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Even though I now live within walking distance to Chinatown, Yen's remains my favorite Chinese in the city....although perhaps I am shooting a bit fast and loose here, I would dare say that Yen's is really the only Chinese that I will voluntarily pick to eat.
After not having it for a few years and wondering if it was going to be as good as I last remembered it (which was when in I was in college and perpetually under the influence, and thinking almost any food was good) I was surprised that Yen's is in fact better than I thought.
My favorite dishes are the chicken fried rice, shrimp in lobster sauce, broccoli with black bean sauce, and the chicken delight....if you order this much food you will have leftovers for days, which is what I usually do!
The service is always efficient, and even with pick up, the food is piping hot.
So while it sucks having to take the Lake Shore Drive trek up north to get it, Yen's remains totally worth it!
I had heard of Yen's on Yelp, and last night I decided to do a walk-in carry out order of Sesame Chicken to see if it lived up to the hype. It did. And I've eaten at about 20 bad Chinese restaurants on the North side over the years.
What impressed me was that when he was taking the order, he asked me if I'd like to specify how spicy I'd like it. I like my Asian cuisine spicy, and he gave me a nearly perfect sauce. The quality of the Chicken was high as well and the breading was nearly perfect.
The service for a walk-in carry-out order was also quite quick - 12 minutes for a dish that had to be made to order.
I will be back often.
The look on my S.O.'s face as I asked him to order me some "crabmeat wontons with cheese" was priceless. CRAB...WITH CHEESE?! *horror* Yes, dear, crab rangoon is crab and cream cheese. Don't question the rangoon.
Aside from ruining him forever to crab rangoon, and subsequently subjecting me to disgusted looks as I consume the deliciously crispy fried little wonders, this place is pretty fantastic.
I've only ordered delivery, but their crab rangoons and egg rolls are both yum. Lo mein is SO good. I can taste the ginger and it tastes GOOD.
And, one time, the delivery guy pulled some sweet stealth ninja moves and was able to deliver it right to my door, a joy that my shitty high rise deprives me of.
I have been looking for a good chinese food place for ages. Needless to say, I am still looking.
I ordered a sushi roll and fried rice. Ehh..it was ok, nothing special or different from the millions of chinese places in Chicago.
Our waiter was very attentive and easy on the eyes, and for that I give it three stars. I dont think I will go back again.
Favorite place for Chinese food in Chicago. Favorite dish: Yen's Garlic Beef (Mild) and the fried pot stickers. Good service and cheap prices.
Yen's is a tasty oriental culinary oasis located smack dab in the middle of the chinese food wasteland that is the north side of Chicago. Did I really live in LP for a year, all the while craving some decent chinese without ever once going into Yen's?
The dish which is the measuring stick for all chinese restaurants has to be the General Tso's/Chow's/Gao's chicken. Yen's does it up right, with ALL white meat chicken lightly breaded and stir fried up in a sweet and definitely spicy sauce with some broccoli. Yen's definitely passes the General's test.
The hot & sour soup was full of flavor and spice. The won ton soup and a beef stir fry dish we had were also delicious.
I will be back, hopefully with a big group next time so we can sample more dishes!
Craving Chinese food, a friend and I went out to Yen's on her suggestion and it was so delicious! The interior was nicely decorated. The restaurant itself wasn't too big, but it was cozy and looked upscale. The food was reasonably priced. As appetizers, we ordered two soups (Hot and Sour for my friend and the Egg Drop soup for me). The Egg Drop soup was great. As for entrees, we ordered Chicken Lo Mein and Sesame Chicken. The Sesame Chiken dish was HUGE and just the right amount of spicy (they ask you if you want certain foods really spicy or mildly spicy). The Lo Mein was made of good noodles and had tons of veggies in them.
A full dinner shared between the two of us, and it came out to about $25 plus tip!
We had a lot of food to take home. It was awesome. I would definitely come back here!
An hour and fifteen minutes for delivery and still waiting. And there's nothing going on around Wrigley tonight.
I'll definitely go elsewhere next time.
Yes, the hot and sour soup is great, but the rest is very inconsistent.
Tried a few times,noodles,egg fu yung, beef and chicken dishes, none anything special. Too bad, since we used Yelp reviews to try this place out. Really, can't find a really decent Chinese restaurant in Lake View.
