Tucked away in a small corner of Lenexa, Monkey King Chinese BBQ & Noodle Restaurant feels like one of the most authentic Chinese spots in the Kansas City metro area. Their menu consists of a lot of dishes, and some are quite unique .. you don't usually see items like bird's nest dishes at most Chinese restaurants around here except for maybe Bolings. Me and my husband visited on a Saturday night around 8 pm and really devoured our meal. The menu can feel a bit overwhelming at first, but you honestly can't go wrong with stir fries at any Chinese restaurant. For appetizers, we ordered chicken egg rolls, which were hefty and filling. For the main course, I ordered the chicken in black bean stir fry, and my husband got the shrimp Kung Pao chicken stir fry. We paired both with steamed rice. The black bean chicken was rich and earthy, with that deep, slightly funky flavor from the fermented black beans. It was very umami, salty and complimented nicely with the fresh, crisp vegetables and well-cooked chicken. I really liked it. The shrimp Kung Pao was spicy and tangy, with perfectly cooked shrimp (the fried shrimp covering was chefs kiss) and crispy veggies. Overall, we really enjoyed the food. The egg rolls were about $4 for two pieces, and the stir fries were around $17+ each. The portions are quite large compared to other places in the area, so the pricing seemed reasonable. For 2 main course dishes your bill could easily reach up to $40. Otherwise, The restaurant was clean, the staff was kind, and service was quick. It also wasn't too crowded when we visited. I would rate the service 4/5, mainly because we had to ask for silverware, condiments, and tissues separately. The food, though, is definitely a 5/5. Highly recommended! I will definitely return to have more dishes like beef chow fun, the soups and last, but not least BIRDS NEST!! read more

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Went to Monkey King for dinner. It was good, but not quite great. We ordered the roasted duck, combo bird's nest, Hunan beef, salt & pepper calamari, and salted fish eggplant with chicken. The standout dish was definitely the bird's nest--it had the best flavor overall. The duck was a bit too fatty, and the calamari was heavily battered and greasy. Service was just okay--nothing memorable. read more

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Excellent food and lunch prices; you get a very filling meal for $14-15. Their Hawaii Chicken was the highlight of my experience. Though, I'd like to mention that this isn't the most authentic Cantonese cuisine. Nice interior as well, very cozy. Food: 4.5/5 Price: 5/5 Experience: 4/5 read more

Monkey King BBQ & Noodle - Hawaii Chicken + Rice - Cantonese Near Me - Lenexa, Kansas

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I liked the food but was not wowed. Grew up in the west and found better food, but for KC, I am not going to complain. Too expensive in my opinion for what you get. read more

Went in for lunch, great prices, and great portions! the general tso's could've been spicer but it was still good and tasted fresh. definitely one of the better chinese options in KCK. read more

Monkey King BBQ & Noodle - Cantonese Near Me - Lenexa, Kansas

Food is authentic and always flavorful. Never have I been disappointed in the quality nor portions of servings. Service is typically fast and staff is very friendly. Restaurant always clean the several times I've been. Top 3 for Chinese food hands down read more

The food was served very slowly, and all the good dishes were already gone.The other dishes are suitable for American tastes. read more

Monkey King BBQ & Noodle - Cantonese Near Me - Lenexa, Kansas

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It was just ok. I got an order for pick up of the roasted duck and some mixed vegetables. They used to have a combo of mix and match meats on their to go ordering platform, but it's not there anymore. So the portion was pretty large, until I realized that this duck was just mostly skin and bones. Literally. Very fatty skin, and chewy, that could have stood to have been roasted for a while longer. The duck sauce given was so watered down, and nearly flavorful less. By the way, I was born and raised in Hong Kong. I grew up on kao ya (roasted duck). This was subpar. read more

