Venus Szechuan & Mandarin Restaurant

This is one of the best Chinese restaurant i’ve been too. It’s about 2 – 3 more expensive than other local places, but in my opinion worth it. My wife, who’s not particularly fond of Chinese food, likes this place a lot.

Best Chinese food in town, long time diner. Over priced but worth it, below average service but still worth it. If you can overlook mediocre service and paying more than you should in order for great Chinese food this is the place to go

One star is too generous. We were ignored by waiter then served cold food then ignored again All four of us left disgusted. It used to be a great place. I should have known because it was empty when we went at 6 pm.

Pricey for value. Just ok Chinese. But seem safer/​cleaner than most Chinese food shops.

I have been ordering take out at this restaurant for 6 years, probably twice a month. The food is prepared well when they don’t make a mistake. Unfortunately, mistakes are often and the customer service is the worst I have ever experienced. The male owner of this restaurant is so ignorant it’s unbelievable. Often, waiting to pick up my food is very common with no apologies. I have learned to brush it off my shoulder cause they are around the corner. They are a bit on the high end of price and don’t show any loyalty to their customers.

Been going here for years and years, but no more. Slipping. What a disappointment. Tried to order my daughter’s favorite — chow fun, and was told they were «out», and not ordering more noodles until the next week. Placed a delivery order and was told not to ask for delivery– too busy. So, we hung in there and picked up bland, expensive food. Time to find a new Chinese «go-​to.»

I used to enjoy this restaurant most of the time, though it depended on which cook prepared the food (one of the cooks does a better job!). But after this weekend I will NEVER RETURN, Sad to say. First off i ordered my food Gluten free being i have Celiac and get VERY SICK if i eat gluten. My husband picked up the order & confirmed with the woman (owner) that it was prepared gluten free, she reassured him it was. After eating some of the 2 dishes, I could tell it had soy sauce and was horribly salty! I called them to inquire to see what they had sent me, and after much back & forth they admitted one was only prepared gluten free? They told me if i wanted to pick up the correct order I could. No apology for making the dish (dishes) incorrectly & causing me a fairly severe allergic reaction! We had the right dish delivered the following day (Saturday) and when i had eaten it last night, I became deathly ill shortly after. I got food poisoning the worst Ive ever had, vomiting from 730pm till 6am today! I called the owner to let her know & the first 4 times i calked she kept telling me «i can’t hear you, sorry», then continually hung up on me. My husband then returned home & i called from his phone and the owner td me I must have stored the food poorly (which it was in the refrigerator until I ate it?). She then proceeded to tell me that «how could it stay fresh if you waited 12 hours to eat??, of course it would go bad!» In a very defensive, nasty tone. Don’t EVER EAT HERE If you wish to not get sick, or if you want your allergy requests honored. Beware and steer clear of this restaurant!

Went with the grandkids. Have been here many times. Consistently very good food. Pleasant staff. The entire group readily agreed Venus deserved five stars.

Usually this place has great food but has gone downhill very fast. My order of Sesame chicken was horribly dry and overcooked. And when I called to complain they did not care they said its supposed to be like that and refused to do anything about it and told me next time I should order it with extra sauce?!. They simply are very rude and do not care. Used to be my favorite place now it’s just gross and horrible service. Go to Canton Tea Garden in Park Ridge.

Best Mandarin restaurant in the area. Must try their chow fun and pot stickers. I live in Chicago but every time I pick up my friends from O’hare airport I stop by Venus and enjoy my meal. I have been here for dozens of times and their foods never let me down. Mike the manager loves football so much, the TV in the restaurant is always on football channel. The receptionist and waitress are so friendly and helpful. You will always find your favorite Chinese food here. 上海来的朋友可以试试葱油饼，现做的哟。

Terrible service. Actually shockingly bad… As the only table on a Saturday night I can’t imagine we were overlooked… In fact I know we weren’t because the server sitting 5 feet away alone at a table said out loud «I CAN’T WAIT TO GO HOME».
To herself.
Really??!
And the real kicker… Never checked on us once.
Used to be a decent restaurant.
Food is average. How they’ve stayed open this long I don’t know.
But when the place is empty on a Saturday evening that says a lot.

Unfortunately cream of the crêpe was closed so me and my sister-​in-​law went to Venus for dinner. I wish I had read others reviews of this restaurant prior to going here. Our waitress could not have cared less that we were having dinner at her restaurant and barely even acknowledged us. She seemed somewhat miserable being there.
The food was not terrible though. We started off with crab Rangoon. For dinner I had tofu noodles and my sister-​in-​law had a flat noodle dish with chicken. Both were seasoned very well and tasted great.
However, the service really did me in. If you are looking for attentive, nice servers who care that you are dining in their restaurant I would not recommend going to this restaurant. Think she spent the majority of her time on her cell phone. In my opinion restaurant management needs to do something about making sure their workers don’t spend time on their phones. It does not look good.

