Chens Chinese River North

I’m not sure what all the negative reviews are about! This place is on par with any of the restaurants in Chinatown or elsewhere in Chicago. I ordered on a Friday night at 5:40, and had my food delivered and in hand by 6:30. I ordered the Mongolian beef and crab rangoon, both of which tasted good. Actually– the crab rangoon was really good. I’d definitely order from here again, however I can order more food for the same price from any of the places in Chinatown. So the price may sway me.

The three rating comes for the cray incredible General Tao’s Chicken! That stuff is addictive! I can seriously eat an entire order and then sit their in pure guilt! lol! With the order I had a pretty tasteless egg roll and mediocre crab rangoon. It was nice for them to send a free order of fried rice probably based on the order amount but sadly, that too, was lacking in flavor. So this obviously was delivery and we had ordered a 6-​pack of diet coke. The sodas arrived totally warm… like they weren’t even refrigerated so to start that ruined our meal a bit. Also we didn’t get any chop sticks which for me is part of the experience but we did get plastic ware. Ok, I’m being picky on the last part but the soda thing made me all grrrrr! The delivery was super fast and the driver seemed very nice too. I would def order that chicken again though!

Service is the absolute worst. I had a free meal from having my last meal delivered incorrectly, and now my meal was leaking all over, cold, and I had to wait an hour for re-​delivery because they forgot the rice. This place has done a 180 completely downhill.

I’ve been searching for Chinese delivery in my new ‘hood for the two years that I’ve lived here and I’ve finally found it. Food arrived quickly and it was hot and delicious.
The crab Rangoon was perfection. 6 large and still very crispy wontons filled to the max with flavor. Plus, they were free as part of a minimum ordering deal on grubhub. I also tried the vegetable dumplings which were also very plump and flavorful.
My entrees included beef and broccoli, with lots of broccoli and quality beef strips, string beans, which came with chicken as an added bonus, and sesame chicken, which was cooked to perfection in a good amount of breading and lying on a bed of sweet, crispy noodles. I also tried the chicken pad Thai and enjoyed the flavor there.
I almost wish I hadn’t discovered this place, because now I’m going to get fat off of crab Rangoon and sesame chicken.

Loved it! Delivery time was cut in half, and ³⁄₃ dishes we ordered were great! Mongolian chicken-​big hit! Definitely ordering again.

This is the WORST chinese food and worse food period I’ve ever had. So bad, I couldn’t eat it. The egg rolls were chewy and tasted horrible-​I don’t know what was in them, the won-​ton soup tasted bad and the fried rice was disgusting and the chicken in it tasted and looked disgusting. How do you mess that up?! Then, when I complained to delivery service and Chen’s phoned me they said they couldn’t do anything about it as they didn’t have the food to inspect. I told them they could come get it as I couldn’t eat it and they then said again they couldn’t do anything about it. Bad customer service… as bad as their food. I’ve never had food so bad I couldn’t eat it. DON’T EVER GO THERE OR ORDER FROM THEM! I work hard for my money and to pay $ 25 for food that isn’t edible is unacceptable and then to have such bad customer service. They deserve negative stars, but had to give them 1 in order to leave the review.

Unbelievably bad food. We ordered for delivery. Came promptly and all was good when we opened the beef an chicken dishes. Aroma was great! Until we tried to eat it. The beef was literally like leather, the chicken tough and inedible. How difficult is it to cook chicken? The spring rolls tasted like they were stuffed with rancid grass cuttings. The Crab Rangoon thingys were acceptable. We spent over $ 100 for this and had to throw most of it out. Never again. I should have asked for a refund but we were serving guests and so we chomped away filling up mostly on the rice. Did I say never again. Yes.

Worst Chinese food I have ever had. Why can’t Chicago get Chinese food right? I’ve tried 20 Chinese restaurants and Chen’s ranks right at the bottom. Lo mein tasted like chemicals, dumplings wrapped in old leather, and horrific crab rangoons. I mean, how can you screw up a crab rangoon?