This may be overly enthusiastic compared to other reviews, but I will chalk it up to distance making the heart grow fonder.
Since changing 'hoods three years ago, I have yet to find a better Chinese restaurant. Both eat-in and takeout experience is excellent. The price is perfect. The food is delicious. Add to these pluses a staff that aims to please and you've got yourself a 5-star joint, plain and simple.
Best Chinese American food I've found in my neighborhood so far.
Delivery: Everything arrived perfectly intact and piping hot in only 25 minutes. And on a Saturday evening!
Food: Wonton soup with EGG (a rare find) was so good. Crab Rangoon? Say yes. General Tso's chicken was a delight-- white meat chicken, light breading and a sauce with the perfect sweet and spicy balance. The portion is equivalent to three meals, no exaggeration. And a free crispy egg roll for orders over $10.
Yen's: Let's make a deal. If I can't find a Chinese restaurant that tops you, I'll update this review to 5 stars. In the interim, I'm going to savor our blossoming courtship.
5 stars for the consistently excellent hot and sour soup. (I picked this up several times for my sister when she was sick and she always loved it). I have also had the egg drop soup and Kung Pao shrimp. Both were delicious!
This is seriously really good chinese food. I will get take-out from here for sure, and eating in is even very nice too. The egg rolls and great, and we also got the soft spring rolls. A+.
The moo sho pork was awesome (they actually roll the pancakes for your at your table here), and the chicken lo mein was the best I've had in a while. Thank god for some really good chinese for once. They also use no MSG here and it is very fresh.
Best egg rolls. They fry them extra crispy. And their hot mustard is actually hot. Love it.
Right now I am into the Hot Spicy Beef and/or Pork. It's very good and their portions are huge.
Ended up here with a group of girlfriends for a birthday celebration. It was a Thursday night and we were the only ones there (besides a table of employees or family members in the corner)
We ordered the bbq pork appetizer which was really good. Also had the curry (yellow) chicken, sweet and sour chicken, beef stir-fry and beef with broccoli.
Everything was delicious. We had 5 people there so we figured 4 entrees would be a good amount of food...well, we ended up with a bunch of leftovers, which was kind of nice! Prices are reasonable and the twinkle lights inside are a nice touch.
The food was better than average. The décor is nice, kind of like a church. The service was a little off. To me it just had character, but to the less laid-back diners in my party it was unacceptable. I wouldn't mind giving it another chance though.
Yen's has the best Chinese in the area, by far. The interior of the restaurant is a little strange-- looks like an abbey-- but the food is delicious. The service is quick and everything always comes out piping hot. They're also very accommodating of larger groups and have a very cheap wine menu!
Definitely one of my faves in Lakeview!
As a teenager, have you ever made a gross drink concoction and dared your "crrrraaazzzy" friend to chug it? You know, throw some cayenne pepper, chocolate syrup, milk and ketchup into a cup of pepsi?
Well, Yen's makes me think I'm on crazy pills and causes me to have these flashbacks. The crab rancoon had 4 pieces filled with scallion cream cheese and crab. The 5th piece had scallion AND carrot cream cheese and crab.
My veggie fried rice had lots of onions and carrots. With one piece of broccoli and one slice of a peapod.
My boyfriends shrimp and lobster sauce was a grey color. Usually, this dish contains shrimp, and a white sauce with egg and either scallions or peas. This dish contained shrimp, water chestnuts and mushrooms.
Lastly, my lo mein was covered in ginger. I've ordered the lo mein before and never had ginger included.
Conclusion? I feel like Yen's was just throwing random remnants into the dishes. Gross.
Here's what happened--this place has good chinese food. They also deliver, and are very pleasant. Mongolian Beef is great.
Now dont kid yourself--you are not in Chinatown at Lao Beijing etc. It is good for the northside--maybe the best, but no chinatown.
Finding a good chinese takeout place, especially for a somewhat finicky eater like myself, can be a challenge. Even more difficult, it seems, is finding one that will deliver to uptown.
Based on the reviews of my fellow yelpers, me and some friends decided to give Yens a go, and, thankfully, we weren't disappointed.
We ordered the General Tso's, which was yummy and cooked just right. Also, can't say from personal experience, but my husband seemed to enjoy his Moo Shu beef.
