Mei’s Corner

******************** 1546 ********************
I stayed across the street at the Four Seasons, this Chinese restaurant is inside the White Hall Hotel. I was craving for some Chinese food, this is the nicest and closest quick fix from where I was staying.
Mei’s Corner is small, clean, and airy space. Simple menu, lunch special, and only 1 server when I came in. I waited for a few minutes before I see anyone to greeted me. I cam in around 2 PM, so it was a late lunch. There was only me and 1 more diner there.
Hot and sour soup, soft tofu, egg roll were all OK. Fair price for what lunch is supposed to be. Nothing special, but the server was very attentive.
If you need a quick fix, this is the closest and you get what can get!

Very disappointed with where this place has gone. Used to very happy with the food when they initially opened. See pictures.

Went to Mei’s for dinner today. Ordered the cashew chicken, steamed dumplings, and vegetable and noodle. The food was fresh, light on the oil and sauce, and quite tasty. I would highly recommend getting all three dishes.
Mei’s is very much a little hole in the wall Taiwanese restaurant in the Gold Coast. I live in the area and never knew the place existed! It wasn’t crowded by any means and the service was fine.

Small hotel based Chinese restaurant that we tried for convenience rather than by reviews.
Surprise – the food was so good that we came back the next day for more.
The fried noodle dish was almost as good as the best I ever had and I would also recommend the barbecue meats and the ma poo tofu. The sesame chicken is quite good as are the spring rolls and crab Rangoon
Prices are reasonable for what you get.
While the menu is small, as is the venue, it’s worth a visit. Or several.

Service is good but little expensive, food not stunning!

A hidden gem in the Gold Coast! I work across the street above Bloomingdale’s and my coworkers and I are excited to have an option for Chinese in this area. I’ve been for lunch and dinner and had good experiences both times. The food is great, the servers are nice, and it’s a cozy place to sit and chat with your friends. I recommend the hot tea with your meal. It’s organic and whole leaf, there are multiple options, and they will keep refilling your teapot if you ask.

Tasty, authentic food at a reasonable price. As a River North resident, it’s rare to find a cozy atmosphere that serves food that isn’t so over-​the-​top.
The lunch special is a good deal! I recommend the crab rangoon.

My boyfriend and I went for Restaurant week during lunch. The service was great, but the food was… plain, boring, no taste. We started off with the spring rolls (they have us 1) and what tasted like orange jelly and the hot and sour soup. Was decent, but have had better. The main entrée was the worst! We got lemon chicken and seafood pan fried noodles. The lemon chicken was extremely fried. I took off more fried batter than I actually had chicken. The thicker parts were actually uncooked and parts were over cooked. It’s called «lemon chicken», so they put think slices of lemon underneath the chicken. The pan fried noodles and seafood were boiled. Absolutely no taste. Soy sauce made it slightly better, but still horrible. For dessert we had the chocolate cake. It was good, but it also tasted store bought. We also had the mochi, which was enjoyable, but also realized that we had never had it before, so who knows if was actually good. I don’t know if I would go again, but their restaurant week menu was very weak.

This is my first experience here and I’m really impressed. Not only was the food amazing so was the service. My niece and I ordered the hot and sour soup, seafood dumplings as an appetizer and for the main entrée we got the chicken lettuce wraps with the honey walnut shrimp. By far the best shrimp I have ever had. The lettuce wraps were delicious also. The portion sizes to me was very good considering other Asian restaurants give you smaller portions.

The food was great! I shared the honey walnut shrimp and chicken lettuce wraps and everything was fantastic! The seafood dumplings and hot and spicy soup was worth every penny. I would definitely recommend coming here. This place is better PF changs. Wonderful time fine dining at Mei’s.

Tried the honey walnut shrimp, the berkshire pork fried noodles, and the spring rolls. Everything was very tasty! My only complaint is that the portion sizes are surprisingly small, for a Chinese restaurant. A good date night restaurant though: comfortable, quiet and intimate.

I tried it with my daughter and we liked it. Crab Rangoon was good, egg fried rice was also very nice. It is seat yourself, and friendly service. Its expensive though and the portions are small. We will go again for sure just not as often as we would if the pricing was better!

We had lemon chicken, egg foo yong, and beef fried rice. The food are excellent and the atmosphere is good too. Don’t forget to ask for their chili sauce. We’ll sure come to this place again.

I’m not really sure what to say about this place. We came right at noon craving some Chinese food and walked into an empty restaurant attached to the hotel. We stood inside for about 20 minutes looking around but no one came out to greet us. I could hear people in the back working but absolutely no one out front was present to greet and seat us. After 20 minutes we found someplace else nearby and left.

