Yu’s Mandarin Restaurant

Food was good service was not. Had to search for waiter to get check then search for him again to take my money! Really? Not even busy! Stay away from the shrimp rolls. Very dissatisfied

This is one of my go-​to places to get Chinese-​Korean cuisine (other than Chef Ping). I typically only order three dishes: jja jang myun, jjam ppong, and the tang su yuk (also known as sweet and sour pork).
I came here during a dinner service on Father’s Day, and service was still great. Our server was so friendly and made sure that we had enough water and bowls for our meal.
The jja jang myun is a great warm noodle dish. It uses a black bean paste with stir fried vegetables and seafood. All of this is topped with fresh, thinly sliced cucumbers. It’s very savory, with a hint of sweet (from the onions). It looks intimidating because of the color, but it’s really not! You can ask for a side of yellow pickled radishes, and it’s the perfect complement to the noodle dish since they are cold, crunchy, and vinegary. The portion size is fairly big.
Whenever I am able to, I will order the jjam ppong, along with my jja jang myun. This dish is a hot and spicy noodle dish, using udon-​like noodles. It’s red/​orange from all the spices, and filled with seafood and vegetables. If you like spicy, this is the perfect dish for you!
Now, jjam ppong and jja jang myun go hand in hand. I typically like to order these two (if I am with someone else) and half each portion and split it. It’s a widely popular thing that Koreans do when eating these dishes. The jjam ppong is very soupy and spicy, whereas the jja jang myun is more savory and not at all soupy. Try it, and see how you like these two! The portion size is really big for this one.
Lastly, the tang su yuk, AKA the sweet and sour pork. You get the option to have beef or pork, but I always go with pork. For some reason, this dish is just tastier with pork. I find the pork to be a lot juicier and tender than when beef is used. The breaded layer stays crispy pretty much through the meal, even if it has been swimming in the sweet and sour sauce!
I don’t typically like pineapples in the sauce, and the tang su yuk at Yu’s actually doesn’t have pineapples, so it’s a win-​win if you’re not overly fond of pineapples in your sauce. However, there are cucumbers, carrots, and onions that add a really great, crunchy texture to the crispy breading around the pork.
Overall a really great place!

I’ve been going here for years but most recently two days ago (JUNE 2016) for a dinner hosted by my parents in my honor.
We had a party of 22 and ordered 4 different entrees, but 4 of each kind.
This place has never had the best service but they didn’t handle our large party too badly. Food arrived fast, was tasty and hot.
Yu’s mandarin has a slightly unorthodox style and taste which is why I love it. I feel like there is a South Asian influence to their food. It has a kick to it. They serve massive portions for their entrees for dinner. I highly recommend the Princess Prawn and the Szechuan Fish. The latter is spectacular.
For a restaurant in the middle of Schaumburg which is a bit of a melting pot, there should not be a language gap. Improving the communication of their servers and slightly upgrading the quality of service will take this restaurant to 5 star status. If you’re reading this, Yu, that is my promise.

Tried this place for the first time, went in for an early dinner the other day. This is a really big restaurant and really nice place from the inside as well, liked the set up. The menu was massive, that have a pretty large selection. We ordered the Soft Shell Crabs, Spicy Fish Fillet, and Kung Pao Shrimp. overall I was not impressed with the food, the portions were small, the Kung Pao Shrimp was bland, the Soft Shell Crabs were to salty. But the worst part of the experience was the service, we were seated right way but had to wait a very long time until we were greeted by our server. I should not have to stand up and look for ANY staff member to get the check. It was a disappointing experience…

So this place would actually have the potential to get better then what it is. I came here for lunch with co workers and we where seated right away which is a plus.

We ordered a lot of food, and we thought the food was decent. The jajjangmyun was a bit too salty, and tangsuyuk was a bit too sweet and overcooked. Good service. But I prefer Chef Ping over this place.

