Ming Shee — Restaurant in Peoria

It's not that Ming Shee is pretending to be something that it is not, but this Chinese restaurant doesn't quite warrant the accolades and following that it has. (on that note, I suspect that most of its popularity comes from the Bradley crowd who are either unable or hesitant to venture out to other places)

I am a big fan of General Tso's chicken and typically use that as my measuring stick for judging a new location. I was intrigued by the Dragon & Phoenix special which was General Tso's chicken with shrimp and decided to get it. What I received was the GTC with its sauce (more on that later) on one half of the container and a shrimp and veggie mix in it's own sauce on the other half. Was kind of expecting GT sauce on everything.

Thankfully, there were no fatty chicken pieces. However they were all too "uniform" for my liking. (weird critique, I know, but I associate this with the difference between carbon-copy Mcnuggets made of ground-up mystery meat and natural chicken strips) And the sauce was just disappointing. I would've mistaken it for Orange chicken had it more flavor. (In fact, there were two large orange slices mixed in...again, wrong dish?) There was also no heat, despite the chili pepper icon on the menu. And yes, I'm aware that most Chinese takeout joints in America dial it down, but this almost seemed like false advertising.

The other underwhelming item was the crab Rangoon. It looked kind of like a mini, geometrically-folded burrito and lacked the signature "crispy" texture you find with good crab Rangoon. Again, flavor was lacking.

If you've actually read all of the above, this review may be seen as harsh. It's not meant to be... I'm just being honest. The TL;DR would be: acceptable option if you has no other alternatives; you won't really regret your decision, but don't expect...

I honestly don't know why this restaurant has such good reviews. First, my order was VERY EXPENSIVE! The food was very bland for Asian food. I use to live in East Peoria on the Washington border and I use to order from Cherry Garden. Hands Down Cherry Garden is delicious. Now I am in Peoria, and my family was craving Chinese food so I went through door dash. With all the fees and charges it really left a sicking feeling in my stomach because, Ming Shee was not worth even half of what I paid. Let me start with the garlic chicken the sauce was a watery pinkish color, the flavor was weak. The Moo Goo Gai Pan, it looked like someones dog chewed the chicken into pieces the flavor was halfway decent. The mongolian beef was hands down the worst I have ever tasted, I think there was maybe 5 pieces of beef. The peanut butter chicken, it looked like Pilgrims pride chicken cut into strips with a small amount of glaze. If you have ever tired the peanut butter chicken from Cherry Garden you will understand why I am so disappointed. I gave it 2 stars because, my daughter loved the Mei Fun. Look at the photos, does this look like 100 dollars worth of food? No one started eating anything until I could get pictures to show the amount...

Review Date: September 29th, 2014

Ming Shee is good. Ming Shee is delicious. Ming Shee is a must try.

In my quest to try any and all ‘hole in the wall’ Chinese restaurants, I convinced my friends to come to Ming Shee’s for lunch one day. One of my friends had been here before and vouched for the deliciousness. Another friend and I were first timers. So off to get food we go.

The locale is off of fairly busy University street, so it’s an easy place to access. Upon getting there, we were greeted by a lovely staff who sat up promptly. The interior decor was pretty cool. It is more than your typical ‘order and leave’ place that has 3 tables. They do have carry out, but this is more restaurant-like. So the interior is more spruced up and has a lot of Chinese charm to it.

We ordered our food and it came out fairly quick. I got your plain chicken fried rice and it was pretty dang good. My tastes have expanded since visiting here, so I am curious to try their General Tso’s some day! I think they also had beer available, but I am not 100% sure on that.

But, all-in-all, it was a pleasant lunch with friends and good food. What more could...