Hong Kong style restaurant located in the shopping mall at the corner of Carpenter Road and Ellsworth Road. In 2015, the head chef from the old Great Lake Chinese Seafood purchased the restaurant and brought most of their menu there.
The restaurant was closed by a fire in January 2023, but an Ann Arbor Observer story says the owner is looking to rebuild and has started a GoFundMe to support the effort.
4023 Carpenter Road, Ypsilanti, MI 48197 734-677-0790
Reviews
December 2015. Lai Lai serves Hong Kong-style food. Joe Saul and Lisa Leutheuser for Current Magazine. "For those of us who loved Great Lake Chinese Seafood Restaurant, located on 2910 Carpenter Rd., its passing left a huge hole in the local restaurant scene, and in our hearts. Fortunately, two of Great Lake’s staff – their head chef and a veteran server – bought Lai Lai and have revived most of Great Lake’s menu. The Hong Kong dishes, inventive Chinese cuisine with an abundance of interesting ingredients, including seafood, unique vegetables and a variety of noodles, are back."
Lai Lai's food is consistently fairly good when I consider some of the other offerings in and around Ypsi. Lucky Garden is merely generic, Emerald City tends toward more bitter flavors (which I dislike), and while Kai Garden in Ann Arbor is arguably some of the best, it's a lot further away and little more onerous to get to. (4 star review)
