Has anyone heard that Chinex has been kicked out of the mall? I overheard a couple of people talking in the grocery store about it but didn't hear why or when. That's one of my only reasons for going in the mall. 

Was just at the mall yesterday and saw the place closed up. There is a lengthy letter posted from the owner. Someone else must have written it for the owner because they state in it they do not have a good handle on the English language. Anyhow, it seems the Health Department closed them down. 

Yea, I guess the Health Department had been nitpicking on them, and there was a language barrier so the Health Department shut them down. I am so sad, I loved chinex!! 

Oh no that is one of the only reasons to stop by the mall. I hope they can get the problem fixed. 

Man, for real???? That sucks!! They should go aheahd and just close the whole friggin' "small" down now. No one is going to go. That was the ONLY chinese place the hubby and I liked. Boo to the health department. They close everyone around here. 

That is a bummer! I never got sick after eating anything from there. And everything was always piping hot, even if it took me a little while to get to it after getting it home. But I can't say the same about some other more expensive places, but not ever with Chinex. I know there is a need for inspections but I do hope nothing was so bad they can't fix it and reopen. 

And even the lady I overheard talking in the store last night said how the people had more than once asked her to wait a moment for fresh food to come out so they could make sure she was getting good hot food. Doesn't sound like they're tying to poison anyone to me. 

Aww.. that sucks! They had the best chinese food ever! I hope they reopen! 

wait, the smaller of the two? cuz there's that one and then other one where you can eat inside. It's not the one with the bourbon chicken is it?! :( 

Yep, the little walk-up one, the one with the bourbon chicken. Many times I got double bourbon chicken. Big time sucky! 

I love that place, this has official depressed me for the day 

I love that place, this has official depressed me for the day 

Try Smiley's next to payless. Very cheap with awesome food! 

we just tried smiley's last weekend! it was very good! and the people were so friendly too =) 

I herd bad things about them. That person got real sick after eating there. And i have pasted by there a few times and the food did not look very good. Maybe I went at a bad time? 

Sorry, I have tried Smiley's and it just doesn't compare to Chinex. And when I went in the people were not friendly to me. They acted like "what are you doing here???". Hopefully Chinex will be back real soon. 

According to the sign posted, they are closed permanently. 

Wow, I certainly hope something happens to change that. 

Here is the letter Chinex owners' posted: First of all, we would like to express our deepest appreciation to all our customers for your generous and royal support in many years, with your support, our restaurant was able to maintain in business for many years. Excellent service, quality food with freshness has always been our first priority to better serve you. Our delicious Chinese food has gained popularity in this neighborhood. However of course that has also drew many attentions from our rival competitors and jealous people whom try to sabotage and hurt our business for their own gain. Today, we are saddened to inform you that we are being coerced to close our business permanently. As you might not be aware, during past several days we have been struggling with the county health department inspector Patti Reyes whom we strongly believe very abusive to her power. During her recent routine inspection Visit to our restaurant, she showed her rude and very arrogant attitude, picking on everything we do, and ordering shutting down our business, she also threatened that we will not be able to open this restaurant for ever. After several attempt trying to understand and communicate with her so we may correct some mistakes we might have due to our limited English language ability, we also dispatched our friends to assist us to better communicate with her, hoping we wouid be given an opportunity to correct the mistakes and to reopen the business for our customers, but all our efforts have failed and met with bureaucracy. We seriously believe we are mistreated and unfairly targeted by inspector Patti, her totalitarian behavior and harsh treatment towards our business make us only to wonder there are still many dark side stories in this democratic society, her decision to close our business Without due process has seriously undermine our legal right and that also lead us to believe that there might be conspiracies and motivations behind all these. We strongly condemn her total disregard to our effort and destroying our business which took us many years.to establish in this very difficult economic climate. Over the years, we have invested so much in to this business, and have worked tirelessly day after day, just try to earn better living and achieve American dream. We have always treated our customers with courteous respect and developed good relationship with each other. Unfortunately we regret that recent suffering and hardship we are facing from those dictators in the county health department left us no choice but to close our business with tears., We sincerely thank you again for your royal support to our business in the past, and your moral support will always comfort us in many years to come. May God bless you all! Chinex Express February 22, 2010 

That's a bummer... good think I was able to come up with a good Bourbon Chicken recipe before they closed down because that was my favorite thing! 

Thank you for taking the time to post that Barbara. Some time during the week I'm going to try to get in touch with our local inspectors (have already emailed) and see what they have to say. I've already contacted the paper and they said they would put a reporter onto finding out what was going on. I believe in this state the department that handles restaurant inspections is called the New Mexico Environment Department, Food Program (weird name). Its website lists Otero county in its District III and the local office as follows: 1015 Cuba Ave. Alamogordo, NM 88310 575-437-7115 575-434-1813 The website has the field offices listed and a link to email the offices (which I have already done but as it's the weekend won't receive reply until business hours, if then even.) Following is the website with the link if anyone else is interested: http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/fod/Food_Program/fieldoffices.html 

And if I can get nothing out of the local office I will contact the state office directly and possibly even other media. A lot of times they can get answers when regular citizens can't. 

Is it a secret recipe Chelsea, or one that you could share, just in case... :( 

There just so happens to be a story about restaurant inspections in the Las Cruces Sun News: http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_14486820 

That is strange. Smiley's had excellent food and greeted our family well. Good luck you all. 

I had gotten real sick after eating at chinex too..just figured it was bad timing, or the fact that the food sat out for hours at a time. I will have to try smileys cause yee's is not like it used to be either. thanks! 

I don't think the food sat out for any longer at Chinex than at Smiley's. In fact, every time I was in the mall there were people in line at Chinex and Smiley's always looked dead. And because Smiley's is a bigger buffet style, that means that more food stays out longer. And the one time that I did try Smiley's, I was disappointed with how dried out some things looked. I had to avoid those items and go for things that looked a little fresher but I was still disappointed with the quality. I never had that disappointment with Chinex. Any time I was there they were constantly bringing out freshly cooked items. They had to because of the turnover. Like I said, I NEVER saw Smiley's busy enough to keep things turned over the way I did at Chinex. 

sorry you had a bad experience. when we went there werent enough seats to even sit down they were so busy. i actually waited for a few minutes cuz some of the food ran out and they brought fresh right away. chinex was good too. 

sorry you had a bad experience. when we went there werent enough seats to even sit down they were so busy. i actually waited for a few minutes cuz some of the food ran out and they brought fresh right away. chinex was good too. 

sorry you had a bad experience. when we went there werent enough seats to even sit down they were so busy. i actually waited for a few minutes cuz some of the food ran out and they brought fresh right away. chinex was good too.