Yangtze Restaurant — Restaurant in Saint Louis Park

Ordered shrimp in lobster sauce..asked the waitress if it was made with brown or white sauce..she said white I don't care for the white sauce and said I will try something else..she said oh we can make it with brown sauce I said ok great and my wife ordered honey walnut shrimp and she ordered pork wonton for a appetizer, when the wontons finally came we had no silverware no chopsticks nothing when we asked for some he walked to a table few feet away grabbed a fork and dropped it in front of Mt wife than I asked for mine he sighed and came back with one and dropped on the table and stormed away,we had to ask for water tea,and when the tea came no sweetener or spoons and to ask for everything that all restaurants have at the table,with the wontons came a plastic ketchup and muster squeeze bottles unmarked we found out the ketchup bottle was sweet and sour the muster bottle was hot muster we started to eat the wontons before we were done the same guy walk by gears both bottles and brings them to another table without asking are you done? Can I take these? Finally the food arrived the presentation was nice,I started on mine and realized they didn't make brown sauce but added some type of coloring to the white sauce what sauce there was and it had a after taste of chewing tobacco I couldn't eat it my wife's walnuts were burnt and the shrimp was tasteless,we both were very unhappy we waited and waited for the waitress to return to ask how everything was..never came back to the table,so we got up and went to the cashier then a man said how was everything my wife terrible the food is bad and I added the service was poor..now I'm not in the restaurant business but I would of ask what's wrong? Why did you think that what can I do to make this right instead he just walked away and the cashier handed me the check and said $45.95 not please or thank you! It was bad, then on top of it all we both got real intestinal sick!! I will spare you the details,if you have read my reviews in the past I'm pretty tolerant and try to give everyone a fair shake,people have bad days,the are employee issues etc.but this was beyond that,I guess the main point is there are always going to be problems with anything but it's how you deal with a problem if you try to make even a modest effort to correct the issue,so bad service,bad food bad...

Had high hopes for this place. Was not able to make it for dim sum, instead ordered take out. Positives are that the people on staff are helpful and friendly. Eventually though one has to eat the food they prepare, and this is where the negatives come in to play.

A rule of thumb I've developed over the years when trying a new Chinese restaurant, is to order certain key dishes. Specifically, lo mein, general tso Chicken, egg rolls, and pot stickers (aka fried dumplings). I've found if these dishes are welcoming to the palate, they will only act as the introduction for further dilish dishes to come. Let's examine:

Lo mein: flavors were wonderful, but texture was far off. Never had I ever eaten this dish where the noodles are comprised of common SPAGHETTI noodles. Yes, we got an Italian influence in this dish. Said switch of noodles changes the composition of said dish entirely.

Pot stickers: dumplings were cooked a bit more well than I'm used to, but the flavors and texture were still on point. The sauce however, was intolerable; a body sweat and vinegar like concoction I ended doing away with.

General tso: this by far was the most disappointing. The variety of vegetables in it made the dish seem more like a Kung Pao Chicken, rather than a general tso. The vegetables weren't even fully cooked! Texture for the chicken was wonderful, a nice level of crispness that would normally compliment the sauce. The sauce and general flavors of the dish were so off putting however, I made it halfway into my meal before tossing the dish out all together.

Egg rolls: did not get on this trip, but there will not be a second.

I have been working to try this place since November of 2016. I considered the build up to be the reason for my disappointment. The next day I tried one of my old haunts, in addition to providing leftovers to my pals. The concensus amongst us: we shall not be...

Good: I’ve worked and lived in China for almost 20 years and had dim sum countless times including the heart of dim sum in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. The good thing is that Yangtze Restaurant’s dim sum is possibly the closest you’ll get in terms of authentic dim sum flavor in Minnesota, perhaps reaching 85% with what I’ve had in China. Next level would be in a city with a bigger Chinese community such as Chicago, NY or San Francisco.

Bad: There’s unfortunately a lack of transparency with the dim sum menu in terms of pricing as there are no prices displayed. Of course, we should’ve asked since it was our first time but we did not wish to be rude and ask how much each dim sum cost. Also, it was really busy (Easter Sunday).

In the end, we ended up paying a total of $270 including tip and tax for 4 adults and 1 kid (photo of receipt below for reference). That’s about $90 per person since three of us decided to split the bill. When asked for an itemized receipt, it did not show which items were ordered. Instead, dim sum is categorized as medium, large and X-large prices.

In addition, our host decided to lecture us on how to fill out our dim sum order form. It was an honest mistake on our part but she didn’t have to be rude. But then again, we came on a busy Sunday and she had been dealing and yelling with customers the entire morning. Our server, a gentleman, was very nice to us however.

Area(s) to improve on: Improve dim sum menu which displays prices or at least allow customers to know which are priced which.

Also, improve host’s service with customers while waiting in line when it gets busy. Although not directed to us, it makes us feel uncomfortable. How would we know if the host will treat us any different?

Conclusion: Next time for dim sum, Yangtze Restaurant won’t be our immediate choice because we want to try out the other places in the Twin...