Van Phat Chinese Restaurant

I’ve ordered from here several times and I’ve always had a great experience. Always a friendly voice thaking my order. Food arrives hot and fresh and always tastes great. Egrolls are great and the shrimp fried rice is my favorite.

I created a Unilocal account just to review this restaurant. Why?
I have lived a few doors down from this place for nine months, and within these past nine months I’ve probably ordered carry out a dozen or so times. With that said, I want everyone who reads Unilocal reviews to know this: Van Phat is a great, cheap Chinese food restaurant.
Don’t let amateur reviewers fool you… just because they strolled in one day expecting grade A, premium angus beef on their McDonald’s cheeseburger and wrote a bad review about it doesn’t mean it’s true. You know what? That’s not even a good comparison because unlike McDonald’s Van Phat actually has FRESH food. Seriously. Ask the owners about it. They’ll tell you about how they don’t store food in the freezer to be used many weeks later and that they spend many hours in the morning prepping and making recipes from scratch to be used later that day.
Every item I’ve ordered from Van Phat I have enjoyed, especially the hot and sour soup – best I’ve ever had in my life! You have to try it. It’s delicious.
Honestly, this place is a little, cheap Chinese food gem. I recommend giving it a chance. Besides, you don’t want to miss out on the bright pink tablecloths and wonderfully kitschy décor.
Shout out to the lady behind the counter, whose name I don’t know, but is always kind and a pleasure to talk to while I’m waiting to pick up my food.

The best chinese place in chicago. I believe. The eggs rolls are to die for. The orange chicken, the chow suey, the combination rice, the vegetable stew is amazing..

There are many options on the Van Phat menu, yet very few good ones at that. First time visiting, and probably the last time. I ordered the Singapore rice noodles ($ 8.75), beef & shrimp combo. My friend had the lunch special (Beef Subgum) with egg roll and option of plain or shrimp fried rice. Laden with MSG, we definitely felt it afterwards. My noodles wasn’t the traditional thin white rice vermicelli noodles-​instead, slightly crispy yellow thin noodles that were super salty. For the price, not worth the spike of sodium intake.
The lady behind the counter was nice, and she gave us free hot Jasmine tea and a bottle of water. But this isn’t enough for me to come back, sorry.

This was far and away the worst Chinese food I have ever eaten. I ordered BBQ pork fried rice and opened the carton to find it full of grey bits of meat. The rice tasted rotten and the meat inside it definitely looked like it was spoiled. I wound up throwing almost the entire carton away, and spent the rest of the evening worrying that I might get sick from eating the little bit that I did.
The lady at the counter was very nice, but I can’t justify ever ordering from this place again, no matter how nice the people are. The food is, quite simply, foul.

Why would they give me ketchup for my fried wontons??? I may be white but I am from San Francisco and know that wontons are never served with anything! Thought it was hot sauce because it was red but… it’s…ketchup!!! The noodles in the combo noodle soup are hard, the shrimp is soft, and they said that they never give hot sauce on the side. What place thEse days doesn’t serve hot sauce on the side for a hot noodle soup? If this place wants to make money besides skimping out on quality for profit they would profit a lot better and not lose their business if they were actually any good and stayed with the times instead of insulting our taste buds and intelligence. Never wanted to go here and I never will again. Do not waste your money or time. Looking forward to some form of food poisoning tomorrow.

The quality of the food here is pretty poor. I went here with my roommates despite the already bad rating this place had because we moved in right around the corner and thought we’d try it due to it’s convenience. Sadly, we won’t be going back. The prices are fair, but it won’t be hard to find another hole in the wall Chinese Restaurant with the same prices and better food.
I had the chicken fried rice and an egg roll. The filling of the egg roll was bland and tasteless, and the «chicken» in my fried rice was rubbery and, well, bland.
My roommates had the vegetable lo mein and the shrimp foo young, and they were both pretty upset with how bad their dishes were.
I wanted this place to be good since I live so close. I mean, if there’s one place I want to live within walking distance of, it’s a Chinese restaurant, but it’s just no good.
I do not recommend.

It is pink heaven inside.
A casual spot replete with pink vinly tablecloths, pink walls (where there aren’t mirrors) traditional decorations, and silk flowers. Pleasantly suprised by the food– for the «Cheap Chinese» genre it is quite good. Egg rolls are great– not the bubbly kind of wrappers but the ones I associate with Thai egg rolls. I have tried broccoli with tofu, chicken with ginger, carrots and broccoli– all were great. No msg by request. All in all a cute and quirky mom and pop type place– plus I always get a great fortune!

This place served the worst Chinese food I’ve ever had. I had high hopes because I lived a block away. Even mediocre food would have earned them a decent amount of my business due to convenience but it’s just awful. Stringy & fatty meats, over sugared sauces, and bland flavors.
All that’s bad enough, but there were also two staff members plucking each other’s eyebrows behind the counter. I can only imagine what they do when they’re not able to be seen by customers.
Stay away!

The food and the people at Van Phat are great. That’s all that needs to be said. They deliver to you, they have cheap Chinese food, and it’s of cheap Chinese food quality.
Awesome, just what I paid for.
You see, I’m not a snob when it comes to Chinese food and when looking for appropriate reviews for what you searched for, I hope this one comes out on top.
Good luck, eat well.

