Oriental X-Press

This is one of my favorite Chinese restaurants. When I lived in Latonia I was fortunate to be close enough to it to get delivery. Now I have to settle for ordering it from time to time for work lunch. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It doesn't look like much on the inside. Whatever they're doing works. I don't know if it's saving on overhead because there is only 1 table inside. I have never seen anyone eat there. Or if its just because its smack dab in the middle of skeezy Covington. It's right across the street from Holmes High School. And bringing me back to delivery. When we would order over $20 in take out we got free oolong tea and free cookies. How can you beat that? FREE!

The only thing I get there is their Basil Chicken, egg roll and shrimp tempura. Here we go.

Shrimp Tempura consists of about 5 rings of tempura battered shrimp with 2 shrimp per ring. You get a side of sweet and sour sauce for dipping but I skip that step. When you bite into it you can sum it up as a shrimp donut. Say it out loud to yourself. Shrimp. Donut. Repeat.

The egg rolls to me are nothing to write home about. But I love me some egg rolls with that spicy Chinese mustard. Very cheap.

Lastly the Basil Chicken. Best food I've ever eaten in Covington, hands down! The chicken comes in one of those rectangular foil containers that keeps it lightning hot. You get either fried or steamed rice. The chicken comes in a brown basil gravy with mushroom, onion and celery. The chicken is always very thinly sliced and is extremely moist and could be cut with a fork. The basil sauce, which I call gravy, is amazing. I could put just the gravy on rice and be satisfied with that. I don't know what is in it besides basil but I suspect it's crack. SO good. If you like basil chicken, you don't need to spend a lot of cash and you can skip to Covington, give it a chance. Don't be scared by the exterior, or the interior. It's a gem!