Golden Empress Garden — Restaurant in Philadelphia

So, I decided that today was a Chinese food day but South Street has gone downhill and the majority of restaurants on the street have gone out of business or limited the quantity and usually the quality of their food. Golden Empress Garden has decided to become a take out only restaurant even though the residents of South Street, around 7th Street, are desperately in need of a sitdown Chinese restaurant in this area. Golden Empress doesn't care. They don't have to. They did allow me to sit and eat but everything was served in take out containers at the table which is a disappointment in itself. I've realized that you can't really depend on Golden Empress anymore. One month it's great food and the next month it's bad. Maybe they keep changing chefs. Today was a mix of both. The wonton soup was ok , but the broth was basically tasteless. The spring roll was horrible. Very small with a gooey meatless center. The hard noodles were stale. The pork fried rice was surprisingly good with a lot of pork and decent amount of flavor, except that it was better the last time I had it a couple of weeks ago. The hunan chicken actually contained a lot of real chicken. Not that rubbery stuff you usually get pretending to be real chicken at many Chinese restaurants these days. The only problem was that it didn't taste like hunan sauce and I had to add salt and plum sauce to make it taste more authentic. All in all, it was a mediocre experience and I don't think I'll be back for awhile. Especially since it's sad to sit at a take out...

Should've known something was amiss because the delivery was just wayyy too fast. Plant based and wanted to switch up usual spots to try someting different, which I'll never do again. Ordered that Vegetarian mock peking duck, which is advertised on Beyond Menu as being "made in a delicious sauce" which in actuality was made in NO sauce AT ALL, wrapped in flimsy tortilla shells(of all things) with lousy "pickled chinese cabbage", and served with COLD broccoli. The vegetarian dumplings were the only thing decent and worthwhile eating but they came with no dipping sauce(of course).

Below sub par establishment overall with near inedible food. Their time must have passed for offering a decent eating experience because I have no idea at all how they have the good reviews that they do at this point. There are plenty of far better Chinese restaurants in this city that either cater exclusively to plant based eaters ot have vegan/vegetarian selections than this place. It deserves zero stars and I definitely won't order from...

Just moved back to Philly from DC and was craving some Chinese. Wanted something semi-close as was being delivered so chose Golden Empress Garden. Was impressed by quite a few things:

(1) offered combos outside of just lunch hours. The combos let you choose either spring or egg roll (spring roll was very good) AND BROWN RICE DIDN'T COST EXTRA! I got the chicken w/garlic sauce with large chicken pieces & not a lot of "filler" vegetables (just broccoli, which was fresh).

Also got the Happy Family which was very good and a generous portion.

(2) choice of free items if you spend over $10 (! - refreshing)

(3) they use Beyond for delivery ($3), meaning the restaurant's own drivers vs. who knows w/other services with multiple orders

VERY IMPRESSED! May be a new customer, but I'll be...