Take note: portions are enormous, so order to share.
The eggrolls were good. Not the greatest in the world, but better than some.
We'll definitely be trying them again.
I'm always searching for that perfect Chinese place that doesn't break the bank. I think I have definitely found it! After reading the reviews here on Yelp, I decided to give Yen's a try. The food was delivered extremely fast and piping hot. I ordered the General Chow Chicken and chicken fried rice. The General Chow was fantastic! All white meat chicken with hardly no breading, smothered in a delicious spicy sauce.( I ordered extra hot). The fried rice is excellent, as well, with lots of egg and veggies. I also like to add hot chili oil to my entree ( yes, I like it extremely hot), but I don't care for their homemade oil as it's too smokey for me. Almost like a chipotle. But, be that as it may, the food is way above average for Chinese in Chicago on the northside. Yen's will be my sole Chinese delivery joint. Thank goodness, I finally found a good one!
I'm pretty picky about Chinese food. I won't eat from any hole-in-the-wall places so when my friends raved about Yen's, I decided to give it a try. I ordered egg roles & fried rice to go and my food was done really quickly. I really liked my food (except that the egg role was a little over done but I will let that slide). I'm definitely adding Yen's to one of my neighborhood favorites!
When I first moved to Chicago, I was ordering from Yen's almost weekly. I was really missing my Chinese food in SF so Yen's was the easy solution to fix that...and they delivered!
My favorites have been the moo shu pork, cantonese thin noodles, fried rice, beef chow fun, tofu, and stir-fried green beans. The potstickers were good the first time I ordered, but disappointing every time thereafter. The dough was tough and seemed old.
Delivery folks are pretty prompt, but never saw too many people when we eat there. All in all, a good place for Chinese if you don't want to drive to Chinatown.
The Moo Shu is tasty AND fun.
The service is sufficient, but lacks warmth.
I dig the potstickers.
Yen's -- A-OK, I will eat there again.
I had been trying REALLY hard to find a good local Chinese restaurant around me and thankfully I found Yen's on Valentine's day.
It's a small place on Clark in Lakeview, and my boyfriend and I were just out walking that afternoon and stumbled on it. We've not had good Chinese food since we moved here a few months ago and were hoping this place would be okay. Yen's was SO much better than we expected! I had the Hot and Sour soup and it is one of the best I've ever had. My boyfriend and I shared the Sesame Beef and General's Chicken and both were amazing. The portions are very large and we easily took home half of each entree. The prices are reasonable and the food is GREAT!
So happy to have found them!
Yen's has been our favorite Chicago chinese restaurant since before we even lived here! This is a casual restaurant with fantastic food, plain and simple.
Appetizers are delicious - the best crab cheese wontons (aka crab rangoon) we have ever had, and outstanding dumplings, too. Yen's has amazing seafood, their Honey Walnut Shrimp is the best and they have terrific versions of all the standard chinese dishes you'd expect. They even have "Happy Healthy" items that are as tasty as all the bad for you stuff.
We take friends from out of town and they always call us several days later saying how much they want Yen's again. Very affordable, delicious food, AND they validate your parking in the Century Mall parking garage - what's not to love?
I keep coming back. In high school, when we drove into the city from Indiana to have a big, bad adventure this was always where I requested to eat. I have been coming to Yen's for 11 years now. Getting old...
Once, a good Chinese friend told me that there are only a few, really good items at each Chinese restaurant. At Yen's, I order *Lemon Chicken or *Orange Chicken. I always love them both. The sauce is the only difference. I wish they had more broccoli sometimes and the portions vary a tid bit, but I always love it. I recommend eating in the restaurant versus having it delievered because the sauce penetrates the fried, breaded chicken too much in transit. Sometimes I get gyoza and they're typical. The service isn't standout, but it is never bad... in 11 years. The consistency is amazing.
I bring the simple-tastes boyfriend here and he loves it too. He calls it chicken nuggets in sauce and asks if I think the Chinese invented the original chicken nugget.... so cute... like a five year old. That does bring me to question my love of it though. Is this real Chinese food worth loving or Americanized so that everyone loves it so? I'll have to take a few more friends to figure it out.... especially since you can easily feed two with an order... and maybe, maybe I'll try something else!
