In The Middle of a Cloudy Street is a Cuisine Ray of Sunshine

Oak Ridge is not exactly the nicest area of Orlando, Florida. With a rough crime record, low poverty, struggling schools, low maintenance, and being close to the naughty ends of Orange Blossom Trail, Oak Ridge has not been my favorite place to be close to. In the midst of the street though is a building that has been around since the 60s, and a restaurant that has withstood years of Oak Ridge-ness. King Express has been around for over 10 years and has outlasted all the other businesses in the vicinity. Multiple thrift stores, multiple restaurants, and even multiple pizza places has come and gone, but King Express defeated them all.

After years of (quickly) driving down the street and always seeing it with several parked cars and more on the drive-thru, I finally caved in and decided to give the place a shot. The outside and the inside of the restaurant doesn’t really have much pizzazz or style. It was simplistic, but clean. The menu looked very outdated above the employees, but there were a couple smaller menus to look at. It has all the makings of the typical Chinese restaurant menu—except it has some emphasis on non-Chinese food like spare ribs and chicken wings. According to the employee taking our order, the most popular items are spare ribs and the bourbon chicken. I counted at least 30 different meals on the menu, with specials running back and forth.




I ordered the spare ribs as an appetizer and went with the general tzo’s chicken. Michael orders the krab Rangoon and the bourbon chicken. The krab Rangoon was pretty good, but is absolutely nothing compared to that of Green House; the top Chinese restaurant in Orlando (My opinion..which is usually right). Their krab Rangoon is crunchy on the outside, soft and filling on the inside. The spare rib was the top part of the meal, clearly leagues above everything else. The meat was great, the sauce was rich, and as an appetizer, it was quite filling. That was the hit of our meal.






The bourbon chicken is one of the more popular items---but I don’t see why. The meat was good, but the sauce was running and lacking flavor. Maybe I’m just not a bourbon chicken person—my brother enjoyed it. The general tzo chicken on the other hand was very good, among the best this side of Wal-Mart (Don’t laugh, the John Young Wal-Mart has some darn good chicken). The sauce worked much better than the bourbon chicken (Seriously, stop laughing). Funny thing though, the restaurant claimed it was spicy, when tzo was anything but (Why are you still laughing?).

My meal came with steamed white rice (you can have pork fried rice, but I like my rice simple and white) and an egg roll. All this food for a mere 6 bucks, and trust me, it’s a lot of food and you will not be able to finish (Unless you skipped breakfast and dinner the night before). To clarify: we got rice, egg rolls, Rangoon, spare rib, water, soda, bourbon chicken, fortune cookies, and general’s tzo chicken. Total: 20-something bucks. Chinese restaurants are notorious for delivering a lot of food for smaller prices, but even then King’s Express manages to outdo themselves in terms of price value.


Bottom Line: The mystery behind the success of the "little restaurant that could" is revealed. King’s Express’ success stems from good food, a lot of good food, and small prices that holds it all together. While the location is less than stellar, King’s Express is among the better Chinese restaurants in Central Florida. A hidden gem in the midst of the Oak Ridge edginess, this nifty corner of cuisine goodness excels with Chinese and non-Chinese food. The meat was good and fresh, the meals were big, and our stomachs remained happy. If only the fortune cookie revealed the next lottery numbers……

Final Verdict: Recommend. Just be careful around there.

King's Express
2225 West Oak Ridge Road
Orlando, FL 32809-3884
(407) 854-7899