Went here for lunch yesterday with 5 other people.
The food got so bad. I think they Americanized the food like crazy and the portions got so small. Everything is either really bland and no flavor or just salty and kinda oily.
Also, the food came out separately and some of us were waiting while other people got their food.
Some of us ordered the lunch specials. The hot and sour soup was good. Prob the best thing I had that day.
I got the beef and scallop dish. I found mine kinda salty and greasy, but still ok. I liked the eggroll. I tried using the mustard on the table and it literally burned my mouth. Such a strong, horrible mustard taste, I thought it was severely burnt eggroll that I was eating, but nope, just mustard.
Other people got the seafood noodle. It was so bad. So boring and no flavor. This used to be one of the best things here but it’s just bad now. Do not order this.
We got the lollipop chicken too and it was all batter and no chicken. Horrible. The pieces of chicken were tiny and there was no meat on it. It was mostly batter, maybe to compensate for the lack of meat! This was another one of the best things on the menu, but not anymore. Do not order this.
This place was so much better when it was more authentic years ago. Now there’s no flavor, the food is greasy, and the portions suck. Not sure when I’ll be back.
We all left very disappointed…

Well that was interesting. We’ve moved to California but wanted to stop by since we’re in town. Much like Tamagotchis and slap on bracelets, some things are better left to nostalgia.
We ordered takeout Mongolian and sesame beef, and my brother got orange chicken.
To start, the portion sizes have shrunk dramatically since their heyday. It used to be that two people could easily share a plate, and for fifteen dollars an entrée, why would you do anything else? These portions were ridiculously tiny. Where’s the beef?
Continuing to the actual quality of the food, the Mongolian beef was hot, but apparently ‘go easy on the onions’ means nothing here. On top of that it’s tough. We’re heading towards a sprained jaw at this point, so let’s move on.
The sesame beef is hard fried and tasteless, somewhat reminiscent of cardboard boxes having been made into jerky, doused in flour and oil and then deep fried. Yumm-​o. The dipping sauce really doesn’t change anything except making it somewhat spicy fried cardboard jerky, now with added sesame seeds! Still chewing, but now I’m contemplating requesting an ice pack from the front desk for my poor aching jaw.
And now for the ‘spicy’ orange chicken. Surely this will redeem them! Orange chicken is super hard to mess up right? But no, I could accomplish much the same with frozen chicken tenders, honey BBQ sauce with orange juice mixed in, and a large slice of orange stuffed inside the container. Oh wait, that’s exactly what just happened here.
If it weren’t for the fact that we drove half an hour from our hotel to get here, I’d be on my way back for a refund. And also possibly to stop by the store for rolaids. As it is, we’re trying to decide if it’s worth fighting with them over the phone to try and get our money back.
…At least the steamed rice was good? I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I would’ve had better Chinese food at the Panda Express down the street, and you know it’s bad when you consider Panda Express quality Chinese food in comparison to anything.
1 star for nostalgic memories of fine dining, but that’s it. If you’re looking for great food, keep moving.
Edit: wow, and now the manager, Shawn wants to argue with us about waiting too long to eat the food (apparently if you wait half an hour to drive back to your hotel with their takeout, it will no longer be good, never mind that in times past we’ve eaten the leftovers the next day and still had a fabulous meal) and refusing to reverse the transaction! I’ll never be back.
Edit 2: it’s the next morning. Having been sick all night, we’re calling the credit card company to make sure everything was reversed and if not will be filling a complaint.

This was our first time and boy will we be back. Our favorite chinese restaurant changed hands so we have been looking for a replacement. And we have found it hands down.
The menu is extensive with pictures of many of the dishes. We ordered beef with scallops. The beef was tender, the scallops perfectly cooked and the vegetables where crisp — tender with a very flavorful sauce. We ordered the noodle platter. Its a combo of seafood and pork topped with vegetables. Its made with their house made noodles and its slightly spicey. The noodles have just the right amount of chew. It was delicious. The last dish was lemon chicken. No complaints here.
We ordered the Blue Lotus drink. A generous drink for 7.00.
The service was attentive and polite. We will become a regular.

