text: I have to say I am rather disappointed after my half hour trek to Chandler only to be served cold Chinese food in a cavernous and empty retail location I would read all the rave reviews about Jade Red Chicken and was amped for some kick ass grub Three different people I know personally all told me I needed to check out CB as well and one of my buds whose culinary curiosity is on par with mine says he literally craves this stuffnnI was pretty stoked to try something new tonite for dinner as we tend to get bogged down in central phoenix and eat at the same places over over again It is Friday nite I would had a few beers after work and had a pretty light lunch so I was beyond peckish and downright ready for the taste sensation I expected Chino Bandido to be My better half and I drove from CenPho down to the culturally devoid center of the Universe aka Chandler hungry and excited We would read the reviews used the interactive menu tool on the CB website and we were pumped for an excellent if not quirky dinging experience Not nnThe restaurant itself is in a bizarre gravelly strip mall oddly wedged between a nail salon and a store called simply Wide Shoes We walked in to what felt like a vacant student union during spring break when everyone else is in Ft Lauderdale Rocky Point or the Caribbean and you are the only kid broke enough to stay on campus and work at your library job There were maybe other diners in the place but it is so huge inside that it felt empty and barrennnWe were greeted by a niceenough counter lady who took our orders and punched them into the register I felt somewhat robbed of the papermenu ordering experience I would heard so much about no challenge nothing unique We grabbed our drinks utensils and straws and settled in at the end of a LOOOONG vacant Rubbermaid folding table Jason asked why they had church buffet tables set up I thought maybe there was something cool about thembut nopejust cheap tables We looked around a bit while we waited for our food to come over and raised our eyebrows questioningly at one another I kept waiting to get it which I figured we would when the food arrivednnThere were some screaming kids running around while their parents ignored them chatted with one another and texted BRATS BRATS BRATS Get outta my yard I yelled inside my head like that mean old lady from down the block when I was a kid nnMy annoyance with bad parenting aside I could not figure out why everyone loved this place It has all the ambiance of a medclinic I felt like at any minute a middleaged woman in chilipepperembellished scrubs would shuffle over hand me a clipboard with a flowershaped pen ask me to sign a release form and pay my copay There was not even MUZAK playing there was NO music playing which made the place seem even more devoid of lifennThe food soon arrived and we dug in eagerly Everything was a smidge above room temp if that and pretty boring to be frank The Jade Red Chicken is pretty comparable to Panda Express orange chicken The BBQd pork did not seem to have any asian BBQ flavor more like roasted pork soaked in sugar and the cold thick refried beans could have come from Taco Bell or a can Nothing unordinary or even interesting here The only thing that was in the least bit interesting was the pork fried rice which tasted oddly like it would been cooked with cheap white sherry and shallots which I have not experienced before with fried rice That was atypical but certainly not interesting or enchanting The only redeeming thing about the meal was the Snickerdoodle which seemed oddly out of place for either Mexican or Asian food It was pretty good thoughnnEven though I was physically full after the meal I felt very emotionally empty oddly depressed about Chandler its environs and its residents Everyone else in the joint seemed oddly devoid of emotion as certainloy not like people who go out to dinner on a Friday evening nnIm thinking we should have aimed the car towards the original Chino Bandido in the Aves I am a fan of asian and latin foods and admittedly have an odd penchant for cheap asian buffets so I am usually pretty tolerant of cheap bad fried foods I am thinking that the original divey joint did not translate well to Chandler so I am willing to give CB another try just never again in the east valley nnPlease someone explain to me what I am missing here