Cherry Inn Restaurant — Restaurant in Calgary

I give 2 stars: first for cleanliness and second for easy parking. I went there cause I was starving, tired and didn't want to cook. So I checked on Google maps which Chinese restaurant was close and has good reviews. It happened that Cherry Inn Restaurant was top on the list compare to Grand Pearl Seafood Restaurant which was very close by.

By comparing the 2 restaurants, Cherry Inn Restaurant(34 Reviews) has way better reviews than Grand Pearl Seafood Restaurant(32 Reviews). Grand Pearl has only one 5-star review by Denise L who stated: "I never dined in , only take out. The food was always delicious". Seems too suspicious for me to go there, lol, Denise L never dined in but she rated 5 stars, and that is her only review on her Google account. It seems so obvious that this is someone who works there or owns that restaurant, not only that, Denise L is a very stupid person who doesn't know how to lie, at least, she could say that the place is cozy and so on. That shows she's a dumb honest insider who knows how well the place is and runs!

Let's get to the point, Cherry Inn Restaurant is mostly positively reviewed by non-Chinese who have a different palate from Chinese people. The dishes are a fusion of American food and are cooked in a way so that they look and taste appetite to non-Chinese people.

If you're Chinese and know that General Tso's and Kung Pao chicken are not "Original Chinese Dishes", So don't give this restaurant a try. Could you believe that - I asked the owner for chili sauce as there was none on any table, he gave me a red sweet & sour sauce that is normally used in General Tso's dish, I was extremely shocked!

I lived in NYC, then in Toronto. I can tell you that Toronto has way cheaper, tastier and better Chinese food. If this restaurant got so many 5-star ratings, I'm skeptical to go to another Chinese restaurant in Calgary.

Now think about Grand Pearl Seafood Restaurant which is in the same block as Cherry Inn. LOL, think about how worse it could be as it has got only one 5-star and mostly 1-star ratings. OMG, it should be catastrophic over there.

P.S. this review was dated in 2016! Just re-edit because some typos and grammatical mistakes were found. Google Maps updates the date if an edit is made, which does not make sense to the exact time when an issue or a wonderful moment was experienced at a specific location. 😙😜English isn't my 1st language, and I'm...

GLUTEN FREE CHINESE FOOD! I really don't need to say more, but of course that it's good gluten free Chinese food.

My wife is a Celiac and so cannot have gluten and as a result had written off Chinese food as even most Soya Sauce contains gluten. In her case she isn't just gluten intolerant, but even the smallest of crumbs would mean intense pain and a long night in the bathroom, but I'll save you the details.

When we moved to Calgary I went on my usual search for Gluten Free dining options. We don't get to eat out often, so when we do want to go to a place that isn't just a token meal on the menu.

Here the staff are incredibly friendly and know what to avoid. We were thrilled that they can make almost everything gluten free. After our first visit we were dubious that it could have been done gluten free and waited for the long night of pain and suffering to follow only to add this place to our avoid list, but it never came. We've been back about 6 times in the last year and every time walk out amazed that what we ate was gluten free. Even the Ginger Beef! A Calgary speciality that I was sure she would never get to experience.

I know I've spent most of this review on the gluten free aspect, but the food is excellent regardless. The portion sizes are generous, the staff friendly, and we haven't had a single dish that we felt was lacking. It's a small restaurant with limited seating and a decor that could use updating, but don't let that put you off. If you are avoiding gluten and missing out on Chinese food you simply must go here. If you just want good food this is a hit as well. We will continue to keep this as #1 on our places to order from.

Update: Jan 2016 - We had the Salt and Pepper Scallops tonight and were blown away! They were perfectly cooked and are now on our...

This was a solid 4. I ordered a lunch combo delivered to receive at a hotel because I don't live in Calgary. I had sweet and sour chicken, beef with black bean sauce, chicken fried rice and wonton soup. The sweet and sour chicken were more like short strips battered in tempura, rather than the round ball style, but they were tender white meat, which is the kind of meat I want. They came with the sauce on them. They were good. The sauce looked and tasted better than I'm used to. It was a nice red and seemed to have a slight cherry flavour. Every restaurant is going to be using some canned type of sauce for this, so it's not going to floor you, but it is noticeably better than average. In fact, I had sweet and sour chicken balls in my home city soon after this, and their sauce was simply not as nice, being more vinegary and chemical-like by comparison, but still passable. The black bean beef was great. It had a nice thick sauce. Average restaurants skimp on the black bean and oyster sauce that makes the sauce and produce a greasy mess that barely passes. The beef was tender and dark like the sauce, rather than pale grey like you might see from lower quality places. The sauce was good enough that after I ate all the beef and vegetables, I scooped it over into the fried rice and mixed it in. The fried rice was okay. The wonton soup was quite good without skimping on the wontons. I relied on reviews to choose this place, seeing around a 4 in ratings. My only gripes are the delivery charge and the fact that even though they knew they were delivering to a hotel, they didn't include any chopsticks or plastic cutlery. I would certainly eat at the Cherry Inn again. It's a 4. If I was being picky, I still couldn't rate it...