House of Emperor

Fantastic. Fresh. Great service. This is our favorite place for perfectly balanced and fresh Chinese food. I’s a little far for us to drive when we’re in a hurry for a quick dinner, but that doesn’t stop us from going every now and then.

Eating dinner here just before Christmas 2015, was the best Chinese dining experience I have ever had. I just moved from and have been traveled and eaten a lot (albeit not to China). The service was impeccable, English-​speaking. The menu was extensive and easy to read but the server was able to guide us in a decision. The food was beautifully presented done perfectly. This was more of a fine dining experience than we had expected from a Chinese restaurant but the prices were comparable to others. I had scallops which were perfectly done, served on a bed of rice with some fabulous sauce. My husband had shrimp tempura done as light as a feather and a beef entrée.
Don’t let the strip mall location, décor and appearance fool you. Wish it was closer to home!
Now, I would not demote a star but we were disappointed that they close rather early, 9 o’clock. We felt a little rushed through our meal as the server had told us that before we ordered that the cook was about to leave.

I’ve been going to House of Emperor for years and it has always been one of my favorites. However, lately (in the last 6 months) things have changed. They used to be very good in food quality and value priced. Tonight I ordered carry-​out for my wife and myself and another couple. Their orders come in small and large portions. Among other things ordered, one of the items ordered was a large portion of shrimp and scallops which cost $ 20.95. Our total bill was $ 53.00. When we arrived at our friend’s house it appeared that they gave us the small order instead of the large so I called. I was told that the large order contained 6 jumbo shrimp and 6 scallops. They must use their own system for determining what is considered «jumbo» because this was anything but jumbo. I was handed off to someone name Nancy who said she would tell the owner. That did me little good since we were getting ready to eat. That was the worse $ 20.95 I ever spent. To be honest, given their response and their pricing, my wife and I will probably not be returning. I say this despite being a loyal customer for years. Perhaps, just perhaps, they’ve grown to the point where they feel that they price their food at $$$ or $$$$ levels instead of the $$ it really deserves. Very disappointed! Goodbye House of Emperor!

Came to House of Emperor with my parents a week or so ago. The waitress who helped to serve our food was very kind and helpful. However, the food as well as the appearance of the restaurant was very lacking. My parents got two lunch specials, one black pepper fish and one fried pork chops. Both flavors were pretty average. There was nothing truly special about them. I got a 咸鱼茄子煲 (Salty fish with eggplant casserole) which was surprisingly tasty. However, all of the food items were slightly too salty. Probably will be skipping this restaurant next time.
Pros:
–Good Service
Cons:
–Restaurant was fairly dark
–Food too salty

This place doesn’t look like a bad cantonese american takeout joint, but it was definitely amongst one of the worst food experiences I’ve had in life.
Most of their dishes come out in a dark snot goo, full of starch and soy sauce. Utterly disgusting. Never even going to consider coming back before they change up the menu and chef.

House of Emperor should be renamed to House of Serf.
They definitely have changed, and not for the better.
The recipes are different. We have been getting the same dishes many times over the last 10 years and tonight THEY WERE AWFUL! We have never had Sesame Shrimp that tasted so bad.
We asked the busboy and he explained that they had changed the recipes. We should have guessed that when the waiter could not take our order for the dishes we have been getting all these years.
At least the busboy was honest — the waiter kept spewing out platitudes andwas completely inept. We asked him for straws for our water, and he just dropped them on the table, after 15 minutes. Seriously, are you going to put something in your mouth that has been on a table like that? Then when we asked for replacement straws, he brought them out with his hands all over them. Nope, not professional. He should have brought them out in a napkin or something else. He had no idea how to deliver straws.
It took 10 minutes for our second dish to come out and then the noodles were BURNED! We’ve never had that before! They used to get the dishes out within a few minutes of each other and they have never burned the noodles before.
And our vegetable gon chow dish was more like a stew or soup, there was so much sauce, even though we had specifically asked for «light sauce.»
This used to be one of THE best Chinese restaurants in the western suburbs. It is truly tragic that they have fallen so far in a very short time. We won’t be back.
There used to be some professional management at this restaurant — there was a woman who watched over everything.
Maybe the real management and chefs were gone over the holidays or something, but IT TRULY WAS AWFUL and not worth the money.

A visiting friend of mine picked up food from here before coming over and immediately regretted it. The appetizers were bland, soup tasted like it came out of a huge pot and has been sitting there all day and for how much they charged us, the entrees were disappointing. The shrimp dishes hardly had any shrimp; they didn’t even ask before adding the additional $ 4 for extra shrimp, and disappointingly they packed all the big pieces of shrimp on top so once you pick off the top layer there’s hardly any more! we didn’t get a single dish that we were absolutely happy about and it’s always such a horrible experience here.

