South China Restaurant

Some food are good, however some food are out of the ordinary understanding of Chinese food. The picture shows 干煸肥肠 we ordered. It becomes deep fried intestine not 干煸. It is very crunchy.

Really excellent food and service – if you’re in the area, come and support this establishment! You won’t be sorry. We ordered three apps: spicy beef tendon (a little salty but still delicious); fried dumplings; and steamed dumplings – all were mouth watering. We also had 3 entrées: pork short ribs and noodle soup; seafood hotpot; and lamb slices with cumin. Each was a home run, the spice level was very manageable and everything was fresh and flavorful. We will be back often.

I like this place, though is is an odd atmosphere and though the seating can be uncomfortable. They are not really aiming at middle-​American tastes, but the cooking is good. Our second favorite Chinese place in town.

This is clearly by far the best Chinese restaurant in Chambana. I live in this town over forty years and have visited most large cities in the US. South China is as good as most Chinese restaurants that I have visited.
The food is excellent; the ambient is conducive; and parkings are amble.

The food is average (compared to other Chinese restaurants in Champaign-​Urbana area and they all have very good quality). During busy time, service is slow.

The food is pretty good and ingredient seems fresh. We order beef with noodles, fry dumpling, and happy family. They taste as good as Golden Harbor but the portion is probably only at most ²⁄₃ of size as from golden harbor. Their price is about the same as Golden Harbor. So Golden Harbor is probably a better deal. South China Restaurant also seems to have more MSG in their dishes than Golden Harbor. I came to South China Restaurant because Golden Harbor closed on Monday.

Service was horrible, it was my boyfriends graduation and we celebrated with 20 people, we all waited for a while to finally put our orders in or to get drinks. Then we had to wait over 30 min to finally have our food come. Other tables came way after us with bigger groups as well but they received all of their food and we always had to keep asking the waitresses when our food was coming or for simple refills of drinks and rice. Food is great but service sucked, they should have better management on their staff since they were understaffed and the waitresses kept forgetting to give us our utensils and such and we always had to repeatedly remind them to serve us things properly. Restaurant wasn’t even that crowded but other Chinese people were served with lots of food and great service except for us. (We had a group of american, and vietnamese people) I don’t recommend coming here unless you have a lot of patience for food to come over 30 min and that you’re Chinese.

This place is a teeny bit closer to home than some of the other Chinese places in town, so we gave it a shot based on reviews here saying the guy who used to own Tang Dynasty (which means it should be the same guy who also owned Yen Ching many many years ago) owns this place.
The lunch special is an entrée, egg drop or hot and sour soup, and crab rangoon or eggroll. The price is pretty decent for all of that — except I didn’t get any soup, which I didn’t discover until I got home and unpacked my to-​go order, so… I have no idea if it’s good or not.
The entrees advertised as spicy were bland, definitely no heat or spice.
The best part of any of our entrees was the crab rangoon — super creamy, sweet, flavorful. But unfortunately I’m not going to suffer through mediocre food for excellent crab rangoon. There are far better Chinese places in town than this. Maybe it was just extra disappointing because I went into this thinking I was going to experience food like Yen Ching used to offer — but either way, I simply won’t be going back.

How could I have lived here for almost 2 years and never know of this place? We came here almost by accident after 3 other Indian/​Chinese places were closed Christmas day.
The crab rangoon was a teeny bit well done, but oh so creamy and sweet! The mushu chicken came without pancakes but I didn’t feel I was missing anything. The rice was super sticky.
Nice décor. Friendly staff. Decent prices.
I will definitely be coming back

Just randomly felt like Chinese while in town, and chose to come here based on Unilocal.They have pretty decent portions for lunch specials, and everything was very good! Definitely try the hot/​sour soup and the seseme chicken!

I’m on a mission to find a good Chinese restaurant that is reasonably priced in Chambana, and I was happy with South China Restaurant.
The Good:
–The Steamed Dumplings were delicious. The whole reason I came to South China was to satisfy my immense craving for dumplings.
–The Moo Goo Gai Pan was also very good, I would definitely order it again as the dish has always been one of my favorites.
–My SO ordered the shrimp lo mein and I stole a bite of the shrimp, and it had very good flavor, and he said that he enjoyed it.
–The portion size was exactly what I was hoping for. We both left full and with enough leftovers for another meal (which we ate the next night).
The Bad:
–The service wasn’t fantastic. Sometimes a bit slow, but there was one waitress for the entire dining room of 10 – 15 tables, so it was completely understandable.
Overall:
I would definitely return, the food was very good, though I wish they delivered!

The waitress is suck.
And the dishes tastes not so good
Bad restaurant forever.
Maybe u guys can choose Golden Harbor to eat the Chinese restaurant
Do not come to this bad restaurant
You will be regret for your choice

It suprises me how there are so many good Chinese places in such a small area of Central Illinois and South China Restaurant adds to this list. For me, South China is in the middle of the pack — not as fancy as Rainbow Garden or as tasty as Golden Harbor, but somewhere inbetween. The big plus of this restaurant is the spacious interior and decent size parking lot but the dishes are a little on the expensive side and the service could be quicker. Food is inconsistent with some dishes being excellently prepared while others are bland and forgetful. In particular, I liked the Deep Fried Fish Fillet with Pine Nuts & Sweet & Sour Sauce, Sauteed Asparagus & Shredded Pork, Braised Pork, Mao’s Family Style, and Stewed Meatball With Brown Sauce in Hot Pot.