Monkey King BBQ & Noodle - Cantonese Near Me - Lenexa, Kansas

Service was great, friendly and attentive. I've been desperately trying to find some of my Chinese comfort food favorites and unfortunately didn't find them here. If a dish isn't good, it's a shame when it's on the menu. The west lake beef soup was disheartening. It was a genuine travesty. The broth wasn't the right kind, the cut and texture of meat were wrong, there was no cilantro-- it looked like a greasy but tasteless egg drop soup. The coloring was off and looked like soy sauce had been added but the taste was all wrong anyway. The mapo tofu tasted like the lao gan ma sauce from a jar. My friend liked it. It taste fine, but it didn't taste like mapo tofu to me. The singapore style noodles were fine, but there weren't enough noodles. read more

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Food was ok, bbq seem to be fried and not roasted, as it traditionally is. The duck was salty. Service was very average, your typical Chinese place. Ambiance, was clean and ok. read more

Great staff, amazing food, everything that came out of the kitchen was outstanding. Definitely will be back to this hidden gem! read more

Monkey King BBQ & Noodle - Cantonese Near Me - Lenexa, Kansas

Very clean restaurant with nice Cantonese music and decor. Delicious Kung Pao Tofu and Gailan with garlic were served promptly. Hot and delicious! We will be back again. read more

The best Orange Chicken we've ever had! Every dish we've tried at this place is so delicious. We look forward to dining there during our stops to visit family in Kansas City. It's a good restaurant for all ages and the service is wonderful. They truly know how to cook here! The staff is helpful and so friendly. Along with the Orange Chicken, we enjoy and recommend the Beef Chow Fun, the Egg Rolls, Pork Fried Rice, Walnut Shrimp, Hawaiian Chicken, and Hot & Sour Soup. We cannot wait to visit again! read more

I love their orange chicken, hot and sour soup, and crab Rangoon. Great food at reasonable prices.

We've been in search of a new, go-to Chinese option, and had noticed the positive reviews racking up for Monkey King, so decided to swing by and give it a try! This place is AWESOME! So much bigger than it looks from the outside, there's ample seating for many more people than you'd assume from the relatively small-looking storefront in the non-assuming strip center. The restaurant was clean and attractive! We were promptly seated, and dictionary-sized menus were dropped in front of us! Holy smokes, this places makes every Chinese dish I've ever heard of, and then 400 more! We decieded (wisely!) to eat family-style, which this place is set up perfectly for! We ordered a couple appetizes, and three main dishes of differing styles, and everything was absolutely fantastic! Of particular note were two things: first, my Thai Iced Tea came with a LOVELY "Tea Bear" who slowly melted into the rest of my tea! It had incredible detail! Check out the picture! Second, we were trying to decide between a couple different appetizers, and when we asked our waitress which she preferred, she offered doing a 50-50 split! Fantastic!!! I love when establishments are open to being flexible to the benefit of the diner! All of our food was fantastic, served fast, fresh and hot, and was perfect to split family-style! We now have a new go-to Chinese restaurant! Food = 5/5 Facility = 3/5 Service = 4/5 Ambiance = 3/5 Value = 4/5 read more

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Ever since my first visit, i have loved Monkey King - both their food and customer service! You can't go wrong with anything on their menu. On our last visit, we got the "Crazy Monkey Fried Rice", "Salt and Pepper Shrimp", "Braised Beef Birds Nest", and the "Roasted Pork Belly". Every dish was full of flavor but we would have to say our two favorites were the roasted pork belly and the crazy monkey fried rice. The roasted pork belly skin is so crunchy and the meat is still tender and juicy! The fried rice contains scallop and shrimp - some chili oil would be great with it for sure! Everything that we ordered was amazing in terms of taste and was delivered in no time hot from the kitchen.The customer service at Monkey King is amazing as well as everybody is nice, easy to get a hold of, and always checking up on you. The owner is extremely nice and so genuine. Would definitely recommend Monkey King to anybody around the area as it is one of our favorite places to get Chinese food! read more