I can’t name a place that I like better! Yu’s has outstanding food!!! I would say any dish is excellent. They have absolutely delicious shrimp, very clean.
The service is fantastic, every time we go we feel like they care. It’s not overly friendly or fake, they just really appreciate the business. When it’s busy, it’s busy, and you wait a couple minutes longer, but that would be the same anywhere. It’s not super loud but it’s not totally quiet either, it’s comfortable. I would much rather be sitting in a busy restaurant then in an empty one.
We have to travel to visit the one in Schaumburg, but they’re building one in Vernon Hills which is closer to us. When the Vernon Hills store opens, it’ll be a 3 to 4 times a month restaurant for us! Can’t wait!!!

I’ve been going here for years and years and years and years. Seriously I have known every owner of this place haha
It’s a great spot for chinese food and I love love love their Spicy noodle soup. Hearty soup and if you get a whole bowl for yourself you won’t be able to eat anything else.
Their honey glazed shrimp is amazing. I like their orange chicken and mongolian beef. Their dishes are fresh and well prepared.
I have come here so many times on my own just to have a drink and their noodle soup. It’s pretty loud and busy and they make their noodles from scratch.
Well priced and pretty full servings.

My mom remembers Yu’s as having great Chinese food — she’s been a fan since at least the mid-‘90s — so when she was looking for catering options for a family get together, she called them.
She was feeding about 15 adults and ordered green beans, fried rice, and a chicken dish. They told her that she needed 6 trays of food. She didn’t know any better, so she just shelled out the money and thought they were giving her a reasonable quantity and price.
Six TRAYS of food. SIX. When she pulled up (she had to load it in the back of her SUV), I was shocked by the sheer ridiculous quantity, and my family EATS. Once we dug in, the quality was disappointing: the green beans were actually the tastiest thing of the three, and that’s sad, because Yu’s used to be a pretty solid option.
The bill? Slightly under $ 400! To top it off, we had 4 FULL TRAYS LEFT of food that went pretty much untouched.
Needless to say, this is NOT the Yu’s experience we remember and trusted. They not only told her she needed WAY more food than was necessary, but the associated cost was outrageous! I absolutely feel she got swindled by these new owners.
Never, ever again.

Went here on a Thursday night around 8:30pm. Not a lot of people were eating there, probably like 3 – 4 tables.
We were seated right away and received our water/​tea, but we waited a long time for a server to approach our table. One of the tea cups were dirty. We even had to flag down a server to see if we can place our order. He saw us waive and talked to another server to take them or find someone to take our table, which I thought was very unprofessional.
Our server came over to our table and took our order. We ordered 2 hot and sour soups, lollipop chicken, beef with flat noodle, and salt and pepper squid. The food was good, but I felt that the beef with flat noodle was very oily. The lollipop chicken was very good and the salt and pepper squid.
I probably would’ve rated higher if the service was to match to their quality of food.

I must applaud their service for being up-​most ignorant.
It wasn’t until Super-​Bowl Sunday when me and a group of 20 or so people decided to eat lunch here. When arriving at the check-​in counter, we were greeted with friendly smiles and were quickly seated due to a reservation we made earlier in the morning. After a short-​time of looking at what we were going to order from the menu, the waiter comes by asking what we are going to order.
It was at this moment when I realized that things were going to be unpleasant as this was the moment when the waiter couldn’t organize our orders together due to each of us ordering for separate checks. Though i felt slightly bad for the waiter due to the sheer amount of people he had to take orders from.
Once that was taken care of, we waited a good 10 – 20 minutes for all our food to arrive and it was mediocre at best. The food I ordered was Cham-​Pong, korean for Spicy Seafood Noodles, and i felt that i wasted my money here as i could have had cheaper and higher quality version of this at my local Asian Mart.
The biggest problem this establishment has however is the complete lack of service after the food was served. Not once did the waiter come over to check if we need anything, or bothered to refill our water until we made some gestures for him to come over. I take service very very seriously as I find tipping very hard to do if there is a lack of service from the waiter other than doing his/​her job of serving and taking away the food. I’m not asking for exceptional service but honestly, if there is some kind of service done during the meal, i would gladly give 15−20% tip. Sadly this was not the case, and what’s more is that because we had a large group, even with our separate checks, were force fined a «service-​charge» when there was a complete lack of service thereafter.
Another key issue with this visit was the payment. For the people in my group that paid with their cards, they were fine but the issue lied with the people that were paying for their meals in cash. Two of my colleagues were not given their change back, forcing us to waste good time sitting around waiting til they got their money back. This was completely unprofessional, undeserving of any sorts of tip, lack of fundamental principles of Waitering, and a complete waste of money.
If you want some good Chinese-​Korean-​Asian food, i suggest making a reservation at Chef Ping as the waiters and food there are at least capable.

