I live in the SF Bay Area with hundreds of decent to good regional-specific Chinese restaurants, and hundreds of crap Chinese restaurants as well.

People tend to get overworked about MSG. I don't prejudge a restaurant if they put "NO MSG" on their menu/sign or if they don't. Personally I prefer if the restaurant doesn't use MSG or uses minimal amounts. MSG is just an easy method for the cook in the kitchen to produce umami flavors. But depending on the dish, I won't eschew it either.

Many people who complain about MSG often proceed to dump lots of soy sauce (natural glutamates) all over their food. Some people also dump tons of tabasco or sriracha hot sauce all over their food Doesn't matter what you eat if all you taste is soy sauce-sodium or hot sauce.