Food was cold, and we when called to complain, they were rude and told us never to call them again. Food wasn’t even worth it

Extremely disappointing experience.. I ordered a paid Thai combo for $ 10.95… when I got there to pick it up they told me my total was $ 2 more than I thought… I inquired and they said that to give me more meat they charged me for a shrimp pad Thai and added chicken… meal is horrible no matter what! Hardly ANY shrimp, next to no chicken, and lots of egg shells throughout.. plus, they never even asked if I minded the supposed «upgrade» and charged me $ 2 more for nothing! Total rip off… my husband actually got food poisoning several years ago there and they refused to acknowledge it… I won’t ever eat there again.

Ordered carryout. Came home and found the order wasn’t complete. Called manager (Amy). Went back to pick up the rest and the food was rancid. Enough said.

I’ll give no stars for cleanness for this place. Just think about how to clean their kitchen is probably packed with roaches and rats!
And the service is so bad that they don’t know how to deal with customers.
I’m not just writing this review to bad mouth this restaurant if you don’t trust me you can see how dirty the tables and the chairs are…
Well long story short if you don’t want to get sick eat elsewhere.

Great food! Place is a little outdated though and service is typical in any Chinese restaurant, confusing to order and the usual communication problem. The bathroom sanitation should be addressed right away… very dirty.

Yum! Quite simply the best Chinese food in Naperville. The spring rolls are crispy and light, the dishes are all very flavorful.

We used to be regulars here many years ago, but stopped after a management change led to declining quality. Recently revisited and it was good to see the quality is back. Very good Peking Duck here. Always liked their bbq pork fried rice, but didn’t order it this time. We’ll be back!

Have they lost their magic? My latest visit wasn’t as good as I remember. Could they just have had a bad noght? Triple lobster sauce was my go-​to dish, but was nothing like I remembered.

The carryout is just as good as eating in, I don’t recall why I said differently in my original review. They do an excellent carryout business. One tip, if you like your rice, they provide only half of what is typical, but you can get more by asking, no extra charge. Online orders save 10%. this is a great place…

The inside could use a little updating. The menu had a wide variety of offerings which was nice. Having the craving for Chinese food I decided to check it out. Ordered the potstickers and shared the beef and broccoli. The potstickers were large, but the dough was kind of thick. The large portion of the beef and broccoli was more than enough for 2 people to share. The service was not bad, it just took longer than I would expect between appetizer and entrée. We were there for almost 40 minutes from the time we sat down to waiting for our entrée. Don’t expect to be in and out very quickly. On a side note I did notice one of the carts used to serve the food also had a the tubs used to bus tables a shelf below. Overall the food was good, but I will try other options in the area prior to returning.

We finally got to HOE for the first time even though we have lived in the area for many years. I was a little worried because HOE has gotten some one and two star reviews lately. I don’t know when those Unilocalers were in but our experience was quite different.
We were there for dinner, 6:00 PM, on a Friday. The first thing we noticed was a number of to-​go orders on the counter. From our table we could see the front counter. There was a constant stream of people picking up to-​go orders the entire hour that we were there.
We were seated and our server, Ham, was there with water and a pot of hot tea almost immediately. We started with 2 glasses of wine, hot and sour soup and some spring rolls. The soup was not gelatinous like a lot of places. The soup was good but the flavor was helped by a good shot of soy sauce. The spring rolls were crispy. The wrappers were a little thick making them hard to cut.
Next we ordered shredded beef tenderloin with vegetables and vegetable chop suey. The beef was a little soft but the dish was otherwise very good. The beef dish had fish sauce in it. Maybe this is because it was in the «Traditional Chinese» section of the menu. The chop suey was also good but needed a little more flavor. Maybe some garlic. The real test is «Would you order it again?» For everything we had the answer is, Yes.
Our server, Ham, provided excellent service. He was polite and efficient. Dirty plates were removed promptly. He always asked before he took anything off of the table. After serving food he would wait a few minutes and then stop by to ask if everything was OK.
We will be back.

Love, love, love the place! I have brought many guests here for dinner as well and never once have we been in even slightly disappointed. From the service to each of the many dishes.
They are the Best!

I see I’ve never written a review here. Hmmm.
I’ve been going here for YEARS! I don’t know why this place doesn’t have four stars at least… It’s always packed with to-​go orders. I probably eat here once ever two weeks. I’m pretty plain and get the chicken fried rice :) but mmmmmm it’s yummy!
Random… They make amazing Piña Coladas! LOL. Oxymoron right? I promise their drinks are good!
The service is excellent and they are always extremely friendly. The inside is clean and cute for a date or family dinner. I have been here for a large party dinner party and they put that on very nicely. They cover the table and put a lazy susan in the middle of the table so all can share. Very nice!