Monkey Sun in Elko, Nevada, Has The Worst Chinese Food I've Ever Tasted

Monkey Sun, located at 2594 Idaho St. in Elko, Nevada, is without a doubt one of the worst Chinese food restaurants I've ever eaten in or gotten carry-out from.

While the restaurant is clean and the employees are friendly, it's the quality of the food that's not so great. Seriously, though, the only real saving grace is the barbecued pork, which is sliced to order. However, it's from a big hunk of pork that's sitting in the open on a buffet along with other dishes in a steamer tray setup. God knows how long the stuff sits there.

On top of that, the food all tastes the same. It wouldn't be as bad is the food tasting the same was a good flavor, but it's incredibly bland. Also, there's some confusion as to what type of meat it is.

The only thing that's borderline edible is the fried rice, but it's pretty hard to screw up fried rice.

Some of the favorite local plays on the name "Monkey Sun" include: Monkey Dung, Monkey Scum, Donkey Dung and another that I can't repeat but substituting an "o" for the "u" in dung will give you an idea just how low the local preference is for this place.

The one saving grace would be if they had real egg rolls. But, like most modern Chinese restaurants, they've changed the egg roll with the thicker wrapper for the less expensive spring roll. Admittedly, these are the best thing about Monkey Sun, but they're not even that good, and are sometimes cold.

Most of the dishes are heavy on vegetables with not much meat. Unlike a true buffet where you pay one price and get to pick what you want, this place makes you buy a three or four dish plate and pick something. Unfortunately, there have been times when showing up at 11 a.m. for an early lunch provides few choices. Showing up even an hour after lunch brings one the same situation of a disgusting state of virtual decay.

Believe it or not, but there are some folks who like Monkey Sun. All I can say with these people is there must be something in the food that has scrambled their brain - perhaps some kind of psychoactive drug has them addicted.

And I'd complain about the lack of adequate parking at its strip mall location, but it doesn't matter. If you do stop in, the only suitable thing to get is directions or possibly to sneak in to use the bathroom.