EMei 峨嵋 — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Food is good but went here recently but the waiter was so weird and rude. When I go to good Chinese restaurants I’m not expecting the best service but this was another level of making us feel so uncomfortable.

He first started asking us if we wanted hot tea or water and I said both bc I’m a regular and usually get both and he hesitated and grunted and said it was an extra charge. After a little uncomfortable silence he said he’s just kidding. Ok whatever no big deal. Then I tell him its my friends first time, does he have any recommendations and he said well what do you want and gave her some recommendations which were good and then said well we have chicken beef fish crocodile skin and listed some other outrageous things that made me realize he was joking so I joked back asking if they had alligator skin and he didn’t like that so he just stopped talking to me and walked away. Didn’t say a word. And then we asked for sharing plates which he suggested which was nice and then when we asked for one extra and our table was full he just stood there not saying a word until we started moving items on our table and then he put it down and walked away. Again without saying anything. He kept standing in a pose with his hip, leg, and arm out like he was irritated with us for not immediately grabbing it. At that point my friend and I both felt weird and mentioned it to each other how weird the vibes were. And then he would bring the rest of our dishes and not say anything and walk away. He didn’t talk to us for the entire meal after. Then I asked him for something to go which he pulled out his tablet for and I didn’t realize he fully put it in, and when I realized he had it put in. I asked for it gf. I understand I should’ve mentioned that beforehand so I take full responsibility but he responded by making a grunting noise and AGAIN walked off. This time he came back and said he has to go tell the kitchen which I understood. Then I asked for more water at some point and then he said it’s an extra charge joke again. Then he came to me to tell me I looked familiar and named places I’ve never been to and said oh I’m not sure but I’ve been here to emei maybe that’s where. Then AGAIN just walked off. Then he came back with the check after we asked, and he just stood there and waited until one of us grabbed it without saying a word to us. Then he came back for us to sign the check and then started talking again. And then he left us alone.

I’ve been a waitress for 4 years and I’m an avid lover of Chinese food. I’ve been to emei several times and customer service isn’t Michelin star level but they usually aren’t weird and make you feel uncomfortable and just walk away mid sentence while also being nice and then stop talking to you and also making weird jokes. We wanted to grab our food and leave because the whole interaction was so strange. I used to love coming to this place for the food and vibes and love bringing my friends here but after bringing my friend here for her first time after raving to her about it, I will not be mentioning this place. There’s many other Chinese restaurants in that same area that don’t have this rude customer service. It’s not worth your time coming here if you’re being...

We arrived around noon for a party of 4. Although the restaurant was busy, we were seated almost immediately. The staff were quick to give us drinks and provided us ample time to review the menu before ordering. We got water and hot tea; I think the tea may come with an extra surcharge. There is lighting directly above each table that I recall were a bit strong, but they were overall tolerable.

The menu items are written in both English and Chinese, which is great if you’re bringing anyone who only reads/speaks Chinese. Some of the wait staff can also speak and understand Chinese in addition to English. They also do ask what level of spiciness you would like for each dish, though I don’t remember seeing a spiciness scale on their menu.

We ordered: Sizzling Black Pepper Sliced Steak 铁板牛肉 Braised Pork Belly With Bok Choy 外婆红烧肉 Stir-Fried Spicy Pork Cracklings With Fresh Long Hot Peppers 小炒猪蹄 Stir-Fried Cabbage With Dried Chiles 手撕包菜

The dishes came out relatively quick and the serving size is more than enough to share with others. For reference, ordering 4 dishes to share between 4 people, we ended up bringing 1 box full of food home.

Sizzling Black Pepper Sliced Steak 铁板牛肉 came out first. It was served in tin foil on top of a hot stone plate. The dish was great. The beef and vegetables were cooked well and the sauce complemented the dish. There are black pepper flakes in the dish, as the name suggests, but it was not spicy at all. I would definitely order this dish again.

Braised Pork Belly With Bok Choy 外婆红烧肉 was also good. The pork belly slices were very tender and the taste profile is definitely more subtle than the steak dish. The bok choy was a little underwhelming, which may be due to the already subtle taste of the dish overall. It was good to try this dish for our first-time visit, though I probably would opt for a different pork/pork belly dish next time.

I wasn’t too sure what to expect when we ordered Stir-Fried Spicy Pork Cracklings With Fresh Long Hot Peppers 小炒猪蹄. As you can see in the pictures, it comes out with smaller cuts of pork skin/meat with vegetables. The meat was tender, the vegetables were cooked well, and the sauce was on the saltier side. I don’t eat pig skin often, if at all, so I don’t have much to compare it to.

Stir-Fried Cabbage With Dried Chiles 手撕包菜 was great, but I think we ordered it a bit too spicy. The dish is exactly as the name suggests. I’m not sure if they have this dish available without the peppers for those who aren’t able to eat dishes that are too spicy.

Overall, EMei is a great spot to check out if you’re looking for authentic Chinese food. The portion sizes are big and great for sharing. I would definitely recommend getting the Sizzling Black Pepper Sliced Steak 铁板牛肉 and the Stir-Fried Cabbage With Dried Chiles 手撕包菜 dishes, but you probably won’t go wrong with anything else on the menu. Staff are welcoming and accommodating, service was amazing despite how busy it was, and the...

I remember when EMei was authentic and really good.; sadly those days are behind it. I started going there when it first opened, in all of its bright lighting, Asian themed wallpaper, white and red table cloths, slightly kitchey décor touches and those giant round tables that sat 10 to 12. The food, ambience and vibe of the place back then reminded my wife and me of the many Szechuan places we ate at during our visits to China. It wasn't just good, it was THAT good! It was tongue-tingling mind-numbing deliciously authentic Chinese! And it was closer and even better than the Chinese restaurants in NYC that also served up Szechuan food. EMei was a real gem.

We've been back many times since they've updated the place (and the menu), and we've slowly watched EMei change with the times and evolve (devolve?) into a pretty Westernized version of what I call a "pretty darn good white-boy Chinese" restaurant. First, kudos to EMei for updating its décor, and giving newer customers a comfortable, slightly upscale version but hardly recognizable as Chinese dining environment. It was crowded and noisy when we were there and I wish them continued success.

But of the all of the changes they've made to the place, the food and the vibe seem to have suffered most. Everything now is a bit too polished and less authentic. It feels almost too hip (the hipster guy next to me was having sake with his vegan dish!) and it was a seemingly apt metaphor for a restaurant has lost its cultural identity food-wise. It felt like a Disney themed restaurant, it was so generic. Oddly, the spices in all of the dishes we ordered also seemed to have been toned down. Nothing was sufficiently spicy, or hot, or "ma la" (that's the numbness from Szechuan pepper corns). Some spices were completely absent, not just in the dish but, apparently, also from the entire restaurant. For instance, after we asked, we were told that there was no five-spice dipping salt or hoisin sauce that was available to go with our tea smoked duck, but there was chili oil. In all fairness, our waitperson was not Asian and literally had no idea what we were referring to when we asked for dipping salt, and some of this may have been lost in translation when he went to the kitchen to inquire about them. We might not have had the same result if our waitperson was Chinese or more familiar with Szechuan cuisine. FWIW, he was also M.I.A. for much of the meal, so he was not the best server we've ever had.

Hey, there was nothing wrong with the dishes we ordered except they were missing the intense flavors and sensations that we've come to associate with Szechuan cuisine. The flavors were muted or missing, and as a result, the food was just "meh." It was a distant memory of what it once was. I'm sure that somewhere in Chinatown there is a legit, authentic Szechuan restaurant, but despite its popularity and past reviews, in my opinion, it's no...