Yan Yan Chinese Cuisine — Restaurant in Keizer

I don't get it, I really don't. I tried this place out because of all the overwhelmingly positive reviews on Yelp. My thought was that if this many people liked it, it must be good. Boy was I wrong... I mean WOW, the food here is terrible.

Now first and foremost I'd like to say that when it comes to food, everyone has different taste, so what is bad to me, might not be bad to others. I would also like to say that the service here was very good, and it didn't take long to get my food, get seated, or get my bill. Everyone was also very friendly.

My complaint is the food, so let's detail what I ordered:

Potstickers Large bowl of hot and sour soup Sesame chicken Szechuan chicken Chicken fried rice

The pot stickers were a bit undercooked. They were cold or anything, I just felt like they could have been slightly more crispy. Instead they were a bit too slimy and moist, which isn't how I'm used to eating potstickers.

The hot and sour soup is the worst. First off, why is there onions in it? I don't think I've ever seen any Chinese restaurant put onions in hot and sour soup. Secondly, the soup is the most bland version of hot and sour I've ever had. If you want good hot and sour soup with good taste, go to Lucky Garden in Salem, Hunan Pearl in Lake Oswego, or Wu's Open Kitchen in Tigard. This soup really had very little hot, and very little sort. It was honestly bland and barely edible.

The Szechuan chicken was actually good, my complaint about it is that it was almost entirely vegetables and maybe one a handful of chicken. I'm sorry, but I didn't order a chicken dish to have it be predominantly vegetables, that makes no sense, and it feels like they took me for my money completely.

Now onto the worst Chinese dish I have ever had in my life... The sesame chicken! I ordered this because generally this is a safe bet at any Chinese restaurant. Sesame chicken is supposed to be a lightly fried chicken with a sesame based sauce on it, that is very sweet, but often times a little spicy as well. Not the case here.

They brought out what appeared to be deep fried chicken nuggets (it almost was) with sesame seeds that were visibly fried in with the breading on the chicken! There wasn't one bit of sauce anywhere on it. I asked the waitress why there wasn't any sauce, and she told me that sesame chicken doesn't have sauce. I didn't bother arguing at all, but took a photo of this and sent it to almost everyone I know. Everyone said the same thing... "Where is the sauce?".

In addition to that, the chicken was so fried that it was hard and tough to chew. I ate one bite (literally) and didn't touch it at all after that. I've never been to ANY Chinese restaurant in my life that served sesame chicken without sauce, let alone deep fried it this much. If Gordon Ramsay were to sit down and eat this sesame chicken... Oh wow!

Last but not least, the chicken fried rice. WORST FRIED RICE I HAVE EVER HAD! It was bland, it was baseless, the chicken used in it was fatty and had actual hard chunks in it, and they added bean sports to it as well (who the hell adds bean sprouts to their fried rice!?). My idea of fried rice is the kind you get at Benihana, that is what fried rice should taste like. I had three bites of this and not a single bite more.

I've been to almost every Chinese restaurant in Salem, and this one is by far the worst. Like I said, the service is great, but the food is complete garbage, I can't even stress that enough. If I didn't know better, I would say that they probably are cooking their garbage!

If you want good Chinese food (in my opinion) in Salem, I stand by my belief that Lucky Garden is the best. Go have sesame chicken or hot and sour soup there if you want to know what it should taste like.

All I can say is that the overwhelmingly positive reviews on this place were incredibly deceptive. I learned my lesson though. Just because people on Yelp think it's good (or bad),...

CLEARLY service is NOT a priority here! We ordered at the same time my food arrived at 310pm and at 325pm we felt perturbed that my husband's food had not come yet. So flagged down the waitress as she carries out dish after dish to other customers and says sorry guys they're making the Mandarin sauce. I'm like well that's not very nice it's been well over 15 min. You guys should give him half off his meal or something to make up for it. She said I'll ask the manager. (My husband at this point says I'll just take it to go, since she's done now) so she comes back out and says we're not allowed to give out free food but he said he'd take off half his meal. Wait! What???Ya that was my suggestion and not once did we ask for free food. She just said that to be rude!!!And I seen her shaking her head walking away! It just seems unfathomable to treat people like this when this whole incident is NOT our fault in any way!! We will never step foot in this place again after being treated like this!! We will spend pur money in an establishment that values...

This was a typical American Chinese restaurant, except the food portions were ridiculously large, AND the food was surprisingly better than expected! I ordered the Combination Dinner #6, which had pork fried rice, bbq pork, general tsos, and cashew chicken. It came with choice of soup. I had the hot and sour, which was mediocre at best. When the dinner plate came, it was apparent I had ordered too much food, even though it was only $11.75!!! Seriously there is no way this is a portion for one person. The general tsos was amazingly fantastic! I ordered it spicy, and did not find it too hot. The bbq pork was good as well, but I did not care for the cashew chicken. I overheard another table order, and they substituted something on a combination plate for something else they preferred, for an additional charge. Thats what I would do, the next time I eat here, AND I will certainly split this meal!! The atmosphere was nothing special, so do not expect a romantic dinner! It was slow when I arrived, but all the tables were filled by the time I left. Nice...