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Metro Times' restaurant critic has only one gripe about Chao Zhou, the authentic Chinese restaurant at 31682 John R in Madison Heights: It doesn't serve liquor.
Other than that, Jane Slaughter gives the Cantonese food a glowing review:
Chao Zhou (pronounced "Chow Joe") serves dishes as made in Guangdong, the southern province Westerners used to call Canton. The name is a city there.
The proprietor flattered my party by joking about Americans who don't know what "American Chinese food" (meiguorende kouwei) is; we were clearly not in that category. Chao Zhou certainly has American-type Cantonese dishes on its menu — cashew chicken, chow mein — and they are cheaper. But if you turn to the Chef's Special pages at the back, you'll find Cantonese food as it's meant to be.
My very favorite dish was walnut shrimp (a specialty of Stanley's), though it uses American broccoli instead of the leafier Chinese. The walnuts are toasted and candied and the crisp shrimp are coated in a creamy sauce made of mayonnaise, condensed milk and rice vinegar, odd as that sounds. It's a little sweet in a luxurious way and a traditional banquet dish.
Also excellent was Beef in Chinese Black Pepper Sauce — the black pepper is wonderful but somehow fades quickly, so this might not be the best dish for carry-out. Spicy Salty Pork Chop looked like enough meat for five chops, deboned and breaded with a sizzling crisp crust and cooked with hot peppers that look like large jalapeños. It's not actually salty.
