Le Lai Catonese Cuisine

So delicious n reasonable prices.

T Bone

Returned to Le Lai after a long absence. Quality of food still amazing. Mainly, proper Cantonese style cuisine. Service is generally fast and reliable. On the off chance, you walk in and you feel that you just walked into a reserved part of six tables.. if you decide to remain patient then you’re in for a wonderful treat of a good dinner that will satisfy your tum tums. Orders came out takeover fast considering they had a huge part of guests where dishes on each table were pleasing and aromatic just tantalizing your own tastebuds. Price points- reasonable for 4 dishes. Simply delicious. Be back soon.

Yi-Cheng Pan

The best Cantonese restaurant in H town that I have ever been to. The food is amazing and delicious. The waiter and waitress are very friendly. The lunch menu is unbeatable price(10Am to 3 PM everyday). It is highly recommended.

Retired Gardener

Le Lai is a fantastic restaurant for classic Cantonese cuisine. I highly recommend the Stir fried Lotus Root cut into strips with baby squid, Chinese sausage, and Chinese Bacon. We also loved the Salted Egg Yolk Tofu, and the Sautéed Lobster with Ginger and Scallions. Our last dish was Beef Ribs with Eggplant & Onions which was a bit oily. The waitstaff was very diligent about filling our water glasses and clearing our lobster shells and rib bones throughout our meal. The dining room was clean and bright. Le Lai is located in a somewhat deserted shopping center on Bellaire so there is plenty of parking available.

Gary Hong

Excellent cantonese food! Taste just like we make at homemade. Thinking about it makes me hungry... The soup is to improve, taste mostly like water, but the rest is amazing. The price is also very reasonable. Coming back and Recommended!

ml

Some of the best Chinese/cantonese food in Houston. This time we ordered sausage fried rice, xiao chao huang, egg yolk Japanese tofu, congee. Excellent flavors, not too much greasy/oily. Better than most Chinese restaurants. Will be back soon.

Jerry W

Enjoyed the experience at Le Lai. They recommended the kung pao chicken and a fork but we kindly declined. The people were very nice. We had the beef with bitter melon, Clams and Basil, and Sizzling Pepper Beef. If you like bitter melon and clams you will like these dishes. Not as fresh as other restaurants I've been to in Chinatown but overall it was good.

N.Jade Gillen

Great place for family and solo dining. Friendly staff.

LICIA Troncoso

This restaurant is the real deal. It is nit americanized Chinese food but actual Chinese Cousine 😋. I love to order the fried rice and the szechuan twice cooked pork it is delicious. My son 6 Crab meat with vegetables. The presentation was kind of weird, but he told me it was really good. They don't have kids menu.

3comma

The scallion ginger lobster was really delicious. The lobster was the perfect medium size so the shell was not too hard little soft and easier to break open. I recommend the salt & pepper squid as well. The salt baked chicken can be a hit or miss.

ted Lu

This is one of the oldest restaurants still operating. I’ve been coming to this place since 2006. In year 2006 the lunch special was $4.98. I used to order two lunch special for $10 and have a great meal. Food is still great here at attractive price.

Justin Lopez

First time having clay pot and it was so good. Got a small serving as the girlfriend wanted orange chicken. The green beans were really good as well. Took about 20 minutes for the clay rice but well worth the wait. Looking forward to coming back.

Maggie

So delicious n reasonable prices.

We ordered three dishes. The beef is fine. The noodle wasn't what we expected but it was good as well. The chicken didn't meet our expectation. It should be fresh but fried and hard. The old lady waitress speaks English well which is surprising, nice job!

Overall, it was good, though I had to take away a star due to a cleanliness issue with my plate. Nine of us ordered from the very affordable lunch menu, so the servings were not large. Flavor was pretty good. The place was packed at 1pm on a Thursday.

The inside was nice and everyone seemed to be having a good time. My waiter was very nice, and the GREEN BEANS were VERY GOOD. I enjoyed my spare ribs and pork along with my green tea. Overall this place is good and worth the money.

XP Liu

We ordered three dishes. The beef is fine. The noodle wasn't what we expected but it was good as well. The chicken didn't meet our expectation. It should be fresh but fried and hard. The old lady waitress speaks English well which is surprising, nice job!

Soo Leong Liu

Overall, it was good, though I had to take away a star due to a cleanliness issue with my plate. Nine of us ordered from the very affordable lunch menu, so the servings were not large. Flavor was pretty good. The place was packed at 1pm on a Thursday.

Victoria Gonzalez

The inside was nice and everyone seemed to be having a good time. My waiter was very nice, and the GREEN BEANS were VERY GOOD. I enjoyed my spare ribs and pork along with my green tea. Overall this place is good and worth the money.

I’ve been coming here for the past 15+ years with my family, so it’s safe to say this place is definitely a Chinatown staple for me. If you’re looking for affordable, authentic Chinese food that is not too salty, not too oily, pretty healthy, but also still very flavorful, this is the place to go! They’re a small mom and pop shop, and the food tastes like homemade Chinese cooking, which is probably why my family and I like it so much. Some of my favorite dishes are the salted pork chop, mushroom and tofu, and steamed fresh fish!

