Han Dynasty Exton — Restaurant in West Whiteland Township

I like Szechuan cuisine and heard the Han Dynasty in Philadelphia is good, so my wife and I decided to give it a try when we found out that there’s a Han Dynasty in Exton.

Our experience was unfortunately less than positive, and involved the ambiance, service and quality. The restaurant was not playing music of any kind, making the background noise all the louder. No business is perfect, but there was an employee working their way throughout the restaurant while sweeping the floor. This was done while patrons were eating, and involved sweeping garbage into a receptacle, and the broom stick smacked into the box over, and over, and over – loudly. This went on for close to 10 minutes

Despite the kitchen being separated from the patrons, the sound of clanking dishes on the floor and backhouse was unbelievably loud. I couldn’t carry a conversation with my wife even though we were a few feet from each other.

Despite two staffers being near the desk, the front desk phone kept ringing and no one was answering it. For fun, we counted, and the rings went on for 40 seconds at a time. Nobody near the phone picked it up, nobody on the floor cared enough to address the noise. So very loud.

We had time to notice the noise due to the length of time between courses – it took forever to bring out the meals, and was asked by at least two separate servers if they could take our order. There was no sweetener on the table, and the tea was bland.

The egg roll took close to 10 minutes to arrive and was very dry, chewy, and served room temperature. The scallion pancakes were very greasy, the dumping and oil was bland, the eggroll filler was mushy and flat. The entrees were unfortunately worse. The kung pao chicken was full of cartilage and inedible; it had huge pieces of garlic in it, and I love garlic, but this too was inedible as it was flash cooked - firm and raw. The garlic beef was also full of cartilage and tough, and was not appetizing, nor was the sauce.

They were accommodating and took the chicken off the tab, but with the lack of ambiance and quality of food - and no fortune cookie - our experience wasn’t the same as many reviewers. I understand the business is BYOB, but one customer brought an entire case of beer with him, placing it on the table next to us as he waited for his...

Update: Oct/Nov 2024 The quality is not what used to be, always a hit or miss(more misses than hits). the general tso's sauce even with extra spicy was like sweet and sour sauce. i still continue to go there with the hope that the quality would get back and become consistent.

Update: July 2022 5 stars all the way ! Han Dynasty dine in after 2 years !!! There is a new chef, but the food is spot on with taste and flavor. we had 1 dish that we tried which was new for us (something in spicy chilly oil entree) and that was disappointing compared to the others but everything else was awesome. if you like american chinese with authentic chinese heat ...this is the place. Cant wait to go back !

Recent Edit: July 2019 Raised rating from 1 to 4 stars !!

I gambled going back to Han dynasty since we chose not to go to Indian Hut ( Indian restaurant in the same strip mall). We were glad we went back. The quality was good. Looks like the chef changed. Thier Gen. Tso's chicken is amongst the top 5 you would have eaten if not the best. I did consider it the best in a very long time.

The Tofu Kung Pao was very good too. What I did not like was their hot chili oil that I wanted to add ..tasted rancid. Avoid it

Over all good and think a visit will not be regreted..on my list to visit again.

......... From 2017 Fall of the dynasty !!.....I have been visiting this since it's opening and can truly say that now the laurels can only be from the past. The CNN top 50 restaurants in US banner is now deceptive. Against my Chinese friends recommendation who said that it's not the same hand dynasty anymore, I visited because of my loyalty. Now I know why. Quality of the food gone done. Too much oil and sodium Quantity has gone done. Service has gone down. Very rigid. Take it or leave it policy . No changes permitted. I have found an alternative to han..It's lemon tree in the acme store strip mall in...

I have had good experiences with Han Dynasty in the past, but things seem to have gone downhill significantly! I placed a takeout order a few months ago that was not good, but I thought it was a fluke. Tonight we ordered takeout. I was looking for simple, familiar American flavors, but better quality meat and vegetables than the usual joints. So for the first time, I ordered from their "Americanized" menu figuring that it would surely be better than a tiny strip mall takeout only spot, especially considering everything is double the price. I don't often leave negative reviews, but this was absolutely terrible and also expensive. You don't want to eat here.

The Mongolian beef, which I expected to be beef with green onions, was bits of rubbery, underseasoned meat mixed with a random assortment of vegetable pieces. No onions, green or otherwise, but some mushrooms (maybe?) and a couple of bits of red pepper. It was also a very sparse amount, there was only about 1/4 cup of beef. I know, because I pulled it out to try to reseason and salvage dinner. And it's not like they skimped on the meat and gave a lot of vegetables either. There was only about 1/3 cup of vegetables including the brown, floppy, mushroom-like things. This dish cost more than $17!

The general tso's chicken was at least chicken breast. But instead of bite sized pieces, battered, fried, and coated in a sweet/spicy sauce, it was abnormally large, flavorless chunks, rolled around in an equally flavorless sticky red sauce. With literally one sad shriveled up piece of broccoli. To rescue this, I cut each chunk into 3 pieces and tried reseasoning, but it was also beyond repair. I paid more than $15 for this atrocity.

This was completely inedible except for the plain white rice, which I used, along with whatever I had in the fridge to eke out a dinner of fried rice. We threw away the rest. $50 in...