Chinese restaurants offer a wide variety of delicious dishes, but not all menu options are created equal. Some popular choices are loaded with unhealthy ingredients like excess sugar, sodium, and oil.
Making smart choices when ordering can help you enjoy the flavours without compromising your health. Here's a guide to dishes you might want to think twice about before ordering.
1. Sweet And Sour Pork
The bright orange sauce might look appealing, but this dish hides a calorie bomb. Chunks of pork are battered, deep-fried, then smothered in sugary sauce.
A single portion can contain more than 1,600 calories and 16 teaspoons of sugar! Your body deserves better than this sugar-laden, fat-heavy indulgence.
2. General Tso's Chicken
Named after a Chinese military leader, this American-Chinese creation has little connection to authentic cuisine. The chicken pieces are battered, fried until crispy, then tossed in a sauce packed with sugar.
One serving delivers around 1,300 calories alongside a whopping 3,200 milligrams of sodium—more than a day's worth!
3. Egg Foo Young
This Chinese-American omelette might seem like a protein-rich choice, but don't be fooled. The patties soak up enormous amounts of oil during frying.
Topped with thick, cornstarch-heavy gravy, it becomes a grease-laden meal. The sodium content often exceeds 900mg per serving, nearly half your daily limit in just one dish!
4. Crab Rangoon
These crispy dumplings rarely contain real crab—typically it's imitation crab mixed with cream cheese. Each little pocket gets deep-fried, transforming it into a calorie-dense starter.
Most shocking? Four pieces can pack nearly 500 calories and 20 grams of fat! The seafood flavour you're craving comes mostly from artificial additives, not actual crab.
5. Fried Rice
That innocent-looking bowl of fried rice hides a surprising health trap. Chefs typically use day-old rice fried in generous amounts of oil.
Add in fatty meat bits, minimal vegetables, and liberal soy sauce, and you've got a sodium nightmare. A typical restaurant portion contains around 1,500 calories—nearly a full day's worth for many people!
6. Lemon Chicken
The tangy citrus sauce might seem refreshing, but this dish starts with battered, deep-fried chicken cutlets. The seemingly light lemon sauce contains surprising amounts of sugar and cornstarch.
Nutritional analysis reveals about 1,400 calories per serving! The lemon flavour tricks your brain into thinking you're eating something light when you're actually consuming a day's worth of calories.
7. Orange Chicken
The vibrant orange sauce masks a nutritional disaster. Behind that tangy-sweet flavour lies up to 8 tablespoons of sugar per serving!
The chicken pieces are twice-fried for extra crispiness, soaking up oil like sponges. Even worse than its cousin General Tso's, this dish can deliver a shocking 1,800 calories when served with rice.
8. Mongolian Beef
Despite its exotic name, there's nothing Mongolian about this American creation. Restaurants typically use cheap, fatty beef cuts flash-fried in oil until crispy outside.
The sauce combines brown sugar, hoisin, and soy sauce—a triple threat of sodium. A standard portion packs around 1,700mg of sodium, nearly exceeding the daily recommended limit in just one meal!
9. Peking Duck
This famous delicacy might impress your dinner guests, but your arteries won't thank you. The traditional preparation involves pumping air between the skin and meat, then glazing with sugar solution before roasting.
The crispy skin alone contains approximately 240 calories per quarter cup! While delicious for special occasions, this fatty indulgence shouldn't be your regular order.
10. Spring Rolls
Don't let their slim appearance fool you—these crispy cylinders are calorie traps. The wrappers absorb significant oil during deep-frying, making them surprisingly fattening.
The vegetable filling often contains mostly cabbage with minimal nutritional value. Six pieces can contain upwards of 500 calories and 20 grams of fat, with barely any beneficial nutrients to show for it!
11. Sweet And Sour Chicken
The poultry version of this dish is equally problematic as its pork counterpart. Chicken pieces are coated in batter, deep-fried until crispy, then drenched in neon-colored sauce.
What gives that sauce its vibrant hue? Often artificial food coloring! With approximately 1,500 calories and 70+ grams of sugar per serving, this dish is essentially dessert masquerading as dinner.
12. Beef With Broccoli
Surprised to see this seemingly balanced dish on the list? The devil's in the details. While broccoli provides nutrients, the beef is typically marinated in cornstarch and soy sauce.
The stir-fry sauce contains hidden MSG and excessive sodium. Many restaurants use lower-quality beef cuts with visible fat marbling, further diminishing any health benefits this dish might offer.
13. Chow Mein
Those seemingly innocent noodles are often cooked twice—first boiled, then stir-fried in liberal amounts of oil. Restaurant versions typically contain minimal vegetables and maximum grease.
The noodles' high glycemic index causes rapid blood sugar spikes. A standard restaurant portion can contain up to 1,200 calories and 2,700mg of sodium, making it a nutritional nightmare in disguise.
14. Egg Drop Soup
This seemingly light appetizer hides a sodium bomb in its innocent-looking broth. A small bowl can contain over 1,000mg of sodium—nearly two-thirds of your daily recommended intake!
Many restaurants enhance flavor with MSG and artificial yellow coloring. What looks like a harmless starter actually sets you up for bloating and excessive thirst before your main course even arrives.
15. Sweet And Sour Soup
The vibrant red color should be your first warning sign—it often comes from artificial food dyes rather than natural ingredients. Beyond its eye-catching appearance lurks a sugar-laden liquid with minimal nutritional value.
Most restaurant versions contain around 300 calories per cup, primarily from added sugars and modified starches. The vinegar provides tang while masking the excessive sweeteners.
16. Fried Wontons
These crispy little packages deliver a triple threat to your health—refined carbs from the wrapper, fatty meat filling, and oil from deep-frying. Each tiny wonton absorbs surprising amounts of oil during cooking.
Eight pieces can contain upwards of 600 calories and 40 grams of fat! What's worse, they're so small and poppable that portion control becomes nearly impossible once they arrive at your table.
