Yen Yen Restaurant — Restaurant in Wheeling Township

Update - I was pleased to finally see YEN YEN open again, considering the extent of the ongoing pandemic. They seem to have survived O.K. with carry out and delivery. I am even more pleased to find that the quality of the food is consistent again and the portions are still huge without any outrageous price increases. I can see that they are struggling with the help situation. Thank GOD for DANNY ! Anyhow, I felt in all fairness to upgrade my rating. Actually I'd give them about 4.5 starts. They are worth the trip for good Cantonese food.

OLD REVIEW Yen Yen is still our go to place for Cantonese food, but lately, since the restaurant has been closed for inside dining, I have had 3 occasions where we felt the food was way below their usual taste and quality. As an example, I pay for an extra ingredient in a dish and when I get the food home, I have difficulty even finding the extra ingredient. Also the portions stated as "large", aren't the same as dine in and for the same price. Most of all, I don't know what's going on with their cooks. They always have had the same chef cooking when inside dining was possible. Now it seems that every time I get a carry out, it tastes different and sometimes even looks different. I think they need to get their act together and provide the same uniformity and quality as has always been the case when inside dining was possible. I'd like to be able to upgrade my...

DO NOT GO HERE IF YOU HAVE ANY ALLERGIES AT ALL THEY WILL TRY TO KILL YOU AND NOT CARE! We went to Yen Yen for my birthday and I ordered the Imperial Vegetable dish because it didn't say that it had pea pods and I am allergic. When the dish came it had pea pods, I let the server know that I was allergic and sent it back. She said they would make a new one, but all they did was remove the pea pods and send it back out. After eating it I found one of the pea pods that they hadn't removed and my daughter found another in hers. I could already feel that I was having an allergic reaction and we told the server who apologized and sent over the manager who was not very nice about it. They didn't seem very concerned about the issue but sarcastically offered to call an ambulance. At this point I had no voice and was having trouble breathing but I didn't want to turn it into a big ordeal and was hoping the reaction would just go away on its own. I am still waiting for my voice to come back and my headache to go away, but I haven't gone to the emergency room yet, if it gets worse I'll have to but for now I'm just praying it'll get better soon. If someone had a worse allergic reaction, they could be dead but don't worry they'll offer to call you an ambulance instead of actually avoiding trying to kill you in the first place by doing the right thing and...

Yen Yen- the place so nice I reviewed it twice. Let's be blunt here, we've been having some issues in the Arlington Heights area for a while now getting high quality Asian cuisine. Apart from the issues that made the local news that we all heard about, I saw my previous place (NOT Yen-Yen) let a customer (a sweaty landscaper at lunch time) into the cooking area to scoop his own food. I was shocked and never went back, and neglected to bomb them in reviews because they are normal people and not some corporation that can afford to be cancelled.

Why do I bring up this horror story? Because we've all got one like it around here. After doing the local rounds and finding most places to be about on par with what you can find at an airport, I found Yen Yen. Awesome food, always accurate with your order, and the place is CLEAN. Clean, clean, clean. If you care about that sort of thing in Arlington Heights, you have absolutely nothing to lose.

I recommend the spicy chicken, any satay dish, wonton soup and princess chicken WITH sauces. Also their fried rice is excellent and fried rice is a make or break for me....