I've driven by this restaurant hundreds of times and I was wondered what it was like. I was very very pleasantly surprised by what we found. The menu was huge, pages and pages of all kinds of different items. We started with some crab Rangoon and chicken egg rolls. The crab Rangoon was excellent, the chicken eggrolls were very good, but I probably would opt for something else since they have quite a lot of other options. I ordered a Thai iced tea which I regularly get at places like this, and when she brought it, there was a little brown bear sitting on top of the ice. I had no idea what it was or whether you can't even eat it but she said you sink it into the tea and it just makes it stronger.... Very cute and unique. My entrée choice was the Hawaiian chicken. It was so so good, just a little spice and a little sweetness made it perfect. Definitely large portions. There were so many things on the menu that looked good and I saw other items as the servers carried them past, everything looked wonderful. We will definitely be back for another experience. read more

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It's been a while since I've dined out at a restaurant instead of ordering take out. Today after my father's doctor's appointment I decided to take us out for some lunch and eat at the restaurant. My father doesn't really get outside much except for doctors' appointments and getting groceries, so it means a lot when we get to go out and spend time together. Monkey King is a good place for a quick chat and good food. It never seems like the place is too busy, even when it is, the staff of the restaurant seem to manage the atmosphere quite well. I always enjoy my experience and the food always top tier. Would definitely recommend to anyone looking to try some authentic Cantonese cuisine. read more

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The ambiance of the place is decent, staff was nice, but the food was not that good. I took my food to go and I was not that impressed with the beef chow fun and general tso chicken, something just tasted off. In fact it gave me an upset stomach.. I hope it was okay to eat. read more

Monkey King BBQ & Noodle - General Tso - Cantonese Near Me - Lenexa, Kansas

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I wish Monkey King was in Ohio. I would go regularly. The service is prompt, friendly and efficient. The food is delicious and piping hot (consistently across multiple visits and different dishes). The beer is ice cold. Decor is clean and pleasant. And the prices are quite reasonable. The people who run and work in this restaurant try extra hard to provide an outstanding dining experience and it pays off. read more

This might be the best Chinese food in the KC area. No joke, legit great food. I've been in KC for 12 years and have tried everything and all have been disappointing except this place. The noodle dishes are all fantastic and everything is fresh. read more

Monkey King BBQ & Noodle - Stir fried noodles w pork - Cantonese Near Me - Lenexa, Kansas

First time visitor here and was happy to see the authentic Cantonese menu. I had the roasted duck with rice and vegetable and it was great! Juicy duck with delicious, complex sauce- so flavorful! My husband always orders the egg rolls for appetizers and I would skip that- bland in texture and flavor and kinda greasy- but the duck!! read more

Went back and had the fried rice with pork floss, shrimp and scallop (YUM!), and also the salt and pepper shrimp which was good. Service was a bit disorganized but the food is very good here! read more

Monkey King BBQ & Noodle - Lots of cartilage - Cantonese Near Me - Lenexa, Kansas

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I'm in love. Monkey King serves up some of the BEST hong kong style chinese bbq in the KC/OP area hands down. Everything we've ever ordered has been solid and truly flavorful. Some of our favorites: * Fermented Pork Knuckle with Noodles in Soup * Beef Chow Fun (in my opinion, the best in town) * Roasted Pork Belly * Peking Pork Ribs * Roast Duck Honestly, any and all of their BBQ meat options are top-notch. read more

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Fantastic Chinese with more authentic offerings than the typical takeout place. (But the standards are all there too!)

Lost mind chef bring a Rancid duck to our friend from 1000 miles away! He may guess they are old so can't identify that is a shit smell and only to make 15 dollars more with something should throw to the trash can weeks ago. Feel so sorry for where the chef educated! Make that far to Kansas City only to bring that shameful food to the guest sit down to this table! That is not the way to run any business In USA. How sad when I write this! read more

