Charles Plaza

Wonderful place! My large group (sorority) rented out most of the restaurant for a large dinner and the service was fantastic (especially considering the size). The food was good, the atmosphere is nice. The owner was extremely accommodating and friendly! Normally most owners get frustrated with the size of a large group but this restaurant really knew how to pull off serving a large party quickly and without rushing us. May not be right for date night but definitely a great place for groups!

Where has Charles gone?!? I recommended Charles Plaza to friends. When they got there tonight there was a note on the door saying «Goodbye and thanks for 20 years.» Please tell me Charles is opening a new restaurant somewhere else!

Really great food and the owner is very nice. The food is fresh – we saw them cutting the tops off the green beans when we came in. Both the wan ton soup and the orange chicken were sooo good. My sister is vegetarian and had a green bean dish with black bean sauce that was to die for with imitation pork. The flavor of the food was authentic. A great, homey atmosphere and such a pleasant experience – thank you!

This is a BYOB place, which is why I was taken here. The people I was with wanted to drink on the cheap, and they knew that the people who own this place would not protest to whatever quantity of alcohol we brought.
I will say that I was warned that the food was not the best at Charles, but the food was worse than I expected. The food has no flavor whatsoever, and the spice of the food is not enjoyable.
I will say that the staff was gracious and allowed us to talk uninterrupted, but this place is not worth a visit.

I got to meet Charles as I was leaving, and both he and the woman I assume is his wife are very friendly! Throughout the dinner, they helped make our experience as enjoyable as possible, seating us where it was coldest from the air conditioning (it was a hot day) and happily explaining anything on the menu I was curious about. The food was great too, my friend and I split shrimp fried rice, seaweed soup, and bird in nest. The soup was great, managing to have enough flavor not to be boring but not too much flavor to be difficult to eat. The rice was very flavorful, my new personal favorite fried rice in fact. The bird in nest was also delicious, grilled chicken and vegetables in a dried noodle basket, covered in sauce. I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to eat it at first, but we did anyway and it was great.

Good prices, friendly service, but the food was rather mediocre. There was a lot of sauce in every single dish, which kind of overpowered the rest of the food. I ordered the vegetarian chicken w/​mushrooms + peanuts, and the fake meat was good – and I feel like that’s what makes this restaurant different from all other chinese restaurants. My friends who ordered the ‘real’ meat weren’t disappointed, but they weren’t excited either. Got to meet the chef!

Fresh and not expensive. Expansive vegetarian menu.

Great spot. Family owned, good food, great vegitarian food too. Go and see Charles he’s a good guy and a hell of a cook. Most other «chinese» in china town isn’t so good. Go here unless you are looking for Dim Sum, Peking Duck, or seriously spicey dishes. For those, I’d head to Dim Sum Garden, Peking Duck House, or Han Dynesty.
Great spot. Ignore the negative reviews. Those people are idiots. :)

Racist!!! If ure not white then dont come here to eat! Cuz the moment we walked in and yes we are asian, he denied us seating when it was clearly half empty!!! And the only customer he had there were all white!!! This place needs to shut down!
Cuz clearly he only catered to white people and told us it was packed when he had plenty of seats!!! We left and went to another restaurant around the block!

This place has decent vegan Chinese food at insanely cheap prices. It’s good for lunch. I haven’t been here in a while, but I plan to go back again soon!

I took a chance by coming here because the last time I ate here a few years ago, it wasn’t a great experience; the tea and actual dish were devoid of any flavor. For better or worse, that wasn’t the case this time around.
The mild version (GI tract can’t handle spicy food, sadly) General Tsao Seitan does kind of taste like funnel cake, but it’s not completely inedible if you’re expecting it. Of course, I’m saying this as someone who has tried and somewhat enjoyed vanilla garlic ice cream, so take it with a grain of salt — there are people out there with far better taste than me.
Vegetarian Wonton soup was heavy on the sesame oil. I didn’t mind it but I could see other people not enjoying the soup.
Vegetables and rice seemed crisp and reasonably fresh. You get a choice of either brown or white rice, which is pretty nifty and fits with their idea of being healthy. Why they have deep-​fried seitan in a healthy restaurant escapes me, however.
I’d definitely go back there since the two experiences were stark contrasts of each other; I’d rather my dish taste like funnel cake than be covered in a «ginger» sauce that even a dog might not eat.

