Shang Noodle & Chinese — Restaurant in Evanston Township

This is a very welcoming, quiet, and well lit restaurant that is easy to recommend to anyone. It isn't exactly a "date night" kind of place (depending on your date I suppose) but rather more of a "friends gathering" comfort vibe.

The menu is quite deep, with many of what are thought of as classically "American Chinese" dishes, but also quite a few Taiwanese / Cantonese / Sichuan specialties. This was our first time at this restaurant so we were experimental with our dish selection, and while there is nothing I regret ordering we would have no problem trying a completely different bunch next time (when we eat Chinese, which is reasonably often, we almost always eat "family style", picking and sharing as a group with the cliche "number of dishes = number of diners + 1" rule loosely applied, passing around the rice and talking about the food, which is exactly what this restaurant seems to be going for). We went because it had been recommended for hot-pot, which we were craving, but we ended up getting other things instead (next time maybe).

I know many people think of Chinese as quintessential "take out" food. But while they certainly seem to do plenty of that (we were seated near the front door and saw quite a few pick ups) this is much more of a "sit down, relax and let somebody else worry about everything" deal. Unless you either don't like Chinese food or really want something "Chinatown trendy", you should be...

Was not at all impressed. The pot stickers were burned on one side and soft chewy and raw on the other side to the point as you picked them the pork would fall off the rubbery skin. My spicy soup was iffy at best cold noodle dumped in hot broth. Pork belly was very salty and rice was nice and cold. The beef and veggies was very soupy saggy nothing crispy. Only the spring roll was decent but that too was a refreshing. This was a very pricey Hong Kong buffet. This was during early lunch hour I also witness an episode with an Asian gentleman that the waitress called him out on something about the bill and she was very confrontational. Then came my bill $60 and I tipped $6 so the same older waitress came to me and said the the tip was wrong because at the bottom of the POS receipt there are suggested tip amounts of 18,20 and 25% and I should pick one of these amounts only. She was very forceful and strong armed about that, just to avoid any argument like the gentleman before me I adjusted my tip amount and left. This is very bad and deceptive practices note worthy of any review. I am convinced that was not just a bad experience but an established practice by this institution. Food was so bad my 7yr and I took no doggie bag that should have been a hint when we ordered 4 dishes and basically sampled them and did not want to take any of it....

If you have any dietary restrictions, skip this restaurant.

I specifically ordered one of the few dishes they offer that is listed as "can be made vegetarian." I got a dish with meat! When I asked the server about whether this dish had meat in it they told me that I had ordered it with meat and that they had asked me if I wanted it vegetarian (they did not). They went back to check the order that made it to the kitchen and... Yep, it had been sent in as vegetarian mapo tofu! The kitchen ignored this and sent out the meat version.

The server apologized and without asking went to have it remade vegetarian. They brought the new dish out (I did not touch it), and once my table was ready to pay they had the audacity to charge full price for the mix-up.

It's also worth noting that the ambience of the restaurant was very much "other customer's children playing loud iPad games/videos". One of the servers appeared to be sleeping on one of the booths. And to top it off, the bit of the dish I had accidentally tried at the start of this experience (which had been forewarned as spicy) had little spice or flavor to speak of. Just soggy tofu.

Even for individuals without dietary restrictions, would...