Mandarin Wok

Hands down the best dim sum joint in the Central Illinois area (the BBQ Pork Buns are to die for), they offer classic southern Chinese dishes with choices of the typical American Chinese food like Orange Chicken.
A clean restaurant around the U of I (which is hard to find, believe me), and it’s the only place I’ve taken my friends to for some authentic Chinese food.

Um, it was okay. Came here for dim sum and incomparable to Chicago dim sum. The lady doesnt really act nice to us cause we arent chinese… The waitresses that were younger were nice and could speak to us so that was good. The deep fried taro smells like straight up Clorox and I was scared. However the worst part was a table of Chinese kids that were speaking loudly and said «WHITE PRIVILEGE» and looked back at me. Dont think ill come back here.

I would give zero star if I could. This place is a total rip off. They overcharge you everything and hope you will never notice. First time, I ordered steamed rice with variety meat, the owner asked me whether I would like sweet soy sauce or salty one. I said sweet. When I looked at my receipt, the number did not add up to what I saw on the menu. The owner explained that the sweet soy sauce was an extra $ 1. For a fucking tablespoon of soy sauce! Had I not asked she would never had told me. Second time, My friend wanted to come here. The owner asked whether I want pork belly or port tenderloin for a dish. I said belly, and a magical one dollar was added to my bill. Then I specially asked whether the rick comes with dishes or not. She said yes and secretly added another $ 2 to my bill. When I confronted her, she said the rice was $ 1 per person. At this point, I was beyond pissed by this dishonest act. WTF! Hell I will NEVER EVER return to this restaurant. I sincerely hope it goes out of business and someone honest can takeover this prime Green street location.

We waited for one hr and no dishes are offered, one star is the best comment I can give to this restaurant.

This place does not tell you that the rice that is normally supposed to come with your dish is an additional $ 1. The waitress did not even notify me. I ordered the hot pot and it wasn’t even a hot pot. There was no soup (WTF)! The food is oily and lacks flavor. Overall, I feel like I really wasted my money here.

Food was okay, not great but not bad. I got basil chicken and the sauce was good, but the chicken was inconsistently cooked. Also there was a long thin strip of aluminum foil in my food for some reason? I can’t imagine why this would happen. It’s also worth pointing out the health department has put a «must review again» sign on their door because it didn’t exactly pass it’s inspection. I don’t know about that, but I can verify the whole place was about as clean as a low end gas station, including menus and tables, which really bothered some of the people I was with. I’d give it 3 stars without this, but really, clean your place if you’re serving food.

This is a very good place for authentic southern Chinese food on campus. Even my parents (they are Chinese) like this place. I order their «chicken fried rice with salty fish» at least three times a month. It’s so good and absolutely authentic. It’s not getting five stars because you get less amount of food for the same price compared to four years ago. I guess this is predictable because of the inflation and increase in cost. This is also the only place serving dim sum in Champaign as of today. I can’t say it’s dim sum is great, but it’s acceptable if you are craving for some.

Alright, i’m back to not liking the dim sum here… I went in the other day, ordered my usual (hargow, siu mai„ eggplant, etc) and sat at my table. The tea was hot as usual… the floors were sticky, greasy and slippery. The food came out fairly quickly… the shiumai was an odd color… Rather than the mustard yellow color of the wonton wrapper, it was a weird dead brown hue… Everything tasted as if it was frozen or maybe made last week and pulled out of the fridge. YUCK. I looked around and noticed that everyone had order noodle soup bowls… phở, etc… I’ll do that next time. I question the health code standards here…

Small portions compared to the rest of the asian places on green st, especially when the price is almost the same. The food is good though.

The food is all right. Just like the other chinese restaurant on green street, the positioning of what kinda food it shall serve is very bad. How could a restaurant try to cook all styles of chinese food. Chinese cuisine ain’t American fried shit. Trying to make everything always end up failing at everything.

Amazed by the variety of choices. Dim sum is available. Tasty and authentic. The only concern is the unsanitary look.

Beware of dirty tricks!
I used to eat here frequently. However, my last two visits were terrible. The restaurant substituted a $ 14 fish dish for a $ 26 fish, without informing us. They simply served it. The first time I was not sure. The second time I asked and pointed out that it is a different kind of fish. They said they ran out of the fish I ordered, and reimbursed the price difference. But apparently they would just keep the overcharge if I had acquiesced.
And of course I am expected to be happy with a fish I haven’t even ordered.
Make sure you’re eating THE fish you ordered (not some cheap substitute) if you go to Mandarin Wok.

The variety of options for lunch, dinner, and/​or dim sum may seem a tad overwhelming, but any choice made is delicious and well-​priced. There is a menu with the usual dishes: beef, chicken, tofu, vegetable, eggplant, etc. However, there’s another menu that I would consider more authentic, and has gems like water spinach with fresh garlic, as well as non-​vegetarian friendly items such as beef tendon.
During my most recent visit my group ordered golden tofu with chili sauce, coconut milk cakes (dim sum), water spinach, cashew tofu, and chicken lo mein. All agreed that both tofu dishes were excellent, the water spinach is a new and delicious discovery, and we could eat coconut milk cakes all day if they’d hold still between our chop sticks. Even with lots of variety on the menus, quality at Mandarin Wok isn’t compromised.

Ohhh. how I miss this place. travelled to three cities after I moved from Champaign… this place still stands at the top… the best chinese I had in the last 5 yrs was here. never after… I have to make a trip to Champaign just for this place.

Mandarin Wok was one of the few affordable and authentic Chinese restaurants on the U of I campus.
The regular dinner menu is huge and the food is good. Dishes come out with pretty decent portions. My friends and I have often claimed Mandarin Wok as our official birthday dinner place. There are several tables meant for big groups and for college kids, we were never disappointed.
In addition, the clutch thing about this place is definitely the fact they they served dim sum. To me, that’s always a win.

How have i not reviewed Mandarin Wok yet? I’m a U of I alumni and this was the go to place for chinese peeps who wanted authentic yummy chinese food. I know it sounds strange that a school in the middle of corn fields could have excellent chinese food, but then again it’s an engineering school so you know what that means.
The fried tofu is SO GOOD here. I came back 9 years later for a reunion and the fried tofu was still amazing here. If possible, order off the mandarin menu and not the english menu. or at least say you want the «chinese style» and not american style dishes. yes, they make it both ways.
I live in the bay area now, and i still say this is one of the best chinese restaurants I’ve had, and especially for the midwest! Definitely better than most places in Chicago!

I must have spent thousands at this place when I was attending UIUC from 2002 – 2006 since it was directly across from my apartment and because I was too damn lazy to cook.
If you are not Chinese, I would definitely suggest to bring one with you to help dissect their massive Chinese-​written menu since it has all the goodies on there such as the oh-​so-​tender beef tendon.