The Top Chinese Food in Carbondale is New Kahala Fast Food

There are a half dozen places in Carbondale to get a Chinese dinner, but for price and taste, the best is New Kahala Fast Food. New Kahala is a small restaurant with seating for about 40, just off The strip in Carbondale, but for Chinese food that tastes good and has good prices, size doesn’t matter. 

The restaurant is in a small strip shopping mall and family-owned and operated. They offer take out and delivery of a pretty standard fare of Chinese food. Most meals come with white rice and either crab rangoon, an egg roll, or soup. Meals range in prices from $3.50 to about $8 and you can substitute fried rice for the white rice, if you prefer.

My personal dish of choice is chicken fried rice. The fried rice has plenty of chicken and egg, carrots and peas and a few bean sprouts, which I promptly pick out. With two crab rangoon, it is $4.05, easily the best price in town for lunch or dinner. 

In addition, the serving size is large, so I can actually make two meals out of one order of fried rice. For heavy eaters, it would probably only be enough for one meal, but I’ve never heard of someone still hungry after they finish the portions there. The staff is friendly and often remembers patrons who regularly order the same thing, like me. Food is cooked fresh, so it usually takes about 15 minutes to get your order, though on a busy Saturday evening, the wait can be a bit longer. I usually call ahead and have my order waiting for me when I get there as sitting in the very fast food style restaurant waiting for my order can be tiresome. 

The restaurant offers an array of pre-packaged soft drinks and juices as well. It is convenient to downtown Carbondale and close enough to most of the city for those on a short lunch hour to still be able to enjoy their food. I particularly enjoy it knowing that it didn’t cost me more than half an hour’s work to pay for it.