That is crazy about chinex! its been there since i was in HS and before. My parents told us about Smileys so we tried it and i also loved it! Their food had a different taste that i liked. Its worth another try. You may like it. David, also when we went on Sunday and it was packed, hardly any seats. =) 

That is crazy about chinex! its been there since i was in HS and before. My parents told us about Smileys so we tried it and i also loved it! Their food had a different taste that i liked. Its worth another try. You may like it. David, also when we went on Sunday and it was packed, hardly any seats. =) 

sorry about the double there. lol! 

My hubby and I have eaten at Cinex and never gotten sick. People do not realize that true food poisoning makes you violently ill. Just because you end up with an upset stomach after you eat something does not mean you have food poisoning or that it was what you just ate. Normally not just one person gets sick. Everyone does. I always had fresh food come out at Chinex. Sorry ya'll but Smiley's does NOT compare and there food is not fresh. It sits out. I worked at a local establishment where the health inspector came in. Talk about nitpicky. It is ashame. 

Following is the email I received from Patti Reyes in the Environment Dept. in response to the email I sent to the office over the weekend (personal info removed): FW: Chinex Restaurant‏ From: Reyes, Patti, NMENV (Patti.Reyes@state.nm.us) Sent: Mon 3/01/10 11:23 AM To: Cc: fiore, frank, NMENV (frank.fiore@state.nm.us); Nevarez, Marci, NMENV (marci.nevarez@state.nm.us) Hi ------, Margie forwarded your message to me since I’m the one in charge of the facility. Currently Chinex Express is under Immediate Suspension. They have had 3 voluntary closures, 3 years in a row. A voluntary closure can occur when the facility agrees to voluntarily close in lieu of NMED alerting the media and the public that their facility is considered to be “Unsatisfactory”. Last year after their 2nd voluntary closure, the Alamogordo field office made a major attempt to provide training to the facility in the areas they were deficient. We even provided them with food safety information in Mandarin and Chinese however based on this years inspection, we felt that they are still unwilling or possibly unable, to abide by the food safety regulations that are necessary to protect the public. A voluntary closure was selected again this year for repeated high risk violations. A high risk violation are those issues that we feel have the highest possibility of causing illness. The voluntary closure occurred on February 18, 2009. On February 19, 2009 NMED was contacted and informed that the facility was reopening everyday after 5pm. This is in direct violation of the voluntary closure so it was determined by the department that they desired to do an official downgrade rather than a voluntary closure. The “Unsatisfactory” sticker was posted at the facility for the public to see and the media would have been alerted that Monday. When I did a brief walk through of the facility it was determined that there was an immediate threat to public health. After an attempt to correct the immediate threat, I was then locked out of the facility. Per NMAC 7.6.2, both the immediate threat to public health and the refusal to allow an inspection, are grounds for immediate permit suspension. NMED is currently drafting a letter to the owners (3 partners) to let them know what has to be completed before they may reopen. Our primary concern is protecting the public from food borne illnesses so we have to make sure that their procedures and practices are safe. We do not have a webpage listing the status of the restaurants but you may come in at any time and request copies of the inspection reports. Those reports are a matter of public information and can be requested at any time. What is the site for your message board? I would be really interested in seeing what people have been asking and informing them that they may come in a request a copy of the reports at any time. 

I wonder what the inspection report says, hmm. Out of all the asian food places in alamogordo they were my favorite. I hope everything gets fixed soon. 

They've also been discussing this on Alamogordo Topix and A&Ws hasn't been inspected in over 2 years. They say these girls are not qualified to inspect and have bullied Chinex owners. You can read or post more here: http://www.topix.net/forum/source/alamogordo-daily-news/TT3MDN0JK8HVBVTSO 

Man! What a bummer! I cant believe they closed down. They were so sweet and the food was always so good! Every since Ive been pregnant I crave Chinex! What am I going to do now?? ugh.. 

I too was very bummed at the closing of Chinex. I have never gotten sick or had a bad meal there. If you simply HAVE to have bourbon chicken, you can order the marinade and glaze at bourbonchickenspices.com. Mall taste at home. 

I heard it was because Chinex employees made it a practice of leaving their chicken out overnight to thaw it. That is not cool if true. I too am sad about it. I loved their Bourboun chicken 

So I was at the mall yesterday and Chinex was open and serving yummy yummy food!! 

Way cool! Bourbon Chicken, here I come! 

Chinex is open? Wow, that was fast. Glad they got it cleared up??? 

