China No. 1

China No. 1 has served Chinese food from a small storefront on McFarland Boulevard in Northport, Alabama for years, offering a menu large enough to cover nearly every category of American Chinese cooking under one roof. The restaurant’s scope is unusually broad for a small operation, spread across nineteen menu sections that run from soups and appetizers through lo mein, chow mei fun, egg foo young, moo shu specialties, and a lengthy list of chef’s specialties.

Appetizers span the familiar Chinese-American staples, including a $2.00 egg roll, shrimp egg rolls, Shanghai spring rolls, crab rangoon, and a pu pu platter built for two at $10.75 that combines wontons, shrimp, chicken, egg rolls, and scallops on a single tray. House special starters go a step further with fried shrimp, priced from $8.85 for a plain order of twelve, fried scallops, honey chicken wings, and buffalo chicken wings for anyone who wants something spicier to open the meal. Soups round out the starters, including wonton soup and a spicy hot and sour soup, both offered in small and large sizes, a format that lets a single diner order a small cup or a family split a large bowl alongside the rest of the meal.

The entree list covers beef, pork, chicken, and seafood sections, each offered in a handful of preparations, from broccoli and mushroom sauces to spicier Szechuan, Hunan, and kung pao versions, with dishes like the kung pao chicken with peanuts priced from $8.95 for a small order. Chef’s specialties push further into two dozen dishes such as Happy Family, priced at $16.75 and built from shrimp, chicken, pork, scallops, and beef with vegetables, along with Four Season, Seafood Delight, General Tso’s chicken, and orange chicken for diners who want the more familiar Americanized dishes. Combination platters, forty in total and each served with fried rice and an egg roll, make ordering simple for larger groups or families.

Lunch specials run Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., forty options in all, each priced at $8.99 and including pork fried rice and an egg roll alongside the entree, a format aimed squarely at the weekday office lunch crowd working nearby. The restaurant’s hours otherwise run 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, extending to 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with the restaurant closed on Sunday. Online ordering requires no account registration, and a dedicated mobile app is available for anyone who orders regularly, alongside a delivery option within a set geographic area around the restaurant, a combination of ordering channels that reflects how much of the restaurant’s business now moves through takeout and delivery rather than dine-in seating.

Located on McFarland Boulevard North, the restaurant sits in the heart of Northport’s commercial strip, an area with a handful of other independent Chinese restaurants nearby, a sign of steady demand for the cuisine on the west side of the Black Warrior River. China No. 1 has kept its identity relatively simple despite the size of its menu: a family-style, takeout-friendly restaurant built around volume and variety rather than a more curated or upscale approach to Chinese cooking.

For diners who want a wide range of options without driving across the river into Tuscaloosa, China No. 1 offers one of Northport’s most complete Chinese menus, with soups, appetizers, and entrees numbering well into the hundreds when every preparation and protein combination is counted. The restaurant’s lunch specials in particular, at under nine dollars for a full plate with rice and an egg roll, have made it a regular stop for anyone working along McFarland Boulevard who wants a fast, affordable midday meal. With entrees organized by protein and by preparation, from a mild broccoli sauce to a spicier Szechuan or Hunan style, the menu gives repeat customers a way to order the same dish prepared differently from one visit to the next, a structure that rewards regulars who work their way through the restaurant’s extensive list over time.