I cannot believe some of the reviews about Van Phat. People, what do you expect when you go to a hole in the wall asian food place? If you want Japonais, go to Japonais. If you want cheap but decent Chinese food, go to some place like Van Phat. You should avoid places that appear dirty or serve questionable meat with awful flavors, Van Phat is not that place. Evidenced by nothing but the MENU, Van Phat provides what the establishment clearly intends to offer: affordably tasty Chinese carryout (Note: «tasty» was qualified by «affordably,» Van Phat clearly works within a budget in this department and you benefit from it). So, no, 1 or 2 star rater, your beef lo mein is probably not going to contain medium rare tenderloin marinated in a from-​scratch marinade using the freshest of ingredients for the sauce. Why would you order beef at a place like this anyway? What is this, Cheap Chinese Food amateur hour? Let’s call this review Cheap Chinese 101: you order something with chicken or veggie, request no MSG, and modify it until you like it. For those of us on Unilocal that can properly gauge our expectations and may want a good sized portion of reasonably tasty, cheap carryout merely sprinkled with seasoning (i.e. — not wanting to pay for dishes that are marinated/​in a from-​scratch sauce), please stop bringing decent establishments down because you went there one time and had no idea what you were doing. Because sometimes Unilocal is like giving a monkey razorblades, I would normally rate this place a «4» but have decided to give it a moron weighting of «5.»
*drops mic*

Van Phat. Yes! Born and raised in Chicago on Chinese restaurants! This is one of the best in my opinion. Ginger Chicken is insane, and my all time fav go to, Shrimp Kow, is done exactly as i remember it the first time I had the dish when i was two, back in 1910! I’ll keep coming back! As it was in the good olé days for me at Linn’s Garden (RIP), the staff is friendly, and always want to give you a free can of pop! Service is fast, and the food is cheap!

The décor is fabulously tacky and the space very clean. Egg Fooyung and egg rolls were delicious, and the staff was very sweet. It’s a no frills chinese place and it tries to be nothing more, which is fabulous! I’ll be back for sure.

I ordered take out from here not too long ago. It was my first time trying food from Van Phat, and I knew it was more of a Chinese Dive than a nice Chinese restaurant, but I have had decent Chinese foods from slop shops before and expected this place to be about the same. I was very disappointed.
On the upside, the people working there were friendly and my food was ready when they said it would be.
On the downside, the food was terrible! I have never seen such god awful food in my life. The meat in all the dishes were barely cooked, colorless, flavorless strips of mystery meat that is likely from the alley rats outside the restaurant. The fried rice was terrible, the sweet and sour sauce unbearable, and the crab rangoon was a tasteless puff of cream cheese with no trace of crab. The egg rolls were greasy and totally unappetizing. We ended up throwing away most of what we ordered because we just couldn’t stomach it.
I do not recommend this place. Very surprised it is still in business.

I’ve eaten here at least once a week for the last year and I have to defend it from the bad reviews! The hot & sour soup and fried rice are my favorite & the lunch deals cannot be beat. It’s always been very clean inside & the staff are very friendly!

Friendly service and good chinese food without being too greasy. Of course not as good as Chinatown but better than I had anticipated.

On my first visit I tried the Kung-​Pao Shrimp and let’s just say they forgot the pow (pao).
I gave it a second shot and took a more Americanized approach, fried chicken and rice. The wings were quite small and overcooked, but the rice was fairly decent.
This isn’t the worst I’ve had, but I’ll only go here if I have a craving for fried rice.

The sesame chicken had so much breading on it and it tasted like it had been fried at a county fair… very greasy. I wont be going back.
My fiancé however thought the tofu and veggies was good.

What the hell is going on here? Have I been given special treatment for some reason? A secret menu perhaps?
I have never gotten food from Van Phat that was anything short of a fantastic meal. Yes, it is what I would call ‘slop house’ Chinese food. Don’t bother comparing it to Friendship. You’re not paying for ambiance so ambiance you shall not get. Unless you are into 1950’s vintage décor. Which I am.
I’ve ordered from Van Phat four times and it has been consistently delicious. I have only ordered vegetable and chicken dishes so I can’t attest for the red meat or seafood. But what I have ordered was always tasty, hot and a heaping plateful.

I just moved to the Logan Square area and my friends brought me over to Van Phat for lunch on a Sunday. It’s a very old school joint. I didn’t feel that it looked dirty or smelled bad. Maybe I was lucky.
There was another table besides us dining which was a rather large party. A young waitress was overseeing tables. I don’t know how service is here overall but she either could have a) used some help or b) checked up on the tables a bit more. It took awhile to get our beverages (around 10 minutes) and I asked for a pitcher of water because I was afraid it would be awhile before she would check on us again.
We ordered the Egg Rolls, Shrimp Sour Soup with Straw Mushroom, Fried Spicy Beef, Egg Foo Young and Combination Fried Rice. The Egg Rolls were okay. The soup was a broth and the shrimp was fresh. I didn’t feel scared to eat it. The Egg Foo Young was in a nice gravy. I would definitely order that again. It’s hard to screw up Fried Rice. It was good. The Fried Spicy Beef was actually not that spicy. I would definitely order that again but ask for it to be very spicy.
I have been advised to NOT order any of the sesame dishes. I don’t know why but just don’t.
All the dishes are made to order so be patient. You aren’t going to be in and out of this place as I believe there is only one cook.
The Lunch Special is an awesome price — $ 5.25. I like that the take out menu has a typo that says «Free can of pop or BATTLE water.» AWESOME! I want battle water! My life would probably be 10x more extreme!
As everyone else is saying, it’s cheap. Seafood is said to be their specialty so I’d say take a chance if you like seafood. I’m pretty nervous when it comes to eating seafood and I felt totally fine afterward. It’s good to support local businesses!