Uncle Chen Asian Food — Restaurant in Winchester

We live south of Front Royal, but I am often up in Winchester doing errands, and I spotted the new "Uncle Chen Asian Food" sign, as I drove by Creekside Village on Route 11. So I stopped in to get take-out for my husband and me, and everything was wonderful! They also packed my take-out order so well that everything was still nice and piping hot when I got back to Front Royal with the food -- about a 45 minute drive. We loved that their menu is pan-Asian, not exclusively Chinese. We ordered seaweed salad, Wonton soup, Vietnamese Spring Rolls, Spicy Salt Shrimp, Basil Chicken, and Seasonal Vegetables. Everything we ordered was absolutely delicious! I can't wait until I am back in Winchester, so I can stop in again. If we lived closer, I am sure we would be eating there all the time! The restaurant is spacious and clean, and the staff were friendly and helpful. If I could offer some constructive feedback, I would ask that they describe each dish on their menu in more detail, so you know what you are getting with your selection. I think I frustrated the fellow who took my order, because I kept asking questions like "Does the Basil Chicken come with vegetables?" or "Do the Vietnamese Spring Rolls come with a sauce?" He didn't know and kept having to go into the kitchen to ask. A good restaurant menu usually comes with a full description of each dish, including what vegetables are in the dish, and what kind of a sauce, if any, the dish comes in, or is served on the side. We don't have any allergies, but I can imagine that people with allergies would also appreciate those kinds of descriptions, so they can steer clear of any ingredients they can't eat. Also, some dishes have names like "Dragon and Phoenix" that don't telegraph what they are. Yet the menu offers zero description. Perhaps Uncle Chen's will develop a more communicative menu as time goes on. For now, you will just have to pester the servers to tell you what's in a listed dish. Their current menu looks like a plastic placemat, so everything needed to fit on the limited two sides. And, to their credit, their menu is fairly extensive, so there simply isn't room to describe the food on a plastic mat. But even their online menu is equally cryptic -- no full descriptions of the dishes. Until they can afford to reprint multi-page menus, perhaps they could at least make their online menu more descriptive. (People in the Shenandoah Valley have probably all heard of "General Tso's Chicken," but they may not know what's in it, or whether the chicken is breaded or not.) I also noticed that some of the items listed in their online menu do not appear on the plastic menu they give you at the restaurant when you come in. After seeing their menu online, I ordered their scrumptious Vietnamese spring rolls, but I asked for it specially -- since it was not listed on the hardcopy menu. And the Vietnamese rolls need a description, since the roll is soft, unlike traditional Chinese spring rolls, and they contain yummy whole shrimp, not diced shrimp. They are delicious, but not as many people will ask for them if they're not listed on the menu or described! Please know this is meant to be FRIENDLY feedback -- we truly loved our take-out dinner from Uncle Chen's -- and we will...

Hardly know where to start! Great hopes for the grand opening. Read the online menu, so we ordered ribs, seaweed salad, shrimp dumplings and hot & sour soup to start. [Astonishing Chinese menu on one side of the plastic mat & Japanese on the reverse.] Ribs very large for the price, NOT BBQ, rather chewy, great sauce. Small seaweed salad with the usual cucumber padding & a pretty orange slice. Perfect dumplings. Soup very good, lots of seaweed and mushrooms (no shredded pork), needed a lot of black pepper and nothing on the table. [Here in 'Murica, we keep salt & pepper shakers, red & green Kikkoman's soy sauce & at Least One Kind of Hot Sauce On the Table.] White rice not sticky enough to eat with chopsticks (black lacquer & gold, heavy flatware!), cutesy teapot for soy a disaster: dripped everywhere! Nice chili paste, not too hot. The Shrimp in spicy garlic sauce (yu shung) was very good. First time I have had Chinese food that was not larded with large, half cooked, white onions! Really great presentation on big, china plates, but far, far too timid for me. More Garlic, More Fire. Plenty of fat shrimps, bamboo and water chestnuts, Home-made sauce, not the bottled, brown oyster sauce in my cupboard. Very well done. 'Fraid I didn't get to the Kung Pao chicken, but it has no dried black, little red chilies. This is an oxymoron for the next review!

Too late for the Kung Pao. The photo is my Chirashi sushi plate, a few days ago. Now, Chirashi is a bowl of rice covered in Sashimi. The presentation by this chef is masterful, as the rice was sticky enough to eat with the new brown wood chopsticks (thank you!) & decorated with something brown. The large, square plate was a work of art. Never been so impressed. Wife had a roll of some sort & very happy. Tea was good, drippy soy dispenser fixed (thank you twice); please get a liquor license, I...

I really hate leaving bad reviews for small businesses, but my experience here was so disappointing that I feel like I have to share it. I came in by myself for lunch, and from the very start things felt off. The host had AirPods in, didn’t greet me, and just dropped menus on the table without saying much.

He did bring a water quickly, but after that I sat for nearly 25 minutes while he and other staff walked past my table again and again without ever taking my order. I watched multiple other tables come in after me, get seated, order, and be served, while I remained completely ignored. Eventually I had to walk out, still hungry and frustrated.

I understand restaurants get busy, but this wasn’t about being short-staffed, it was about being overlooked entirely. It was bizarre, unprofessional, and honestly made me feel invisible. I truly wish my experience had been different, but after this, I can’t see myself...