Manchu Wok

I actually ate at the one at O’Hare last night. One of the worst meals I’ve ever had. The beef had no flavor and the rice was powdery.

This chinese restaurant is one of the few downtown out of Panda Express. It is located in the basement next to Bacci Pizza and Dunkin’ Donuts and never had a line. Unfortunately, it closed due to bad food, bad basement location, and poor value for your money. I ordered some Orange chicken and got basically a bowl full of rice and very little chicken. They have now packed up their operations like gypsies. Sorry to see it go, but see you!

I have found in my search for good Chinese food in Chicago that outside of Chinatown I am out of luck. It’s even worse in the loop. So when a new fast food Chinese place opened close to my work, I tried not to get my hopes up too much. I wanted to give it a fair shot, so I let myself crave it for awhile before I tried out Manchu Wok. Located in the basement of an office building it was sparkling clean and brand new. Good sign. I tried the Kung Pao chicken, noodles and an egg roll. Everything was presented nicely and looked fresh from behind the counter. When I got back to the office and opened my styrofoam container I was less than thrilled. The noodles were plain with a really dark brown coating. The chicken was greasy as can be. I tried the eggroll first and it was really bad. Mushy and tasteless in the center. No flavor whatsoever. The chicken had a decent spicy flavor but it was so greasy it was hard to even stomach; some of the pieces of chicken that I got where a little questionable. I was stuck working on the boring noodles. I tried to add some spicy mustard to give them a kick and the mustard was Dijon. Not the traditional spicy mustard that you get with Chinese food. WTF? The soy sauce was black and heavy and just plain gross. I ended up chucking most of the food and wondering why I didn’t just stick with my lean cuisine. Now that is a bad sign! The freaking fortune cookie wasn’t even good.