Canton Inn — Restaurant in Springfield

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Canton Inn, at least 12 years or longer.

I was in town for the weekend so I wanted to hit up some of my old favorites to see how they were holding up. Canton Inn is a tiny little building on Sunshine that has about 10 booths and that’s it. It’s not fancy or heavy on ambience. It’s really just has great, freshly made Chinese-American food.

One of the first things I notice is that a lot of people get take-out, I think that’s such a shame to do to freshly prepared food though, I guess sometimes you just have to be somewhere else..

One of the great treats is sitting in one of the small booths here and having a fresh plate of Cashew or Sesame Chicken come out and delivered to your table that is piping hot and with the delicate breading still so crispy and the sauce just seems so much lighter before it’s been sitting in a container for 30-45 minutes soaking altogether.

We had both the Sesame and the Cashew chicken, the latter which I think was superior. I’m not real big on Cashew chicken, usually I want something with bolder flavor. It just seems to me like maybe Cashew chicken is Chinese food for people who don’t really like Chinese food. However, for what it is, it is a great specimen, it’s simply, fresh, and satisfying.

The food here is really reasonably priced, like I said though, it’s not fancy. It comes out on a little plastic plate, with you side of rice and crab rangoon. You can get a tall plastic cup filled with your favorite soft-drink and watch whatever is on TV. It definitely has a cozy,...

When people come to Springfield, Missouri and get wind of cashew chicken, they hear about “Leongs”. Now, no disrespect on Leongs, but Canton Inn has perfected the dish as well as made it affordable. I have lived in Springfield my entire life, and have eaten at nearly every Chinese restaurant available. Canton Inn is superior. They are down-to-earth, no frill, high quality American-Chinese food genius’s. For one, the atmosphere is nostalgic and warm. The yellow building adorned with a black and red sign just speaks of the longevity of the establishment (please never change it). Next, it travels well. I remember my parents bringing home Canton and it still being fresh and fantastic. Now, most importantly, the flavor! The sauce is dark, thick and so flavorful. Many local places have a thin, light colored sauce that is too heavy on the oyster. Canton Inn has created something truly special. It doesn’t taste fake and boring. It is perfect. The rice is the best in town. It doesn’t taste like plastic. It is fresh and extremely flavor bursting with onion and soy flavor. The egg rolls are PACKED! And fried to perfection. And my personal favorite aside from the premier dish? THE CRAB RANGOON! Ughh finally, crab rangoon that isn’t sweet without the sauce. Perfectly fried with the perfect salty cream cheese and crab flavor that feels oh, so right. Please visit canton inn! You won’t regret it. Besides their cashew chicken, they have a much higher quality tasting general and sesame chicken. Totally unlike the fast-food quality dishes their...

Look, I very rarely write bad reviews, but with as unacceptable as this was I just had to. Ordered dinner for the Mrs and I since our usual Chinese takeout place was closed.

I had the Generals Chicken, this was served SWIMMING in a container of sauce with as much garlic as they could add. Flavor wasn’t great and with so much sauce is just wasn’t appealing. Why bread and fry chicken if you’re going to soak it in so much sauce it’s practically a soup anyhow?

The Mrs has the Beef & Broccoli, that had to be tossed immediately. It looked fine, but the beef reeked and tasted super strongly of fish. This was supposed to be beef, mind you. Why does it smell and taste like 3 day old fish?

The rice served with the order was a rather small portion. I was expecting plain white rice but received a “semi-fried rice(?)” thing instead. I was basically just rice stir-fried with an onion, that’s it. I would have been fine with it except the rice wasn’t fully cooked and had a hard crunch interior.

Overall not great, I made the Mrs toss the Beef & Broccoli as soon as I tasted it after she said it tasted funny, and I couldn’t stomach more than a few bites of the General Chicken. 1/5 stars, would...