Traditional Chinese Food In Amarillo? Here’s 3 Restaurants I Found.

Amarillo is full of restaurants. Some are incredible, while some you wonder how they're still even open for business. You can find pretty much any cuisine you want, but one that I have struggled to find is Chinese food.

We seem to have plenty of Thai restaurants in the city, but traditional Chinese food seems challenging to find. So I decided to take to Yelp and Reddit to see what kind of recommendations I could find.

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One thing I'm going to say upfront is this. I can't believe Panda Express was popping up on Yelp at number four. That stuns me. Is it because of a lack of Chinese restaurants in the area? Or are the ones we DO have just not that good?

I digress. Let's move on to some of the top-rated Chinese restaurants in the 806.

PACIFIC RIM

This checked in at number one on Yelp and was the one restaurant mentioned numerous times on Reddit. When I looked up their website, I noticed it wasn't listed as an actual Chinese restaurant, but as Asian Fusion. I'm already a bit discouraged by that, but maybe it'll be close to the "traditional" Chinese food I grew up on.

Looking over the menu, I see several Chinese favorites of mine, so that's a good thing. I just wonder if they are prepared the way I'm used to. One of the most recommended dishes seems to be the Orange Beef, extra crispy. Now I've had Orange Chicken, it's one of my favorites, but never Orange Beef. Might be time to try something new.

THAI KOON

Located on Western, Thai Koon is almost a "hole in the wall" kind of restaurant, and usually, they drop some of the best food you'll ever eat. Now they have a pretty traditional Thai menu, and it lacks some of my Chinese favorites.

Chow Mein, Moogoogaipan, and Garlic & Ginger Chicken are all on the menu, and I've been known to put those down with relative ease, so this could potentially work for me. However, where's the Sesame Chicken?

CHIYO'S

This one comes up at number eight on the list of Chinese restaurants in Amarillo, but it also has a rating of 4 1/2 stars, so it's gotta be pretty solid.

One thing I notice right away is the menu is loaded with a lot of my favorite traditional Chinese menu items. Chinese Chow Mein, Pepper Steak, Sweet & Sour Chicken, Chicken Broccoli, and Cashew Chicken immediately grab my attention. So far, this menu seems the closest to what I consider traditional Chinese food, so I think this could ultimately be my first stop.

Now I know there are several Chinese buffets around town, and I'm open to trying those out as well. I'd imagine it's more of what I'm looking for in my mind. Am I missing any restaurants on this list?