The overall positive reviews led us to try this place last night. We arrived around 7:30pm and there was only one couple there before us, making the restaurant sort of eerily quiet. Service was prompt and friendly, though, and we were seated promptly. We were both a bit sketched out by the reused wooden chopsticks; those suckers can’t be sterilized, ok? But we’ve eaten in some pretty… rustic locations, so we shrugged that off and went with it.
«Healthy» means they offer chicken, seafood, and vegetarian options (no beef/​pork/​lamb/​etc), and we figured it’d also mean lighter sauces and more veggies. (Pro tip: nope.)
Cold sesame noodles were bizarre. The noodles themselves tasted raw – as in uncooked raw, not zucchini and cashew sauce raw – and spongy. Maybe they were made of tofu, instead of wheat? I couldn’t figure it out. I’ve eaten a lot of noodles in my life and I have never encountered that texture before. Bizarre.
Steamed chicken dumplings were good, though not exceptional, and a little dense.
It took well over half an hour for our mains to come, even though only one other table was seated (and had already eaten). We got shrimp and scallops in a taro basket as well as walnut sweet and sour «pork» (because out of all their meat substitutes, that sounded the best – and we’ve had some amazing mushroom-​based «meat» at Ray’s Café, so it seemed hopeful).
The «pork» was literally just breaded, fried walnuts (maybe ½ cup total) in a very heavy (think take-​out) sweet and sour sauce. For $ 15, the portion was ridiculously small.
The seafood basket looked good, but contained only three shrimp.
Three.
There were also two scallops (what looked like one half of a scallop sliced in half again, about 1/​8″ thick) but when I tried a bite of one, the taste was heavy with iodine, and I told my partner not to risk them. At best, the scallops were frozen and re-​frozen; at worst, they were old as hell. The one and a half shrimp I had was ok. The freezer-​bag veggies were freezer-​bag veggies. The sauce was thick and gloopy and very, very salty. Again, for the price, we wondered what was going on.
Rice was charged separately, and was not very fresh, on the dry side.
Our total came to $ 45.
As other diners trickled in, it definitely seemed that Charles had a rapport with them – but they were all white (disclaimer: so are we), and almost all past middle age. I think this place is basically the local «exotic» restaurant that local adventurous white middle-​class Caucasians venture to so that they’re guaranteed to have a waiter who speaks fluent English and so they don’t have to worry about «scary» flavors on their plate. You’ll find more adventurous eats in your local delivery pages. A young Thai-​American couple came in and, while the rest of the restaurant was chowing down, they seemed to be just as horrified about what was on their plates as we were.
This is not a Chinese restaurant. This is a Chinese-​inspired American diner. And not a good one.
So to recap: not fresh, skimpy portions of the main ingredients, heavy, nasty sauces. Overpriced, especially considering you can get better and more «authentic» (whatever that means, anyway) Chinese dishes at your local $ 10 buffet. Skip this place. For now, we’re still on the look-​out for a solid Chinese place in Chinatown (but see my reviews if you’re into Taiwanese or Vietnamese eats).

Wow! KMSO (Knocking My Socks Off!!!) The food is delicious and vegetarian. What else can I tell you without giving you a free sample? And that’s impossible because I’m not Charles! Share the vegetarian hot & sour soup (great idea Mimi) and then get some seitan with sizzling black bean sauce or something and pair it with freshly steamed broccoli. THERE ARE NON-​VEGETARIAN OPTIONS. but eat vegetables too so you dont turn into freddy kreuger
Do they keep your water glass filled? YES

If you like Kingdom of Vegetarians or New Harmony, you’ll be right at home at Charles Plaza. They have a large section of the menu that is vegetarian. However if you have a meat eater in your life, they also serve the real stuff. (The best of both worlds!)
We came here for an early dinner a couple Sundays ago. Charles greeted us and checked on us throughout the meal. Service was great. Their vegetarian won ton soup really hit the spot on a cold day. Won ton soup is one of those things you can’t find in a vegetarian version unless you’re in Chinatown. Us suburbanites don’t get to enjoy it that often.
The food was tasty, on par with other places in Chinatown. Prices were very good as well. I would return.