We have been wanting to visit this place for a long time since it's a local eatery with very old building and it's been known for a long time by the locals and recommended by many friends when we went there there were very few people inside the restaurant, kind of threw away that they might not be very popular But when we ordered the food, the food was absolutely amazing. It's very flava food juicy, but I felt that the Mongolian beef would have been more flavorful and had a little bit of cake because I asked him to make it spicy, but it was still sweet other than that. The fried fried noodles was amazing. The spring roll was great. The service is amazing. They brought the food very fast. We told them to make it less oily embedded that way the ambience of this place is not very great. It's just an old restaurant but the food is what is going to attempt you to go have it over there so good luck. read more

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I had been wanting to try monkey king bbq for a couple months before I actually stopped in. I was not disappointed! Service was excellent and the food was delectable. The garlic edamame is a garlic lovers dream. I had the pad Thai for my entree and loved that as well. It wasn't like any other pad Thai I've tasted & had peppers which I thought was a nice addition. Huge portion as well. I look forward to trying the rest of their menu. read more

Monkey King BBQ & Noodle - Pad Thai - Cantonese Near Me - Lenexa, Kansas

My father recommended this place and took us there to eat with my family. I ordered general tsos chicken with fried rice. It was very good and I belonged to the clean plate club that day. Service was friendly and if I'm in the neighborhood again, I would definitely try again. read more

I came back to monkey king, so excited about getting their roast duck and roasted pork belly but I was unfortunately left a little disappointed - and that makes me so sad to write! I really want this place to succeed, and they have so much potential. Their service is friendly, restaurant is clean, but they just need to work on quality control for their food. I will say that the first thing I noticed this time around, is that they were not as generous with their portion size for the roasted pork belly rice bowl and roast duck. Their roast duck was still delicious, but this time the meat was a little bit dry compared to last time. The roasted pork belly had significantly fewer pieces, and the roasted pork rind was not crispy - this time it was almost rock hard! I couldn't bite down on it and had to spit it out which made me so sad. I did let the owner know about this, because I think if they just pricked the skin more during roasting, it would be perfect. As for why the portion sizes are smaller now... not sure! I will be back again, and hopefully their quality will be back to what it was again! read more

Ive eaten here many times always fresh and cooked perfect , I thing k this is the best chinise food in kcks kcmo. no more to say the food will speak for itself. read more

Finally! Finally! Finally a decent place for authentic Chinese food in Kansas City. I've been on a hunt for delicious Chinese food. And I finally found it here at Monkey King. Not the best service, but they came to check up on us frequently. Let's talk about the food! I love all the dishes we ordered. Had to order a few dishes togo for next day. Cannot wait to go back for more. Strongly recommended. You won't be disappointed. read more

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FPO and I have been on a hot streak with our restaurants. I couldn't decide between 4 stars and 5 for Monkey King. Fast forward two months and two more attempts to return to Monkey King. We tried around mid-September but there was a family there with a little girl coughing, open-mouthed in every direction she turned with her parents doing nothing. Not the restaurant's fault, just not a time we were inclined to remain. The third time we went to Monkey King was a repeat of the first. Terrific food, intelligently seasoned to make sure the food itself was the star of every dish. I'm in love with their fried tofu. I never had fried tofu of any kind before coming to the mainland but this, it's a appetizer, spicy, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. It was amazing. Monkey King also doesn't over sauce everything like most of the Chinese restaurants we've tried. It may not be authentic (I've never been to China so I don't know) but it's pretty darned close to what I've come to expect from restaurants in Hawaii. Superb food. And the people are all so nice, polite, and friendly. The restaurant is also clean and has a nice, open feel to it. A great restaurant! Definitely going back. read more

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Are family reserve a big table in private room and it was very nice experience. The service was quick and friendly. It was very convenient to have a separate room for a bigger party like ours, which were about 14 of us a baby. The food was amazing! Everything we tried was delicious. We ordered ginger chicken, roasted duck, salt and pepper tofu, BBQ pork, crispy pork belly, beef chow fun, shrimp scrambled egg chow fun, crabmeat w/ fish maw soup. I would recommend checking this place out if you have a group that way you can try multiple dishes family style. I can't wait to go back with family to try a couple of other things we forgot to order. read more

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food came out an hour after we ordered. The service took too long. Everything was just so delayed.