I've been going here for a couple years now. This is probably the best chinese restaurant around this area.
Try their almond chicken...you won't regret it! Their vegetable thin noodle dish is also delicious. Top it off with plain fried rice for only $3(maybe $3.50). If you buy more than $10 worth, you get a free eggroll!
One drawback is that their delivery is slow...it takes about 45mins-1hr to get your food so order early!
Yen's is AMAZING.
Best Chinese food of my life.
Everything is fresh and colorful, and each thing has a different taste than the next. Not one of those places where everything you get is the same with white or brown sauce on top.
They say they don't use msg (who knows), and they also have healthy options (but really if you're going for chinese... u might as well go all out... just sayin')
also... oh if you eat in, the fried rice is twice as good as getting delivery. and it's cute in there. it's like a weird little church inside.
mongolian beef, sesame chicken, and the fried rice. my top 3.
HOT MUSTARD!
I judge Chinese food restaurants solely on the quality of their shrimp fried rice. It may not be fair, but I'm a simple girl and I know what I like and that happens to be shrimp fried rice.
It all goes back to when I was a girl of 12, my older sister took me to Twin Happiness, my hometown Chinese place - back in the mid-80s, it was the only joint in town that served Chinese food, and their shrimp fried rice set the bar high for me, even to this day over 20 years later.
Yen's fried rice doesn't measure up. It's okay, but on the soggy and rather mushy side. Ew. But they don't have peas. Yay! It does have the stray carrot, but it's not overwhelmed with them, so I can overlook that. And it does have good flavor. I'll be back because of the close proximity to my apartment, which is good for sick days like today, and the only time I'll come back.
Yen's is a good staple Chinese place. Their orange chicken is good, although a little thick on the breading, and their sweet and sour chicken (the ex-boyfriend was a fan) was actually not bad- the sauce was more homemade and packed with veggies- not like the goopy, neon crap you usually find.
The food tastes fresh, and the appetizers are all good, but nothing is mind-blowing. The staff are generally pleasant and attentive, and they make things spicy if you ask them (which deserves an extra star in my book).
A good place to grab a bite before seeing a film at the theatre next door.
I really liked this place! I don't live too close, but stumbled in one summer evening walking home from a festival in the area. We ordered the Kung Pao Chicken, Chicken Chow Fun, and a scallop dish. The only one we weren't thrilled with was the scallop one. It wasn't terrible, just not great. The other two, though, were fabulous. I always order those two dishes, and they were some of the best I've had. Nice and spicy, good quality chicken.Prices were a little high, but the portions were big. We had tons of left overs. Only warning is that the MGD my bf ordered tasted a little funky, even though it came right out of the bottle. I guess it's not a very popular drink there, and may have been skunked.
Oh my, Yen. I love you and want to have your babies. Lots of yummy Chinese babies...
Seriously, though, I checked this place out for a late lunch today with my mother who is visiting thanks to lots of great Yelp reviews. I just don't have one bad thing to say about this place.
Service was spot on: I needed like 10 extra napkins at three different times because I'm a total klutz and somehow one of the random servers would bring some to me without me even having to ask. They delivered the food professionally and took unneeded plates and stuff away promptly.
Food was close to perfection: We each got wonton soup, split a big hors d'oeuvres platter (eggroll, shrimp toast, crab rangoon, fried wonton), and a huge portion of beef fried rice. Soup wasn't too salty as most Chinese places do which was nice, and it was full of very fresh veggies. The beef fried rice was full of large pieces of beef and tons of veggies. The egg roll and rice were both the best I've had in my life. The crab rangoon wasn't too sweet. Plenty of rice to take home for a midnight snack. Nothing was greasy.
Both my mom and I just couldn't come up with one bad thing about this place. Good job, Yen's -- you got my first 5-star review!
I really wanted to like this place, so I gave it three separate tries. It failed every time.
The most recent time I came here, I ordered the Schezuan Beef that comes with "crispy vegetables". I asked what veg it comes with, and was told "peapods, mushrooms, and bamboo".
My dish came with none of the above, and carrots and celery instead. If it had tasted good that would be fine, but the overwhelming flavour was of SALT.
My friend ordered the 5 flavor beef, which had no flavor.
Will definitely NOT order again.
