Chen Yang Li — Restaurant in Bow

While visiting Grapone Mazda we decided to visit, what we were told, was the "best Chinese place around". First off let me say that the interior is handicap friendly. Due to the torrential rain I cannot remember if there is an exterior ramp for wheelchairs. The interior decorations easily put the mind to receive some genuinely authentic Chinese food. This, unfortunately is where the excitement ended for us.

Though our waitstaff was constantly on the move his energy translated to his tables, giving a hurried feeling to the ordering process. Chen Yang Li has an item on their menu called the Beijing Duck. This menu item is described over an entire page on the inside of the menu. It describes the history of the dish, and a full 3 course dining experience that includes an appetizer, main course and soup. The going price for the meal: $45. This was exciting and I had to try it. This, unfortunately would not happen. When I ordered it I was told the meal would "take a long time". When asked how long I was told 45 minutes. I said great! After all to watch one of the Chefs come to my table and cut the bird would be well worth the wait. Unfortunately our server continued to try and dissuade me from placing the order due to time. When I finally asked if the time was a burden we were told that the kitchen was backed up. I was pointed to their crispy chicken dish and was told that it is close to the Beijing duck.

I started with a sushi dish, Eel Maki which was extremely good.

The rest of my party ordered a filet mignon, shrimp and rice, and chicken and rice.

So, the typical Chinese food of meat and rice came out great and what one would expect from an average Chinese restaurant. The filet mignon was ordered medium and instead came out well done. The Hunan sauce dominated the flavor palette and did nothing to moisten what should be an otherwise tender steak. The duck was tough and gamey on the inside and overly crisped on the outside.

One thing I noticed was that their take out que was overfowing and thus overwhelming to the kitchen, causing the dining room to suffer.

Over all I can't say that I was pleased with my visit as the service and food ranked on the scale of average when compared to a Chinese buffet. The ambience is great and regulars to the establishment were greeted by first name, but we felt as though we were a burden as we were new diners.

I may be willing to try again as the saving grace was the Eel Maki, but as a first impression I cannot recommend Chen Yang Li's especially at the...

The food was quite good overall not outstanding but quite good. My partner and his sister ended up getting Chinese food I usually always end up getting sushi. I got the sushi boat for one although it really wasn't a boat per se. It was a decent amount of sushi for the price I've had a little better I've also had a little worse but overall it was good tasting and a decent selection. The Chinese food was pretty standardized that I've seen in many Chinese restaurants it was decent tended to be a little bit salty as it doesn't most restaurants but overall pretty good. I will say the restaurant is huge I mean it is really huge you've got a large upstairs and just as large downstairs where there's some nice outside seating alongside a nice stream. The one thing I would say that they really need to do they need to spiff the place up a bit. The decor in such really hasn't changed in 30 plus years. I really think they should promote the fact of the outdoor dining that they have down by the stream now it's in the lower level which means you have to go downstairs or walk down a walkway outside but I think it's a nice place to be if it's a hot sunny day because you're pretty well shaded and you have the stream there. Since we were out there I can't say as to whether it would be kind of buggy with insects not really sure. But I would say several million dollars would need to be invested to really turn this place into an absolute Showplace which I think would be a...

I'd give the food a 5. It was delicious and presentation was great. The service was absolute crap.

The place closes at 10. We showed up a little before 9. We sat there for 10min before anyone came up to us. The sushi chef seemed pissed we were even there. There were 2 or 3 other customers in the entire place.

After finally placing drink orders with a waiter, the sushi chef still refused to ask for orders or even make eye contact. After 5 or 10 more minutes, I finally asked the guy if he was still serving.

They were very unfriendly and rude. Practically barking/yelling at us instead of talking to us. At 930, 30min before close, the sushi chef blurted out, "last call for sushi, you want something??" The guy seemed so pissed we dared enter his sushi bar over an hour before closing.

I really liked the food and it was priced well, but I wouldn't go back there simply because of the crap service we got. We came in and spent over $100 in 30min at their empty restaurant and were treated like we had the plague.

I don't bother writing long reviews like this but the way we were treated really irked me. Maybe it's not always like that, maybe the guy was having a bad day. Don't care give it another try and find out unless it was the...