SuYu Pei — Restaurant in Cedar Rapids

I was waiting for my car to be ready for pickup at a friend’s mechanic shop and I walked into SuYu Pei on 16th Ave SW for lunch at 1:15 today (Thursday) and was greeted immediately and told I could sit wherever I’d like. Not even 20 seconds later my waiter, Leo, showed up and told me about the lunch specials: For $10, you can choose from a large list of lunch items, each including an entree, side of rice, and a cheese Rangoon! He could tell I was stuck with all of the choices so he asked me what kinds of things I normally liked and recommended his favorite dish, so that’s what I chose.

I ordered the Sichuan with chicken, but you can also order it with beef, shrimp or tofu. I’m not lying when I say the food came out, piping hot, in about three minutes. Anyone who knows me knows I love sauce. I didn’t have to get any extra sauce for this bad boy, it was sauuuuucy! 😍 The white rice was nice and sticky, the way it’s supposed to be, and the cheese Rangoon was crispy on the edges and soft and all the way filled in the middle. Leo was so knowledgeable about the menu and fun to talk to, not to mention quick at noticing and asking for refills or if I needed anything else. I even found out that we knew a lot of the same people and we talked and laughed about that fact for a few minutes.

After he brought me a box for the rest of my food, I told him my car was getting worked on at a shop nearby so I might sit a while longer if that was ok, and he looked concerned and told me the area wasn’t super great for walking and asked me if I needed a ride back to the shop! Talk about customer service!

I’m currently still sitting in the booth at SuYu Pei, but if I didn’t want to be, I could be in and out in 20 minutes easily. With the amazing customer service, super tasty food, and quick delivery times, If you’re looking for somewhere to stop on your lunch break, this is...

We were there on Friday night and overall it was a pretty decent experience.

The food is a bit above what I would expect for a strip mall Chinese restaurant. I had the Mongolian Beef with Chow Mein noodles. My wife had, I believe, the snowy chicken. We enjoyed them and had plenty bring home. (We will be eating them soon). This was not the best Chinese I've ever had, but again, for a strip mall restaurant, it was above par. I wasn't fond of the Crab Rangoon, as I struggled to find any crab in it. Also, the sweet and sour sauce leaves a bit to be desired.

The decor is pretty typical of a place like this. It was nice, but nothing exceptional.

The service was terrible. We had to remind our server to bring the Crab Rangoon and had to remind her twice to bring our drinks. While that's bad enough, she gave the excuse that she was "busy" with a "large party". The large party, from what we could see, consisted of eight people and they were not that busy that night. When a server makes an excuse like this, they might as well be telling you, "I am not as attentive to you as these other customers are more important to me." Also, she stopped by the table before we were finished eating and asked if she could take the sauces. I thought that was rude, but we were finished with them and I said she could have them. Then she didn't take them. Why even ask?

I will likely be back at some time, but I hope I do not have this server again. I forget...

We order from here every Friday. Chicken fried rice. NO ONION! Last week I ordered no onion, add broccoli. When getting home, there were lots of onions. I called and they politely corrected it and when I got there, the guy even said “we thought it was extra onion”and then they added free rangoons. Not a big deal, stuff happens. Today, same order just no broccoli. Get home and there’s onions again. So I call and they offer me free rangoons again and I tell them I don’t want free rangoons, we already got two orders. I Brought BACK THE FOOD BOTH TIMES TO SHOW THEM THE ONIONS! I’m not asking for free food. I’m just asking for my order to be correct. I wouldn’t drive all the way back, just to get the same thing I already ordered but then they questioned me about it saying there were no onions and they remembered me from the Friday before and said “we ate the rice, there were no onions”. Umm what? Last week it was “you thought I said extra onions” and now you’re saying there wasting onions? I have pictures of the onions. Why question me? I didn’t keep the rice, I brought it back. They wouldn’t even dump it out of the container because they knew I was right. It’s just frustrating that they couldn’t own it and apologize. I get it. Things happen. I was polite both times until they accused me of...