Unfortunately Venus has gone downhill since my last review in 2008. About a year ago my partner and I walked in, were seated promptly, placed our orders and proceeded to wait 45 minutes before we gave up and left. Our orders were forgotten because they were understaffed. We haven’t been back until today. We were in the area and decided to give Venus another chance. We walked in and stood and waited to be seated for about 10 minutes (there were plenty of empty tables) before we left. There appeared to be just one waitress for the whole place plus a hostess who seemed overwhelmed with managing a number of takeout orders. Neither of these individuals acknowledged our presence, much less welcomed us or showed us to a table. This place has definitely seen better days.

Terrible food, over price, they said Szechuan but it was was not, I order common Szechuan MaPo Toufu, test wired, they do charge for delivery fee for $ 5 even you order $ 50+, and plus tips, not value any u will come back. Terrible

After exclusively eating Chinese here for 12 years, NEVER AGAIN.
VENUS makes phenomonal mandarin food. But the owners are dry, and always understaffed! They don’t want to pay employees. Ones they do hire leave because they’re paid poorly. Female owner only server on Jan 22 evening. Over 40 guests. Terrible. Its always like that. We waited 10 mins. Werent even acknowledged. We walked… and we were weekly regulars.
I’m a restaurant owner who eats out a lot. Love to support well run small businesses. The food here to be honest is dynamite. But these people don’t deserve my money. I can’t support them no more.

I don’t even want to give this place 1 star! First, a friend and I walk into the place and the host is on the phone taking an order rolling her eyes with the person she talked to and then told us to just grab a table in the back. Ok, we did and then received 1 menu to share. We are not picky people. we ordered calamari, pot stickers and crab ran goons. No joke by the time our friend arrived 45 minutes later out appetizers weren’t even out! When we finally got them they were cold and either burnt or tasted like they sat there for 30 minutes. We should’ve left but we ordered the Lemon chicken which my friend said was awful, Mongolian tofu which was decent and I ordered the crispy beef that tasted like burnt popcorn! on top of the bad food the place is in disarray, wait staff is clueless all around this place is one hot mess. I don’t know how they stay open. Don’t eat here!!!

Went to Venus last night with 7 people and was so upset with the poor service that we left after 10 minutes. We came in at 8:20 and it closes at 9:00. We were ready to spend money on drinks and food and the restaurant was not crowded. The hostess came over and told us to hurry up and order since the kitchen was closing down and the cook would not make the food if we did not hurry! It is a high class beautiful place and we expected better treatment. We walked out, good choice, since the Thai restaurant in the mall behind Venus greeted us with open arms (they close at 9 also but staying open as long as we were there) and we had a great meal.
Do not go to Venus since you can read other reviews about the bad service!!!

I was there the first time yesterday and while this was a spur of moment decision, it turned out to be quite a great one.
I’m bit sure why this is 3 stars, but I thought the food we got was 5, probably one of the better Chinese food i’ve ever had. It felt clean, had great flavor, and was just delicious. I couldn’t get enough of it.
We ordered the sizzling soup, the rice patties were perfect in the veggie soup. Both the eggplant platter and Tsao platter with tofu still makes me crave it the next day. The eggplant was broiled bit succinctly soft. The tofu was perfectly crispy along with the spicy oil they gave us on side.
The disappointing thing is that spicy pepper does not mean spicy. I eat spicy food. And find most places are always never spicy. This is one of the place. The other negative was service was slow! It wasn’t packed yesterday, a Saturday, but only one server was working for maybe 9 tables that had people.

Our small office is right across the street. We decided to order lunch (five of us) from Venus since it’s close.
We ordered Orange Chicken, Pork & String Beans, Mongolian Beef & Garlic Chicken. Most of us ordered with brown rice instead (upcharge of $ 1.95 — for RICE). Instead of the typical Chinese lunch special of your entrée, rice & an egg roll, it comes with rice and soup. We got the Hot & Sour, which was neither hot or sour. It was more like bouillon, noodles & tofu. Bland.
The entrees were all swimming in grease. The only one that had any flavor was the pork & string beans. We ordered this medium spicy. It packed just enough heat but was the greasiest of all.
The orange chicken was thin wide strips of chicken that was breaded and looked orange but didn’t have the signature zesty orange taste. Interestingly enough, it featured a few stalks of broccoli. It too was pretty greasy (although the string bean won the prize for the grease).
The garlic chicken was okay — not very flavorful but at least it was the least of the grease.
The Mongolian beef made me sad. It lacked that bold flavor and crispy bedding of thin noodles (not exactly sure what those things are). The green onions that usually accompany the beef were wilted and didn’t have much flavor. Weak and disappointing.
We also ordered egg rolls because they didn’t come with the lunch specials. And who can eat Chinese food and not eat egg rolls? That’s just crazy. So, six egg rolls cost $ 11.85. They weren’t even that tasty either. I also forgot to mention that portions were small.
The brown rice was just meh.
Sorry Venus, first and only time there. I’ll go around the corner to Siam Thai instead.

Good food. My favorite is sweet and spicy crispy beef, OMG I can’t find it anywhere else… I’d go out of my way for this dish and I live in the burbs!
Eggplant platter and soups are good too. It’s Szechuan and Mandarin food, so it’s a bit different than Chinatown food.
Service is Ok. Try out this place if you’re in the area.