I saw the reviews on this place were mixed and because I’m always looking for a Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood, I decided to give Mei’s Corner a try. As a Chinese-​American, I have been to hundreds of Chinese restaurants over the years. After eating at Mei’s Corner, I can confidently say that it is the worst that I’ve ever been to.
I decided to try the Beef Noodle Soup. I was shocked at the price tag (18 $ is twice what one would normally pay for this dish). But given that some reviews on Unilocal had mentioned this, I decided to give it a shot. I was served a very large bowl of overcooked noodles, water that had no depth of flavor, and pieces of beef that aren’t traditionally found in the dish. I cannot believe how bad it was. I could only force myself to eat ¹⁄₃ of the bowl.
The rest of my party was similarly disappointed. Please stay away.

As a Southern California transplant to Chicago, I’m always excited to hear of places that claim to serve beef noodle soup and Taiwanese food. In a city that has almost no Taiwanese food representation though, I’m frankly appalled that Mei’s Corner is trying to do so with the food they serve.
For one, $ 18 for a bowl of beef noodle soup is absurd even without considering that the broth had no depth or real flavor and the noodles were thin and mushy. The only positive quality is that the bowl is pretty big.
The other food was fairly nondescript. The Mei’s noodles were too salty and again, the noodles were thin and overcooked. Dumplings were nothing to write home about, certainly tasted okay but 3 for $ 6 or 12 for $ 18 is pretty offensive. Duck wraps and wonton soups were described by the others in our group as mediocre, or even bland, and poorly portioned for the price. No one left the restaurant happy or full.
Service was good and the place itself is pretty nice. First floor of the Whitehall Hotel, easy to find.
There’s really no reason to come here. 1 star for food that may not all be terrible tasting but is just insanely overpriced. I’m actually horrified that people who have not had authentic Taiwanese, Szechuan food might think that this place is representative and miss out on how good these cuisines can actually be.

I, for the life of me, cannot figure out why this terrific Chinese restaurant (actually Taiwanese/​Szechuan) doesn’t have a better rating. There are very few Chinese restaurants to choose from in the River North/​Gold Coast area that are any good at all. Coming from LA, we had a ton of great Chinese to choose from, but there is a lack of good, fresh Chinese in downtown Chicago we’ve felt since moving here in Jan 2014. Mei’s is clean, nice enough, great prices, and the ingredients are very fresh. Nothing is over salted, no MSG, and the flavors of the dishes really shine. The chicken vegetable soup is thoughtfully served in a personal, white ceramic bowl with a cute lid. It has watercress, which is a nice twist, and my only comment is I wish they chopped the watercress a bit, as it’s all in one large piece at the bottom. The broth is delicate and the chicken sliced thin and is very tender.
We also had the Honey Walnut shrimp, which are gluten free friendly, (YAY!!) made with potato flour. These were plump, juicy prawns, perfectly crispy, with honey coated walnuts and honey mayonnaise. Addicting!
The moo goo gai pan was also good, again, fresh, not overly salty. The vegetable fried rice was excellent, with large chunks of egg white and yolk, that were not over cooked like in so many casual Chinese restaurants and the rice wasn’t greasy at all.
I ordered hot tea, and the wonderful waiter, Jose, brought over a nice selection of Might Leaf teas, one of my favorite brands.
You can tell this restaurant cares about the food they prepare, and Jose told us they make each dish to order, with it’s own sauce, fresh each time. Mei’s is not your typical greasy, American Chinese restaurant, but rather a place to count on for fresh, authentic Taiwanese/​Szechuan food, for a fair price, in a nice atmosphere.

Well, my food was fine (General Tzao Chicken), but my wife had sort of a bad experience. She ordered the BBQ pork, and it was extremely fatty. Also, the service was extremely slow. This restaurant is situated inside the Whitehall hotel near Michigan Avenue and the Hancock building. Other folks seems to have had better experiences, so maybe this was not indicative of this restaurant’s actual quality.

Ok, love everything about this little treasure. Smaller restaurant with a cozy yet fancy feel. Our waiter was very helpful and made suggestions when we asked.
We chose Mei noodles, beef tenderloin fried rice, and pan fried potstickers. Everything was AMAZING! Portions were smaller but that made it ideal for sharing. 3 dishes filled up 2 of us.
Prices were very reasonable. Especially for how delish! This is a little gold mine, will def be coming back here!!!

What not to like? A great location next to shopping area and hotels. Very neat and relaxing lobby. Delicious dishes. And so reasonably prices.
Two of us tried Chicken Lettuce Wrap, Spicy Tofu, and Pork Belly Bun. The Pork Belly Bun was excellent. The port was braised nicely with pickles slices. The bun was very warm and soft. Two of them created a perfect combination. Please beware of that could be a bit greasy as you are eating a piece of Pork belly after all.
The Chicken Lettuce Wrap was better than P F Chang’s as it was light on soy sauce and cooked with mushroom dices with some pine nuts which added additional flavor. It came with three thin pancakes and 3 piece of lettuce. Both wrappers were good with the diced chicken. The spicy tofu was pretty good but not Spicy enough for my fast.
Services were decent but a lit slow. It is pretty small with only about 10 tables here. Very cozy and comfortable. And the whole bill was only $ 31 for two of us which is half of the price of a steak only. Definitely a gem in this area.