Yan's Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in McMinnville

Yan’s straddles the line between being old in a good way and bad way. And, having come here for years now, that is sorta’ sad.

In a good way, this is the type of place you went to with your parents or grandparents. They offer heaping plates of Americanized Chinese food. Don’t expect traditional Shandong or Cantonese dishes (not that I assume many who eat here are expecting those things). However, the different dishes have different taste profiles that range from medium heat to mild and sour to sweet. The egg rolls are huge, even if they occasionally retain a touch too much of the oil in which they were fried. The servers are friendly in that slightly standoffish way, quick to refill drinks and offer a slight smile. The prices are fair for the portions and the overall quality of what is on offer here.

In a bad way, this place really, really, really needs a refresh and a deep clean. The boxes piled up behind the hostess booth have become, over the years, a monument to the slowly fading interest in cleanliness. Plates delivered to the table routinely need to be inspected and scraped (or, in the worst cases, replaced) before placing food on them. Booths are tattered. Dust is prominent. The whole building has the look of a faded gem that has lost its luster, the once quirky (no less stereotypical) ‘this is what you expect from a Chinese restaurant’ 60’s vibe transformed into a tired shell now abetted by neglect. And it is neglect, given that even at points where you might expect this restaurant to be busy, it rarely is. Case in point? On a very recent weekend night, a group of us were the only guests and the rear bar was also empty. So, what, exactly, are the staff doing when there is no one upon which to wait?

A scan of the other reviews is also a clue as to who is going here these days. Said scan doesn’t bode well for Yan’s either. They either take it at face value that this is what Chinese food should be like, or note that the place looks old and tired, or engage in exaggeration to make a point . . . or do some combination of one or two of those three things. The general take-away? A few people really like this place. Quite a few don’t. And many think a lot of things could be improved.

After dinner, while standing in the massive parking lot, I was struck by the thought: “this is a piece of property ripe for redevelopment.” You would like to think it would be: “wow, what a filling meal.” To be clear, it was a filling meal and none of us left feeling particularly unhappy that we ate there. The problem is, less and less people are coming here and the people running it are spending less and less time making it a place where people would want to come.

At a certain point, wishing this place well isn’t going to be enough. And I fear that point...

I didnt want to give one star just because of one employee so I gave 3 stars because my family and I love Ivy the owner of Yans very much. I have been eating at Yans since I was in high school and I'm now 45 years old. Wonderful owners and staff always. However last night was such a bizarre and upsetting experience for me. I have been moving out of my home and property of 21 years literally by myself to escape an abusive marriage with my german shepherd by my side. I called and placed an order over the phone for both myself and my daughters best friend who's only 15 at 6:25 pm. I picked her up from her home with her mothers permission due to her grandfathers being verbally abusive yelling and calling this beautiful child worthless etc. I had to stop by my bank after closing hours and use my mobile app to withdrawal cash because someone charged alot of money off my debit card info to amazon. Had to report it as fraud and shut down my debit card I won't get my new debit card til end of this week. I'm sharing these details in an attempt to explain how challenging both physically and mentally my current situation has been. I was starving and just wanted my favorite Chinese food for dinner. I recieved a voicemail from Yans at 7:05 informing me my order was ready. I was coming from Sheridan which is 20 min away. Perfect timing! So I mistakenly thought.... I arrived at Yans to pick up my to go order at 7:45. The employee stated that they had been calling me multiple times and I did not answer so due to how long it took me to pick up my order, they had to throw it away. One voicemail was left. No multiple attempts were made to call me. I dont know why this employee felt it necessary to lie about that. She said they could remake it. That meant waiting another 35 min. I said no I will get food elsewhere as I'm very hungry right now. She followed me outside trying to get me to come back to reorder and wait. No thank you, I said. She proceeded to argue with me. I had to waive her off and tell her I'm leaving. I'm glad my service dog remained calm instead of feeling threatened by this woman raising my already high stress level. My service animal remaining calm really helped my situation. Thank you God for her. My daughters 15 year old friend was shocked at that whole weird series of events. We got quick food at Panda Express just down the highway and were on our exhausted and hungry way back to my new save Haven. I will never go back to Yans again myself. The only way I will ever eat their delicious food again is if my Army combat veteran sister orders and picks it up and brings it to me. Ivy works very very hard to run this fine establishment for decades. She deserves better employees than this woman...

We ordered to go and got told 20 minutes it would be ready. We get there ask for our order. First person walked away without saying anything. Someone else come through and asks us. We said our order, she checks, comes back saying it's being bagged up it'll be a couple more minutes. We sit down Waiting another 20 minutes. Tried getting the attention of one of the waitresses walking through and get ignored every time. In fact at one point she turned around when we said something but helped someone else. An older lady comes in she waits 5 minutes before getting asked. She says she has a to go order and we try getting attention again from the waitress. It was plenty loud enough to be heard. Ignored yet again. This elderly lady agrees that this is a ridiculous situation. So finally when we get our food we are visibly frustrated. Now I understand we didn't sound the nicest but the cashier's response was uncalled for. She said "oh that's nice", "aren't you just an authority on customer service" etc. We ask for the manager, said help these other two people with their to go orders but we want the manager. She goes "yeah that's great." Goes back and yells "an out of control customer in lobby wants to speak to you" (in no way were we out of control). The manager doesn't do anything but says "I'm sorry". We leave. Call the restaurant saying this needs to be fixed or they're getting a bad review and we will not be returning. We got several excuses. The order was lost The name was written wrong (which I saw the ticket it was the right name) They had a banquet so orders were slower (there were two occupied tables one of which left a few minutes after we arrived) They didn't offer any compensation or really any apology. We got a lot of "I understand but..." Which in reality saying that negates the...