Corner 21 Chinese Cuisine (Temporarily closed) — Restaurant in Springfield

In short: A must visit if in the Springfield, MO area. Exceptional food that far exceeded expectations while still being the higher end of a reasonable price. Tastes like fine dining, but for under $20 an entree.

The long: The two times I've been was clearly during the off hours between lunch and dinner, while the staff and/or their family are sharing a meal. A few folks always pop up to take my order and start food prep. The woman who took my orders was always polite and happy to offer suggestions when asked. Though slightly spicier than I prefer (mostly due to my getting less tolerant of the effects of spice as I've aged), the crispy fish was suggested on my first visit, and was overall delightful. The crispiness and thickness of the batter was near perfection. The dining area is small, maybe seating around 30 people, simple, and clearly about functionality over aesthetics. You shouldn't eat here for the decor, but it's worth considering since the food's aroma may entice you to start eating on the drive home. For my second visit, I said I wanted something that wasn't spicy and came in wanting to try one of the sweet and sour options. The sweet and sour pork and the cumin beef were both exceptional, again making it feel like I'd gotten something made by an experienced chef in a to-go box. The sweet and sour pork was thinly sliced and had a similar amazingly done fried batter akin to my fish from the first visit. I've never had sweet and sour pork where any attention had been given to the texture and mouth-feel. It was impressive. The beef was the first non-fried dish I tried here and it was also noteworthy, with a satisfying savory sauce and blend of greens / herbs. I rarely give out five stars, but the food has been truly exceptional both visits. Thus far, this has been the most impressive food I've encountered in Springfield. Highly...

I don't get it. I was really excited to try this place after reading all the rave reviews about authentic Chinese food. Placed a large order of 4 menu items: eggplant, chicken, enoki mushroom and brisket soup, and egg fried shrimp. The positives were that the sauces on the eggplant and chicken were very good. The portions are large. And the egg coating on the shrimp was phenomenal. Downsides: pretty expensive and not worth it in my opinion based on the items I ordered. However, the menu is large, so it isn't representative of all the food items. I am sure some items might be worth it, it just wasn't in my experience. Another downside was that the delicious coating on the shrimp was battered over the shrimp shell. So you couldn't just bite into it. You had to pick the coating off into a little pile of crunchies and then take the casings off the shrimp. It wasn't just the tail. The entire shrimp was like that. Then you had to eat a bite of unseasoned shrimp and a spoonful of the crunchy coating. Very unappetizing. Next, the soup was very disappointing. The meat was rubbery and the soup flavor was unbalanced. The leftover soup stayed in the fridge a few days as no one wanted to eat it. Lastly, the eggplant was super oily, making it soggy by the time we got it home and then left behind pools of oil when popped in the air fryer to warm back up. Again, pretty unappetizing. I wanted to love this place, but I don't think I will part ways with my dollars again to roll the dice on an...

The food is outstanding. I don’t throw that kind of language out there lightly, but every dish was truly outstanding, flavor, preparation, presentation. Outstanding. However the service, NOT READY FOR PRIMETIME. The wait staff were all friendly and pleasant, but very inexperienced and under trained. The kitchen staff cannot handle the dining room, whether it is staffing or training or setup, I don’t know, probably all three. Their add says “a great place for family dinner” or something close to that, but our family of 7 would disagree. We got our last entree 30 minutes after our first entree. The rest of us were literally done eating and our food boxed up. When we told them to forget the last two entrees , they said they were on the way, would be right out, and we waited another 10 minutes. When we told the owner, or floor manager , or whatever he was, instead of apologizing, or trying to work with us a little bit, he argued vehemently and told us we should have expected that kind of delay because “some things take longer to cook than others” He’s a jerk, his restaurant runs poorly, and when I spoke to him, it was easy to see why. The food is worth going back for. There are lots of items on the menu I would like to try. Will I ? Not...