It has to be 5 stars this time since the owner bribed us with a complimentary medium dish of celery and pork dumplings. The dough covering was not thin but with firm and chewy texture. The filling came to your bite with some surprisingly pleasant fragrance. Okay, i am not from the northern part of China where people make this type of dumplings from scratch at home in a daily basis or so. But after 4 years living in Beijing, to the dumpling and the owner, i say, Bravo.
And there comes some serious culinary work. We had：
Appetizers:
Chengdu Clear Noodles（成都凉粉）
Scallion Pancakes （葱油饼）
Main courses:
Braised Duck with Scallion（京葱扒鸭）
Fire Pot with Pork Intestine and Hot Sauce（干锅肥肠）
Steam Fish with Pickled Peppers in Hunan Style (跺椒全鱼）
Celery Fried with Dry Tofu and Peppers (小椒香干炒芹菜）
The Braised Duck with Scallion（京葱扒鸭） and the Steam Fish with Pickled Peppers in Hunan Style (跺椒全鱼） were really the highlights. The duck was tender with a source surprises you mouth full. The fish was just so gentle cooked that you feel it softened your teeth and tongue.
Our Russian American friends have been exposed to some fine Chinese cuisines both in Chicago and China (mainland and HK) as well as fine cuisines everywhere so I will say gourmet tourists. They enjoyed the two dishes very much as us Chinese did.

Okay, in a nutshell, write down my list in Chinese or English, one way or another. This is the «You have to know what to order» list. Try it out there and you will never regret.

I tried out this place recently with a few friends, and was pleasantly surprised. We ordered three dishes (one appetizer) and all were well seasoned and pretty authentically Chinese. My favorite was the Water Boiled Beef (水煮牛) – spicy and numbing from the peppercorns, with yummy veggies at the bottom. We were fishing around at the end for every last morsel! The appetizer we ordered (夫妻肺片) was a good mix of beef + tendon + offal, rather than being heavy on one vs the others.
The interior is interesting, harkening a bit back to the bar setup from the sports bar that used to inhabit the space. In general, the food was solid and the service helpful. Check them out if you’re interested in a more authentic Chinese place.

A lot of the Chinese students here said this was a good place and more authentic than the other Chinese places in town. I was recommended to try the stir-​fried fish with chili and and the steamed fish with chili sauce. Both were excellent and both dishes were big enough for two people to share. We also had a good dish that was thinly sliced potatoes and peppers. We also had a plate with various kinds of mushrooms. Very tasty! They have some American Chinese dishes too, but I didn’t see the point in getting them, since I like trying new things and their menu is huge!
They do not have a full bar like it says under the description, though. But we inquired if we could do BYOB and they said it would be fine.

Very authentic Chinese food!!! Best choose for you find Chinese restaurant. I found those photos from facebook.

South China Restaurant is a new Chinese restaurant in Champaign in an old barbecue place (I believe the name was Boneyard BBQ). Many of the fixtures, etc. from the old establishment remain, which gives it a slightly strange vibe, but the food cannot be beat. While they do serve some Americanized dishes, we asked the waitress to recommend some more authentic dishes.
We ordered:
–Stir fried green beans — very salty but delicious
–Tofu hot pot — very spicy and VERY tasty
–Stir fried chicken — reminded me of dry spicy Chicken, but better. This is an incredible dish
The dishes were a bit pricey, but unlike some other places in town the interior is very clean and it is not counter service. I look forward to coming back and trying more.

This place is actually a welcome addition to the Chinese restaurant scene in Chambana. They have a live fish tank in the front lobby, a big rock (to rub for luck… leftover from when the restaurant was «The Rock»), a bar and a huge dining area. Their menu is very extensive with seafood, pork, poultry, beef, vegetables, etc. I walked in around 11am and the restaurant was empty. It was VERY cold so I wound up keeping my jacket on. I ordered from their lunch menu ($ 6.95!) and wound up getting the Hong Shiao Fish fillets. It comes with a choice of soup (hot sour or egg drop) or salad, an egg roll or crab rangoon, and white or fried rice. I chose hot and sour, egg roll and white rice. Everything came out FAST. The egg roll had lots of pork in it with cabbage, the hot sour soup was hot and yummy. And the entrée was wonderful!!! They do have the American lunches (moo gai pan, kung pao chicken, etc) but I tried to get something that I never had before. There were lots of bell peppers, snap peas, onions, mushrooms and flaky white fish. The sauce wasn’t typical… it was a welcome flavor of sweet and savory!!! Anyway, I enjoyed it for being a fast Chinese lunch… and the price and service were great! I’ll definitely return!!!

Another Chinese restaurant in town with a BIG menu (opened like yesterday). This place was previously the Boneyard Bar & BBQ and you can tell that because there is a bar area in the middle. They have fresh lobster and tilapia in the tank so thats a good thing. They are newly open so the menu is still kinda unofficial and it can sure use some remodeling and decoration to make it more like a Chinese restaurant but overall its not a bad place to dine.
Based on their menu, they can cook some big dishes like dongpo pork hock but we tried something basic. Food is nicely cooked and relatively authentic (they have american chinese food too). Price is medium ($$).
4 stars for the food
2.5 stars for the environment but things may turn better with running