Yay! I’m a fan.
I came here recently I was quite impressed. We arrived around 8pm on a Friday evening to find a mostly empty restaurant. Both the service and food were very respectable.
Charles came by and took our order. We went with the Szechuan style bean curd and the Singapore Noodles with fried tofu. I really enjoyed both entrees but the noodles took first prize in my book. The bean curd was tasty but was a bit too tangy and not spicy enough for me. I know though that I will come back here and order more things off the menu because the food is really quite good. The noodles had a small element of heat to them and the entire dish had a light and bright flavor while the noodles themselves had the smallest bit of crunch from hitting hot oil.
The thing that I liked the most about Charles Plaza was the interaction that I saw take place between Charles and his customers. There were a few tables that came in and out while we were eating and Charles knew everyone’s name. They customers who were clearly regulars absolutely loved him as well. I think seeing this at any establishment is rare and very noteworthy.
Nice job Charles Plaza. I shall return.

A little expensive for mediocre american-​chinese food in chinatown. It came out to be $ 300 for 10 ppl. Okay, so that doesn’t sound that expensive but you can get a way fancier banquet meal w/​lobster, shrimp, duck, etc at other restaurants near by for that amount of money. This place served mainly chicken. And we all know that chicken is usually the cheapest option on any menu.
Anyways the food wasn’t terrible so i’ll consider giving it another try — maybe i’ll check out their vegetarian selection, hopefully it’ll be a bit more satisfying.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not exactly partial to the standard takeout Chinese food. That being said, Charles Plaza isn’t half bad. Its pretty gosh darn good! In fact, its probably the only Chinese food that hasn’t given me heartburn (yet), which is an extraordinary feat.
But what really impressed me and my bf’s family is how freshly made the food tastes. Veggies are green and plentiful, sauces are succulent, and the general consensus is that all of their dumplings are delicious. Also, they know how to cook tofu — it’s not the fried, dried out gross bleh, it’s soft and tasty. My bf’s family loves takeout Chinese food (they are Jewish and do the traditional Chinese food on Christmas Eve, not to mention a near weekly order throughout the year), so it was important that they find «their place» after they moved into the city and Charles Plaza is DEFINITELY it. They also love how they can drive by to pick it up, and someone brings the bag of food right out to the car for them!

Everyone’s partial to a specific Chinatown haunt. Vietnam and Tai Lake are good, I’m sure, but it’s not just the food we’re after at Charles Plaza, it’s Charles himself. And his sister and his wife.
Our family has been celebrating affairs with his family and fare for over ten years. A few memorable visits include my 17^th birthday when Charles and company gifted me with a necklace of imitation pearls and my Mom-Mom’s birthday when we forgot the cake so he ran next door and picked some up for us.
By now, he knows our order and within moments our table is flooded with steaming hot food. Then we descend upon it like we’ve been starved for days. Once we’ve devoured every last drop of wonton soup (the ONLY wonton soup I’ll eat), every last spring roll and dumpling, and every last bite of triple precious (get this) and orange chicken, Charles rolls out the whole fish he’s prepared for us.
Then he rolls us out the door.

I had a similar experience with some of the reviews here. While the food wasn’t bad, it wasn’t anything special either. It was kinda blah. I’ve been to China and I was hoping it was like some of the great vegetarian restaurants I ate at there or at least somewhat close, but alas…
I ordered the mock fish and the general tso’s mock chicken. Both tasted the same and kinda bland. I’ve had really awesome mock meat before where I swear you couldn’t tell the difference other than you got no nasty fatty pieces. That was not the case here though. The sauce was too sweet and was nothing special and most of the plate was sauce. I actually couldn’t tell much of a difference between the two sauces other than one looked darker. Charles was very pushy and only two of wanted soup, but he ended up bringing out a big thing for everyone and charging us a lot more. At least the soup was good though because the entrees really were not.
The atmosphere was just plain wrong. I have never been in a restaurant that quiet. That place was dead with only one other table, there was no music playing, and you could hear a pin drop. We all felt kinda awkward.
What really annoyed me, was that the bill made no sense. I made a note of how much everything costs because I’m cheap and always make a mental note. The bill was in Chinese and the prices didn’t add up at all. I wondering if we were charged for the tea like a previous review said. Also, for the soup that we didn’t want… and who knows what else.
I’ve had worse, but due to all these things, we won’t be going back…

First off Charles Plaza doesn’t make any beef or pork dishes. so if your looking for either don’t even walk in. But if your looking for the best Chinese dishes that are made from the freshest ingredients, then Charles is unmatched. Charles Chen, the owner and chef, prides himself in making the best quality dishes possible.
Charles and his staff treat you like family from the very moment you walk in the door. aside from being appetizing, the food is also very reasonably priced. the tea is also refreshing. and they do BYOB. going here is a must when you’re in Chinatown.