Empress — Restaurant in Houston

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of food from this place. We ordered it at work for delivery. I ordered the Kung Pao Shrimp lunch special. It came with the main dish, fried rice and an egg roll and cheese puffs. I'll start with what I didn't like to get it out of the way. This is just a matter of taste so you might like it. There were too many filler veggies (onion, celery and green peppers) and not enough of the stir fry type veggies and we didn't get soy sauce or fortune cookies. Ok bad stuff over......Good stuff.. the food tasted amazing. If they use msg at all, it is very minimal. The shrimp were a good size and cooked to perfection. The rice looked simple but probably some of the best I've ever had. This part is really important...I normally do not like egg rolls but these were by far the BEST egg rolls I've ever had in my whole life. It seems they are wrapped in rice paper instead of wonton, good cabbage filling ratio and the spices were very flavorful. Cheese puffs were crispy and fresh and the there was a lot of cheese. The only reason why I didn't give 5 stars is because the sauce on the shrimp needed to be thicker and have more peanuts and the delivery time was over an hour. We will definitely order from...

I ordered from this place for the second time today. The first time, the food was hot, fresh, and tasty. My order today, unfortunately I received a call from the restaurant stating they were out of their only dessert item they offered. So I asked to be refunded and he said "I don't know how to do that, so do you want the cheese puffs?" Okay, no big deal, that happens. I received my order, it was hot and fresh, however it wasn't exactly what I ordered. I ordered General TSO shrimp and got the chicken and the rice was gummy. So I called the restaurant to tell them about the order, the guy said "oh I see your order but I don't know." I said you don't know what? I ordered shrimp but you gave me chicken. "Yes, I see you ordered this but I don't know what the kitchen gave you." I told him, I know the difference between the two and I'm telling you what I received. "He then stated he didn't understand/speak English that well." So I asked if I can speak with someone else and he said it's me. So of course I hung up without satisfaction. I've decided I won't order from here again, not because of the food but because of the complete lack of service. I hate I can't add a picture of what I got versus the receipt of...

Update from last month’s post below: Finally made the time to stop by this place to check it out. First time since the late 1970s! It is definitely different inside than I remember; back then, the interior had dim lighting and was very heavy on Chinese decor which I thought was pretty cool. I remember the walls being red with gold decor. Anyway, I ordered two combo plates for take-out, one being orange chicken and the other was pepper steak. They came pretty quickly and were actually really good! Although the combos come with canned soft drinks, I was a bit disappointed that the cans were not cold and I think the fridge with the cans by the wall was not functioning properly. Since my wife and I really liked the food and decided to put the cans in the fridge to chill them for later, I will definitely be back!

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This place has been around forever (at least 45+ years that I know of), and their food was pretty good. Back then it was like a real restaurant with fancy tables but that it looks more like it’s now a take-out joint. I like the menu on the wall, shows a...