Thanks BamaFan for posting the address of the NM Environment Dept. My husband has been wanting to go to Chinex since they re-opened, and I wanted to know why they closed. I went by there, and all 3 of their shut-downs in the last 3 years are public record. The lady even made copies of the reports for me to take home. Anyone can get them. This is what the report contains: 13 Photos of their violations - raw pieces of chicken sitting in the wash sink thawing (report states wash sinks should be used only for washing and nothing else), raw pieces of chicken in a plastic tub thawing under the sink, raw pieces of chicken thawing in cardboard boxes, raw chicken left in sink overnight to thaw - uncovered. Mouse droppings on sink right next to raw uncovered chicken, Mouse droppings on other places in the kitchen, blood and chicken "juice" on walls, floors, countertops..very unclean. The report itself states the temperatures of the chicken were unsafe on 3 different occasions. Rice stored in a plastic bin uncovered, egg rolls, the same. Owners voluntarily closed because a voluntary closure means the media doesn't have to get involved. Report states last inspection (Feb 18, 2010) the owner tried to bribe the NM Environment Department with several $100 bills, and then was told they had to close, but re-opened after 5:30pm that evening. Anyway, that sums it up. If you wanna see the pics you can go down to 1015 Cuba Ave and get them. 

Oh I should also tell you that I was also told that Chinex has been allowed to re-open since these violations have been corrected, and the owners have been required to go to a food handling training course, which they completed The owners are the same but apparently they have a new manager. 

They are some new faces there and I was looking around when I went today (still way delicious food!) and it really does look cleaner and there are what I assume are food handling and hand washing signs on walls and above sinks. I assume thats what they are because they are in mandarin. 

Thanks for the info. I am not trying to cause a dispute. But please be very careful. Rat/Mice droppings can be deadly. Yes, they have cleaned up but they have also had many failed inspections. I had a friend whose sister was pregnant. She was a total fitness person and about 4-5 months pregnant. She went to a restaurant and ate a salad for dinner. They had improperly washed the lettuce & it had feces on it. She couldn't tell. If she had not been in great shape-she'd be dead. She got up in the middle of the night & went to the hospital. She lost the baby and nearly died. She would have if she wasn't in such great shape and in touch with her body. They ran tests and found that her sickness and loss of the baby was due to the lettuce having feces. I also know of a man who worked with my mom years ago. He was cleaning up mice droppings and got extremely sick & almost died. I can understand why they were shut down, but I don't know if I'd risk my health for a meal there. Defrosting chicken isn't too bad, but the mice droppings are. 

Jerry & Becca...Thanks so much for the time to go get those reports and post what you read. After reading it, I really felt kinda sick. I LOVE their Bourbon chicken SAUCE. The chicken was probably sometimes nasty but I drowned it in so much of the sauce I never realized it. Awwww that makes me sick to hear of mice droppings and all the other violations. Guess I can count my blessings I or my family didn't become ill. I read on here they had reopened and my daughter went out and got a few dinners from them to bring home. She said there were all new faces there. We always get extra Bourbon sauce and I was so looking forward to it because I figured, they wouldn't dare be unclean after all this, and it would be safe to eat. I don't know what I got but it wasn't Bourbon sauce! The sweet and sour chicken did not taste the same and the rice was really dry and had no taste to it. Wasn't the yummy food I had remembered. Going to give them another chance. Perhaps these people working there didn't know which was the Bourbon sauce or put the wrong sauce in the bag by mistake. If I try it once more and the food isn't as good I probably won't go again. So, cross my fingers it is good second time around!! :-) Or maybe just get the Bourbon sauce recipe!!!!! LOL! 

My husband keeps asking if we can eat there. It was our favorite place. They were really nice and the food was always brought out fresh. I had heard many rumors so I wanted to get the truth before I could eat there again. I'm having a hard time after I saw the pictures, but like you said, they couldn't have opened if they didn't clean it up. 

Jerry and Becca, I corresponded directly with Patti Reyes from the environmental office (copy of correspondence above), she also being the field inspector directly in charge of the Chinex situation, and I don't think from what she told me that they would have been allowed to reopen had they not met all of the requirements to do so. Also, I would think that this would be the absolute safest time to eat from there as they are probably on their tip toes trying to keep things as clean and sanitary as possible to be able to stay open during probably what is a probationary period. I think that the most dangerous time to eat at a restaurant is when they haven't had an inspection in months/years and there's nothing happening to make them go the extra step to keep things clean. At this time I would worry more about those other restaurants that don't have the environmental office breathing down their necks. I personally would have no problem going to Chinex now, I would only be disappointed if the food didn't taste as good as it did before. 

Does anyone have the dates of all the violations? It would be interesting to see how long between violations it was. See, the other side to this is that after their probationary period, when will they be checked again? Old habits die hard. Like excercise or eating right. We do good for awhile & fall back into our old ways. I ate there years ago & the food was okay. I like the Bamboo Garden better. 

I threw the report away because I didn't think I'd need it anymore, but they were from June or July of 08, and June or July of 09 and the latest was Feb 18, 2010. 

Sadly, I have noted over the years, that many chinese restaurants were not exactly the best at cleanliness. I've seen much of this in places like Chicago's Chinatown. Although their food was delicious, and could not be rivaled, there would be things like Bok Choy, and other veggies just sitting in cardboard boxes on the floor in the back, the kitchens didn't exactly look like those on the "Food Channel", and don't dare venture into the alleys! Literal dozens of Rats running about-into garbage cans, that were so huge, only the bravest-meanest of Cats would ever face one down. Not to stereotype these people, but often, chinese usually-commonly found such horrid conditions as "normal" to them. Mark