So I'm thinking of starting an American Chinese Resurant focused towards carry out and delivery in the town I live in

I work in a (failing) Chinese Bistro place right now and I can tell you that, even though the menu is fucking huge, people only order a few things, really.

Our place is a bit different, we have an actual sushi chef who does excellent work, he could run his own enterprise, but that's a whole different thing.

If I was going to take a crack at the business, I think the key to success would be to have a small menu of entrees and a fairly standard menu of appetizers. People always order wontons or egg rolls. But make your entree dishes few but excellent. Orange chicken, general tso, Szechuan beef, beef and broccoli, that sort of thing. But have a specialty and push it. I highly recommend triple delight and TD soup. It's the best thing on just about any Chinese place's menu. Make that the thing to get. Say that you can sub out one meat for more of another. Make it really good.

>A problem I've always found at Chinese restaurants are the size of the menus

So not only are you fat but you're stupid too?

Theres tons of research that shows that overwhelming someone with choices is the easiest way to make it difficult for them to make any choice. All of the top restaurants have a limited menu and the 2 and 3 star places usually give you only a few options at most because they focus on giving you the best meal possible instead of giving you a shit ton of choices

Make good dumplings, all the americanized takeout chinese places around here have terrible dumplings with extremely thick doughy skin

Mapo tofu.

People I know only really order general tso's, orange chicken, sweet & sour chicken, kung pao chicken, fried rice, egg rolls and lo mein/chow mein. Sometimes pork ribs.

Honestly I wish more takeout places had peking duck because it's easily the best chinese dish and usually what I order when I go to a nicer chinese restaurant. I'd basically exclusively order from a takeout/delivery place that made even mediocre peking duck.

yes. most chinese places just call it 'chicken on a stick'

There's also tons of research that says everyone already knows what they want when they go to x generic chinese place regardless of how huge the menu is.

You already failed with Italian food and were embarassed on national television when you opened Mangia Mangia. Why sink more money into a restaurant you know even less about?

Bell peppers, beef, and onion on fried rice.
Absolute fucking staple, you will sell it constantly.

General Tso's chicken, Kung pao chicken, fried rice, chow mein, orange chicken, mushu pork, fresh rolls if they have them. And yes, in fact just open a sushi restaurant.

You for sure want fried rice, and make sure its the House/Hunan fried rice because that's what the majority of people will order. Sides like egg rolls are a must, with crap like wontons and whatnot as other options. At least three to four appetizers like that would be sufficient for what you're trying to do. Dumplings and Spring Rolls would definitely work.

For the rest of the menu, you want the most common fare. What I see people ordering the most is Mandarin Combination, Broccoli Beef, Orange Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pork, Chow Mein, the House Fried Rice I mentioned earlier, and maybe Kung Pao Chicken. Try to run the full gambit of meats, and if fully necessary, add a meat free dish to boost your customer base. I would also suggest maybe only one or two soups, like Sweet and Sour Soup, because I've found Chinese takeout soups don't really work very well. They also seem to taste a little off when they're carry out.

Fortune cookies are a must. Nix the sushi. Its popular now, but people go to Chinese restaurant and takeouts for Chinese food. There could be some good potential using the same idea with sushi separately, though, and you could consider adding it on later. I remember in Ventura County they had a takeout truck business that would get you food from any restaurant participating, and the sushi I ordered from one came to me is great shape and tasted great. For now, though, focus on the Chinese food.

Focus on the Chinese food for now, though, and good luck with your idea. And don't forget my goddamn fortune cookie.

What the fuck are you talking about you fucking fruit loop

Wait did you just imply that sushi is a fad? Its been popular since the 80s

i think they meant serving it at a chinese place

Pressed Duck

I used to work near a Chinese place that had really good Pressed Duck and I ordered it at least one or two times a week.

Give away small packets of Prawn Crackers, it's popular as hell in the UK.

Otherwise yeah, focus on small menu but high quality. I've worked in chinese restaurants and everyone just orders the same goddamn things anyways.

Also chinese curries are easy and cheap to make.

>Pressed Duck

The hell is that? and why does it seem like its flattened duck deep fried?

Fortune cookies.

Whenever I've had it, it was pounded flat, deep fried, served on a bed of bean sprouts and covered in really thick, rich duch gravy with toasted almond slices on top.

>chinese curries

You mean the chinese make goza too?

Yeah, what this guy said >> It HAS been popular since the 80s, but the weird ass idea of serving it at a Chinese restaurant seems to have popped up majorly in the last 5-10 years.

Idk about which regional style of pressed duck you have, but when I tried it in Hong Kong the duck was fried along with a layer of taro, which gave it a surprisingly good sweet and salty taste.

If I was in your position, I would have very little more than

Walnut Prawns
Cashew Prawns
Sweet Sour Pork
Chow Mein
Pot Stickers
Egg Fried Rice
Jasmine Rice
Lemon Chicken
Orange Chicken
Egg Rolls
Spring Rolls
Hot Sour Soup
Won Ton
Fortune Cookies
Oolong Tea bags
Green Tea bags

>should Chinese restaurants (ever) serve sushi?
No, if I wanted sushi, I would order from the Japanese place.

No general tso and sesame chicken (which is the same shit)? Thats probably the most ordered ordered thing at american chinese places.

I'm craving sweet and sour chicken balls so much right now.

Must make a killing profits wise, balls of chicken in batter is like £5 per portion which means like 8 balls.