Best Chinese food I have had in Streeterville. Quick delivery about 30 minutes on a Friday night. Definitely I will be reordering!

Would give zero stars. It has been an hour and fifty minutes and I still haven’t received my food. Oh, and I live 5 blocks away. Do not order from this place. Shameful and horrific way to do business. Don’t waste your money when there are so many decent and professional places to order from in Chicago.

We ordered delivery on a slippery, wet winter night. The food arrived timely and hot, and the order was correct. The dishes were decent — not bad, compared to other Chinese food delivery experiences we’ve had in Chicago, but not the best. The dishes we tried were both very gloppy and sauce-​heavy. The flavor was good — it was just a little too much. They offer a brown rice option, which I always appreciate, and they also offer free extras if you spend a certain amount. We had free crab Rangoon tossed in, and they were pretty good — again, decent. The hot and sour soup was also decent. Basically, the food is standard, middle of the road delivery food that is heavy on the sauce but hot and punctual on arrival.
My only complaint is that each night I ate the food, both the night it was ordered and leftovers the following night, I ended up a bit sick to my stomach. I assume this is due to how heavy and gloppy the food is.
All in all, worth it for middle of the road Chinese delivery food.

Best Chinese takeout in River North!
We’ve been living in River North for 4 years now, and have been consistently disappointed by the Chinese delivery options in the area. Either too greasy, to sweet, tiny portions or just plain gross.
But Chen’s has changed all that – we’ve ordered from Chen’s at least 5 times since they’ve opened and we’ve been very happy every time. Their Kung Pao is terrific, my kids love the dumplings, and the portions are quite generous. I also like that they have the low-​calorie options for many of the dishes if you’d rather not go with deep-​fried. I only wish they had regular egg rolls on the menu!

The only reason this restraunt received even one star is because of the kind young lady that answered the phone Oct 4 th from 7:30 pm to 10:30 ish. She was excellent especially being put in the middle between an egotistical chef and an angry customer. KUDOS to her.. She alone deserved 5 stars. I placed a simple 2 dinner order with the only special instruction of no spice. I spoke with this gal and discussed my request of please do not make either dish spicy and please place the sauce for one dinner on the side. Simple, easy & straightforward I thought. 1 hr and 20 min later dinner arrives.. spicy with a handful of red hot chili peppers in each dinner. Called back, after some rig a ma roll she offered to resend dinner ASAP, after an hour passes (and they were less than a mile away) I call back.. Driver stuck in traffic she tells me but also offers to comp our dinners only. Grateful and fair I thought at the time. 9:40 dinner arrives. One dinner correct, One spicy exactly as before. Third time I call.. This time the chef comes to the phone and proceeds to argue with me insisting that he personally made the first dinner not spicy and further insinuated I was lying. Finally he says what do u want to make you happy? I replied I just want dinner the way I ordered it.. NOT SPICY. He argued more finally I said just make the dinner without any dressing/​seasoning/​spice/​sauce/​marinade etc.. Just make it plain and put the Non spicy sauce on the side just as u did for my dinner. Fine he replies, it’ll b there soon. 10:30 I receive call #3 from the nice young lady asking for all the previously delivered food to b returned, now I have no problem with that as I assume ppl out there do this type thing to rip off restraunts but I was insulted with this chef’s arrogance and insinuation that I was lying. If I wanted free food I would have had an issue with the entire order, right? Not just specific parts and the dinner that had to be redone for the third time was chicken the inexpensive dinner.. The other was shrimp and scallops. .I wasn’t trying to screw you and to insinuate that to a customer that you’ve wronged, argued with and insulted already was completely unprofessional. My entire dinner should have been comp’d chef. there is no excuse for it taking over 3.5 hrs to receive two easy dinners & as u could plainly c by the RED HOT CHILE PEPPERS in the returned food that the mistake was YOURS. NEVER AGAIN.