Matthew Chen

I’ve been coming here for the past 15+ years with my family, so it’s safe to say this place is definitely a Chinatown staple for me. If you’re looking for affordable, authentic Chinese food that is not too salty, not too oily, pretty healthy, but also still very flavorful, this is the place to go! They’re a small mom and pop shop, and the food tastes like homemade Chinese cooking, which is probably why my family and I like it so much. Some of my favorite dishes are the salted pork chop, mushroom and tofu, and steamed fresh fish!

Two of us ordered 3 dishes. The beef and tendon were good, but the noodle was over cooked! Twice cooked pork was the only dish without issue. The worst dish was the steamed sole fish. It got stink fishy smell. At first we thought that was coming from the kitchen. After we ate some of that fish, we realized that the taste was not right if we didn’t dip the fish with sauce. We reported this to a staff, she said that’s normal smell of that fish. We ate sole fish quite often and that stink smell shouldn’t come out from fresh fish. Actually both of us felt stomach upset after the meal!

John Fwu

Two of us ordered 3 dishes. The beef and tendon were good, but the noodle was over cooked! Twice cooked pork was the only dish without issue. The worst dish was the steamed sole fish. It got stink fishy smell. At first we thought that was coming from the kitchen. After we ate some of that fish, we realized that the taste was not right if we didn’t dip the fish with sauce. We reported this to a staff, she said that’s normal smell of that fish. We ate sole fish quite often and that stink smell shouldn’t come out from fresh fish. Actually both of us felt stomach upset after the meal!

Worst restaurant ever tried. Normally will check reviews before going. Now sure how this one got 4.5 stars. Food not fresh! Ordered tofu dish and tofu is already gone bad and sour. Sweet and sour fish dish: more than half portion was pineapple chunks tasted like canned pineapple that already gone bad and sour. Chief and waiter recommended dish: braised duck: very hard to chew and tasteless with duck hair still on. The fried squid just tastes like oily fried dough as you couldn’t taste the squid whatsoever. Would give it a zero but that’s not possible so I give it a one.

Food unfresh, I order the same dish several times now. I ordered take out this time, and when I came home today. I opened the box, the chicken meat is gray and has a funny smell. Remind you the normal chicken meat should be a white or mild pink, and red in the bone. I called and complained hoping for an exchange or refund, I called twice and the manager said they would call me back in 30 minutes. 3 hours later, still no call back. Disappointed!

Xingmei Diao

Worst restaurant ever tried. Normally will check reviews before going. Now sure how this one got 4.5 stars. Food not fresh! Ordered tofu dish and tofu is already gone bad and sour. Sweet and sour fish dish: more than half portion was pineapple chunks tasted like canned pineapple that already gone bad and sour. Chief and waiter recommended dish: braised duck: very hard to chew and tasteless with duck hair still on. The fried squid just tastes like oily fried dough as you couldn’t taste the squid whatsoever. Would give it a zero but that’s not possible so I give it a one.

Meichi Chen

Food unfresh, I order the same dish several times now. I ordered take out this time, and when I came home today. I opened the box, the chicken meat is gray and has a funny smell. Remind you the normal chicken meat should be a white or mild pink, and red in the bone. I called and complained hoping for an exchange or refund, I called twice and the manager said they would call me back in 30 minutes. 3 hours later, still no call back. Disappointed!

Don't waste your time here. The wait staff is curt and slow. The wait is nonsensical. It took over 45 minutes for the first dish to arrive and the rest of the dishes slowly trickled out. We were a table of 10 and had 11 dishes. However, there was 6 other small tables of 4 that arrived after us and they all received their meals before us. In fact, 3 of the tables after us finished their meal before we even got the first dish. The food was below average at best and definitely not worth the wait. The dishes were simple but they still managed to be flavorless. If there is any hype to this restaurant, do not believe it. The prices as cheap but you get what you pay for. Avoid the mistake that I made and do not give them the benefit of the doubt.

Terrible experience from start to finish. The Youtiao (油条) was dry, overcooked, and hard as a rock. Service was slow and unfriendly. I also checked the bathroom and it was filthy—rusty and moldy, which made me question the cleanliness of the whole place.

Bellaire Holt

Don't waste your time here. The wait staff is curt and slow. The wait is nonsensical. It took over 45 minutes for the first dish to arrive and the rest of the dishes slowly trickled out. We were a table of 10 and had 11 dishes. However, there was 6 other small tables of 4 that arrived after us and they all received their meals before us. In fact, 3 of the tables after us finished their meal before we even got the first dish. The food was below average at best and definitely not worth the wait. The dishes were simple but they still managed to be flavorless. If there is any hype to this restaurant, do not believe it. The prices as cheap but you get what you pay for. Avoid the mistake that I made and do not give them the benefit of the doubt.