Young's Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Lake View Township

Look, the food has been pretty decent. It's been good enough that I deal with the long delivery time, which has normally taken 60-75 minutes. However, tonight's order was the final straw. I placed the order online at 5:10pm. The deliver time was quoted for 60 minutes. I understand it's Christmas Day, but as another review states just within the past couple hours, they are not busy.

I recently called at 6:55pm and the order still hadn't left the restaurant. I was told the order would be leaving within the next 5 minutes. I gave it 15 minutes and called back at 7:10pm. The order still had not left. When I asked if I could get the order comped, the gentleman said, "you want to cancel order?" I clearly said "No", but he hung up anyway.

I immediately called back and was able to talk to someone else. They kept saying they were swamped and that they would get us our order in 30 minutes. It was already over 2 hours!! I expressed my concern for having to wait over 2 and a half hours and asked that my bill be comped. I was told they would not comp the order tonight. My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe they wouldn't do anything, except for sending me away without food.

There is absolutely NO reason for a restaurant to take this long. They are full of excuses and zero accountability for very unprofessional restaurant management. I'm easy going and am very understanding of restaurants that might get busy. Not only am I still hungry, but I'm insulted by the fact they kept lying to me and then hesitated when I asked to make sure I wasn't charged despite never getting food.

They have lost my business and I highly suggest to anyone reading this that you go elsewhere. This establishment does not deserve your business. Let's be honest, there are many Chinese restaurants in any given Chicago neighborhood. Go to any other Chinese restaurant and you will have a MUCH BETTER experience. I really hope the manager and/or owner responds to this because this should never happen. I'm going to find food now. Merry Christmas everyone, boycott Young's...

Hooray! I have finally found a neighborhood Chinese delivery place. You have no idea how difficult this was. I'm really picky about the thickness of the cut of the meat in Chinese food. I don't know why - it's a weirdism of mine (don't judge, we all have them). Alas, Youngs fit the bill!

Here's how it all went down...we were entertaining people from New York and we typically have an unspoken Chicago vs New York throw down about everything, so of course I figured the same would hold true for Chinese takeout. Here's just an example of a conversation from their last visit "how many ice rinks does Chicago have?" I pause while counting "We have 9 in New York." I then replied with "oh yeah, you ice skate?" To which the response was "no". Who the F cares then?!?!?! But I digress....

Our guests wanted boneless spare ribs, kung pao chicken, and vegetable lo mein. Young's doesn't have boneless ribs (deal with it) and they have a dish called kung bao, not kung pao but I am pretty sure they are the exact same thing (he seems cautiously nervous as I click order). I had the mongolian combo and we also ordered a beef and broccoli as well as pork and green beans.

I enjoyed that the sauces were not overly greasy. The vegetables tasted fresh and crisp, not limp and overcooked. Good news, our guests raved about the food. Said it was a thousand times better than what they get in New York. Ha!!! That's one for Chicago! (Aren't in-laws annoying?!?!) Oh and by the way, kung pao and kung bao do appear to be the exact same thing like I thought!

My only complaint was that my mongolian wasn't at all spicy - but next time, I will specify that I would...

I've lived in a lot of places, and tried a lot of American Chinese food, but this has to rank right up there in terms of this traditional fare. I always feel as though I'm getting very good value for money, as the portions are very large, and the quality of the ingredients is top notch. I've never eaten in, and while the dining room is rarely full, don't let that, or the discrete location on a busy street, fool you -- they do an incredible amount of delivery and take-out business. The staff there have always been very friendly, and consistently thank me for my patronage. You can tell that they care about being a key part of the neighborhood, and I've never come across anyone who has anything but glowing opinions of their quality, prices...