Yen Ching
9150 N. Michigan Rd
Indianapolis, IN
I used to work right across the street, but I found Sesame (then Cheng Du) and never looked back. One of my readers said they had the best Hot & Sour in town, so I had to check it out.
What I Ate: Hot & Sour Soup. Onion Beef. $5.95
Service was Soup Nazi-ish. People might say it is efficient, others might say it was unwelcoming.
Hot & Sour arrived about 4 seconds after I ordered. It was the standard Hot & Sour, over peppered and a touch too thick. It tasted exactly the same at the Food King on 86th St. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t unique.
Onion beef arrived quickly after. White onion, decent quality beef, no surprises here. Honestly, it was just boring, and flat out bad. My wife had Chicken Low Mein and that was really bad. Gravy based, stale mushrooms and lacked flavor as well. Meal was served with a Crab Rangoon and that was equally as disappointing.
Would I Buy It Again? No. Never again and the biggest No I can possibly give. A two course 24 minute lunch I wish that I could have back.
Most Importantly: Sometimes ethnic places can be a little dingy and that is part of the charm. I walked in and felt as if the place was a little dirty. Menu was dirty and we sat by a service table that was right in the middle of the restaurant. Fortune cookies were stuffed into old Foldgers cans and there was boxes, old phone books and junk piled around the welcome counter.
I look on the Marion County Health Department website and they had 14 violations (6 critical) on their last visit 2/24/09.
However, there were a lot of people there so they must being something right?!
-WIBIA
Tags: Chinese food, Indiana, Indianapolis, Indianapolis Food Reviews
No thank you! Good to know that if I’m every in MN not to go there
MN = IN !
It sure doesn’t look good! Thanks for the review!
That is surprising. I do take out from that Yen Ching every couple of months and I usually find it decent. They use white meat chicken (at least for the dishes I order) and I have found the quality a little better than both Sesame and Mandarin House. Overall, there is a severe shortage of good Chinese food in town (and Italian while I’m at it), but I find Yen Ching passable.
I agree with the good Chinese comment. I am tired of the run of the mill Chinese places, Great Wall #32 or whatever. They are all the same and not good. I usually get pork or beef at Sesame, I am not a fan of their chx.
Myself and some co-workers went there for lunch last week. It was…strange. We were all initially tickled about the low lunch prices, especially for what you get.
Two people commented that the Hot and Sour soup was WAY over peppered. My Egg Drop soup just tasted off. The actual food was okay I guess. Nothing special, I’ve had better generic Chinese at other places.
The waitress was the thing that spoiled it for us. She sat her drink tray on the table and asked us to place our checks and forms of payment on it. (Weird) Then the people who paid in cash, she counted out her tip from their tab at the table in front of everyone and pocketed it. When she returned with reciepts for those who paid with credit, she proceeded to stand over one co-worker as he signed. Then as he is signing, she asked if he was going to leave her a tip in cash (since I guess he didn’t write in one on the reciept?)
Everyone was pretty put off by the entire experiance.
I used to go here almost once a month since ’01, we always had good food and friendly service. The house beef was absolutely the best dish i ever had anywhere, the wife and I would always get a second order to go and have the next day. That being said, in early ’09 the service and food started to change. The house beef flavor changed completely not sure if it was a different chef or not. The server would tell us “oh you don’t want to order “that” order “this” instead its much better” then the recommended item would usually be subpar. The topped was one day we ordered the appetiezer platter and I have always liked toasting my steamed dumplings a bit over the flame and as I did so the server came up and said “No that is only for the skewered meat” and when i commented that I prefer it this way she scoffed shook her head and gave me a dirty look before walking away. That was actually late 09 and our last visit to a place that was always a goto restaurant.