I go to this place at least once a month because of their korean style chinese menu. But last Tuesday will be the last time.
After waiting 20 minutes for our order, which is okay, but my friend found something crunchy in her food. It endup being a small cockroach. Immediately called the half bald asian guy, who took it to the manager to show it. He came back offering a replacement but we lost our appetite.
He offered a sorry, and they didn’t charge us for the bug dish.
Still wanted to leave this review to let you guys know what happen.

This is out of my normal range but was in the area for a meeting and wanted to try this place since they are opening a branch a mile from my house.
Service was way above average as was the food. A little disappointed that the regular menu doesn’t have everything the online version does. I really wanted to try the spice tripe.
Looking fowrard to them opening near me.

Cool Chinese food place!
Good points: cheap, meals are quickly served, huge portions.
Can improve: I have been in Chinese restaurants where the food tasted better. Staff wasn’t as considerate as in other restaurants.
However I loved the Sesame Chicken. Just try it :-)

Yu’s Mandarin. Are you trying to kill me with your prices!!!
I went here because my friend lives nearby and insisted on going. We called ahead and ordered crab rangoon, walnut shrimp, and triple delight with XO sauce. Our total came out to be around $ 50. Sure, there were leftovers, but I’ve been to better tasting restaurants with better quality and quantity than Yu’s Mandarin. Just not my cup of tea.

They’ve added sushi to the menu! As if the original menu wasn’t vast enough to begin with. Now there’s surely something for everyone when you are craving Asian food. The service wasn’t super friendly or fast, but ok.
Spicy Scallop Roll — $ 7 — I was hoping for a little more flavor or topping, but this roll was pretty plain. Not something I would order again.
Godzilla Roll (8 pieces) $ 14 — Yum! It’s truly everything I want in a Godzilla roll — crunch, cream cheese, and exploding flavors.
Crabmeat and velvet corn soup for 2 $ 7 — Good soup, a little on the bland side. It’s got chunks of egg, corn and crab meat in it.
Steamed Whole Flounder $ 22 — This fish was delicious! The bones weren’t too difficult to pick off and the sauce was really good.
Salt and Pepper Shrimps $ 16 — You have the option of getting them with or without heads and I would recommend heads off. Great flavors, nicely battered, seasoned and fried.
Double fried string beans $ 11 — It’s a bit pricey for just green beans. I like my green beans crunchier than these soggy fellows. The flavor was good, though.
Sauteed Clams with black bean sauce $ 15 — These clams were ok. It was a little sandy with lots of broken shells.

After getting our nails done at nearby Pure Nails, the smells coming out of Yu’s forced us to change our original dinner plans. No matter when you go they are busy!
We had hot and sour soup, rainbow chow mein, Godzilla roll, shrimp tempura roll. The chow mein was delicious. The noodles tasted fresh and the meats were tender. It was the best chow mein/​lo mein I’ve had in the burbs yet! The rolls were good, but I would stick to the Chinese menu vs sushi next time I go.
Very reasonable prices and nice décor. The service was quick and free tea too boot! I am now a fan.