices, and they do sushi, and it's fresh. Blows everything else in the area out of the water, including the Kahula, which has been on a decline for over a decade, caring more about their failing bar than picking up dead flies off the windowsills.

Ron 

In Westboro, right near the center, there is a great place called teh Mandarin. There's food food & service, never a long wait and the prices are good.

but seriously, not all the dishes have 'fake meat' in them. They make great sooups that just have vegetables in them, and you can request them to moit it in the entree's.

mmmmm, must get summer rolls asap.....

I think I made it up, I can't find an article on line anywhere.