Me: Honey, lets go watch "The Orphanage" at the Landmark tonight
Honey: oh no, that's a scary movie
Me: I will take you to dinner at Yen's if you go to the movie with me
Honey: You got a deal my dear!
That is how I bribe my partner these days...heee
Decent Asian food in a nice ambient setting at a good price.....and it is BYOB. Whats not to love? They do serve some wine and beer but, you are welcome to bring your own. I have tried various items here and they are all good....make sure you request it to be spicy if you like spicy food....it is so effing hot that I end up drinking a jug of water...love it. But, if you are waspy like my partner, just ask for it to be mild or medium....wimps!
The one item that deserves special mention is the chicken fried rice...i have had my share of fried rice around the city of Chicago and this is the best of all.
So, why only 4 stars instead of 5? Some of the items have too much breading on the chicken pieces. Some people like their stuff super deep fried, I don't.
I can't wait for the next movie date!
One day some friends and myself were headed out for a birthday celebration but the restraunt we were headed to was packed so we ended up here, and good thing we did! This place was so good! The sweet and sour chicken was delicious, mostly because they had a good sauce. It's been a long time since I've seen actual pineapple chunks in a sweet and sour sauce and it made me realize how much I was missing out on! This is a nice, quiet, cute place with really good food. So, skip the standard quick take out place for Chinese next time and come here to enjoy quality food under the soft glow of twinkle lights...
Well I can check one more craving off the long list I've had lately!
Sweet & Sour Chicken welcome back to me!
I have been dying for that super unhealthy bit of Americanized Chinese food and boy did Yen's deliver! I knew it was fate when I kept talking about ordering from here all weekend but we didn't go due to the rain. And I hate paying delivery charges unless I'm sick and can't move! Miraculously after running errands there were menus on the steps of our apartment. It's a sign!! Ordered a pick up after the Hurricane Ike leftovers finally decided to cease. Thought it was closer than it ended up, but after a hike down Clark we finally arrived. Food was hot and smelled fantastic. Our dog's nose followed the bag all the way home.
Sweet & Sour Chicken was very good and hit the spot perfectly! The Veggie Egg rolls were YUM! And you get enough in one entree to feed 3 people! Incredible! And my rice came in an actual Chinese takeout box which makes me go 'aw' when I open the bag!
Just finished reheating this and eating it for lunch and it's still just as fantastic. This is going to be a bad thing for my waist and my wallet but oh Yen's, you'll be seeing a lot more of me in the future!
This is very good Americanized-Chinese cuisine. I usually do not go to these types of places because all they serve is orange chicken this, bbq pork that, crab rangoon this, etc.
I opted for the unusual items and ordered the honey walnut chicken. It good, but too fried and starchy. I expected the shrimp to be lightly breaded or not even breaded at all. It was still good though, but not real chinese food.
My friend ordered some crab rangoon and I did not taste the crab - it just tasted like cream and cheese and scallions.
There was also General Tso's Chicken - which was surprisingly good - it was not the big chunks of breaded goodness and small amount of chicken that most chinese places serve - it was actually a chunk-of-chicken lightly breaded and doused in sauce. I surprised by this - it was tasty.
Double Li in Chinatown is a great place to discover what Chinese food is really like.
Delicious! A bit hard to find as there are no flashy signs and arrows pointing out the way, but worth the search. Dining in is wonderful. Polite service; fresh food; dishes are filled with meat and crisp vegetables. Try their spicy chicken and green beans! Try their barbecued pork!
Their delivery is pretty great too (crispy crab rangoon!!) but leaves a little something to be desired and therefore I had to take it down a notch. 4 stars overall, but a 5 star dining in experience for sure!
An afterthought, everthing I previously wrote still stands except one. There is one noticeable flaw keeping this place from 5 stars. It's a bit too oily. Fix that, and you have 5. I asked for some fried noodles for my soup and they fried fresh chow main noodles for me. They charged me a $1.25 for them... but they were the best chow main noodles I've ever had.
I'm Jewish, so I know my Chinese food... This place is my favorite in Chicago. moderate prices and… Read more »
Yelp Specials!
Neighborhood: North Center
$4 Lunch Menu!
Neighborhood: Chinatown
Neighborhood: Lakeview
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Lakeview
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Lakeview
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Lincoln Park
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Lincoln Park
Category: Chinese
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