This was a decent place for lunch. The staff were very friendly and it was nice and clean. We came in at a kind of odd time but I was still surprised to see that it was completely empty. Classical music was playing which added a nice atmosphere. We tried the crab Rangoon for an appetizer. They were really tasty, hot, and fresh. For my entree I split the beef chow fun and the pork belly bowl with a friend. They were both pretty good. The portions were big and we had plenty of leftovers. It also tasted great the next day. Overall I would not say it was my favorite but I do not have any big complaints. I think the beef chow fun was kind of basic and there was not enough sauce with the bowl but overall it was pretty good. I might go back and try some other items in the future. read more

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This was my first experience with Cantonese cuisine, it was very interesting. We wanted to try a few things from the menu so we started with the friend pork belly rice bowl and the beef chow fun. Of course we had to also order some crab Rangoon as an appetizer. The beef chow fun was delicious, it wasn't anything super unique but it was what I wanted. The friend pork belly wasn't for me but my partner loved it! I think I just have a hard time with more fatty meats. I do want to say the sauce that came with the rice bowl was freaking delicious, they don't give you enough of it. The crab Rangoon was fantastic and I loved the sauce they brought out with it. Overall I think they have some real authentic food and if you like Cantonese food you'll love this place! read more

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A friend recommended this place, Cantonese cuisine, exquisite shrimp, wonton soup. $13 plus tip. I'll be back good lunch specials Monday through Friday from 11 to 3 and a really nice menu read more

Monkey King BBQ & Noodle - Shrimp and pork wonton soup with bok choy - Cantonese Near Me - Lenexa, Kansas

It takes some special food to overcome the absolutely atrocious wait our party of four had at Monkey King last night and still get 4 stars from me. I'm not sure if they had an off night or were short staffed, but the service here was incredibly slow. I wouldn't recommend coming here if you are in a hurry. If I hadn't read all the good reviews before coming and was here with people who kept hyping the food, I probably would have left without ordering anything. We got sat reasonably quickly, but after that, it was downhill. The restaurant was probably 3/4ths full. We waited over 15 minutes before waters and menus were dropped off. Then we waited another 15 minutes before the server appeared to take drink orders. We just ordered everything at that time. It then took 45 minutes to get our food. They did bring out a free order of crab rangoon around 30 minutes in to apologize for the wait, but I'm really not sure what the hold up was. The staff didn't really explain, and the servers would disappear for long periods of time. Food was trickling out of the kitchen one dish at a time. Food delivery drivers were piling up in the front waiting for order. It was pretty crazy. The food trickled out at such a slow pace that the first person at our table to get food was half done with theirs by the time I got mine. I told the group to not wait on me and eat while it was hot. I got the Hawaii Chicken, and it was amazing. Some of the best Asian food I've ever had. It was sweet, spicy, and the chicken had an amazing crunch almost like a Korean fried chicken. The sauce was almost like a kung pao sauce, and had chilies in it. Very very good. I loved the heat level. Definitely worth the wait, but I recommend coming here when its not busy. read more

5 stars for great food and quick service! Finally a Chinese place with all the traditional favorites that remind me of my mom's cooking - salt and pepper shrimp, roast pork belly (so crispy!), roast duck, etc etc etc. The first time my husband and I came here, we couldn't decide and ended up going with a little bit of everything. I highly recommend doing this and eating family style if you've got a good group of hungry eaters! I don't really have complaints, except I wish maybe there was more complimentary rice. Also of note, my mom's a judgey eater (understandable, as I prefer her cooking too). However, she LOVES the ginger scallion chicken here so much that I order takeout every time she's in town now. If you're just eating for one, I recommend the rice bowl with duck and veggies, or the 2 bbq plate with duck and pork belly. read more

Monkey King BBQ & Noodle - Rice bowl with duck and bok choy. So good! - Cantonese Near Me - Lenexa, Kansas