Empress Garden

Nice place for lunch — they have a lunch special. Good for vegetarians. Fast and not overcrowded!

This is the place to go in ChinaTown! The food is fresh and hot. You could definitely do family style the plates are huge!

Love this spot. Been here for years and their food is consistently the best. Very authentic seasoning and menu.

Small place. Okay food. Asked for spicy chicken chowfun. The food wasn’t spicy at all. Had to ask for siracha on side. The fried rice was good though.

The worst ever. If you can’t make the three cup chicken right. How dare you call yourself a Taiwanese restaurant! Unbelievably terrible. Should rate Zero if I have that option.
Updates: Receive a very unprofessional and insulting personal message from the owner. He called me Crazy just because this honest negative review! Unbelievable!!! Please, it’s not the right way to do business. Btw, is any way to escalate the personal insults to Unilocal?
Further Updates: Got more threatening messages from the owner. First, please get a basic understanding of the legal definition of rumor from your lawyer! If you are going to threaten and insult everyone who leave a honest negative review, I really question your professional ethics, if you have any. Second, People use Unilocal as a platform to express their honest feelings about their consumer experiences. You have no right to insult and threaten customers because of criticism. I’m not afraid of your threats. Bring it on! Bro! Why are you so afraid that this review is going to affect your business? Let me guess, did I tell the truth so you got scared? If you got confidence in your cuisine, why are you acting like this?
Last and not least, stop the harassment, or I will take all the necessary legal actions regarding your insults and threats.
BTW, never thought that my first Unilocal review will become this ridiculous drama. Share my experiences with all who Unilocal.Hope it gives you guys an opportunity to stay away from places those aren’t worth your time.
FINAL UPDATE: So sick of receiving another harassing messages from the owner. Never apologize for his inappropriate wording and insults. Will definitely bring legal actions. People should know how to behave!

I received a really nice message from the owner explaining what might have been the cause for the food fiasco. After consideration, I decided to try again and was not disappointed.

Price is very affordable with large portions of food. Food is just so so, really, from an authentic Chinese perspective… Cannot understand why people love here. Most of the food is too salty and oily.

Empress Garden is a small shop on N. 10^th Street in Chinatown, Philly, that changed hands about a year ago. The original owner (the «Empress»), was a sterling hostess and stunning beauty who ran her house efficiently and with admirable warmth. The food had a Taiwanese and Indonesian orientation, but also had the standard American/​Chinese dishes for those who preferred them. Their fruit drinks were freshly squeezed, and it had a strong following.
I returned after an absence of a few years, and my first run with the new operation. While the menu was basically the same as before, the actual plates coming from the kitchen seemed to have lost a bit of their edge. We ordered Scallion Pancakes, Curry Chicken with Onions, Salt & Pepper Pork Chops, Orange Beef and Sautéed String Beans. A lot for the three of us to consume, but we were looking forward to bring the balance home.
While the Scallion Pancakes were good, they are certainly returned to the norm, and were not as exceptional as remembered. The Chicken dish had the right taste and fresh chicken, but the Onions were harder than desired, and thus tended to dominate the dish. The S & P Pork Chops had been a wonderful platter in the past, but this day the breading and meat was over-​deep fried, making it tougher in the bite, and less enjoyable in the chew. Disappointing. The Orange Beef was the best thing on our table, with a nice spicy, not overly gloopy, sauce. It was fun to eat even with the orange peel in its soft non-​burnt condition. Finally, the Veggies were fine with a light Garlic finish.
The meal was satisfactory, but not what I hoped for based on recollection. Empress Garden was now just another Chinatown restaurant with a fair kitchen and price, but nothing to make it outstanding.

Came here with a group of friends and sat down right away. It is a cute place, not big at all but very homey. The food was amazing. Steamed dumplings were fulfilling. Pork Lo mein and sesame chicken were both excellent. I recommend getting the hot tea to drink during the meal. Overall great place. Will come again!

I came here with my partner for lunch and was pleasantly surprised. The menu options seemed ordinary but the taste & freshness were mind blowing. I had the Indonesian Lo Mein and he had the General Tso Chicken combo. We also shared the Scallion Pancake which was delicious.
The service wasn’t amazing but that may be due to a language barrier. Other than that, the experience was great.
Our bill was the icing on the cake.. .an appetizer, Thai Iced Tea, & 2 entrees all for under $ 30.

In some other city or in some other location, I would be impressed with the food. It is good. But in the middle of Chinatown, with so may other restaurants, it is hard for this place to stand out.
The congee is okay, nothing special, pretty standard rice porridge. The fried dough goes nicely with it though. The noodle soups are good as well. The beef noodle soup is standard. If you’ve never had it before and you’re feeling adventrous, the pork pickled turnip is tasty. I though it was a bit heavy on the pickled turnip, but take a few out, and its just right.
Solid restaurant, in a area with a variety of lots of great chinese food options.

One of my favorite Chinese restaurants in Chinatown.
Don’t expect awesome service or the cleanest décor but don’t forget you are in Chinatown.
I don’t usually like going back to the same restaurant multiple times because I like trying new spots but this is one of my go-​to places.
Some of my favorite dishes: Salt and Pepper Pork Chops, Indonesian Spicy Fried Rice, Jiajiamyung, and Eggplant dish.

Came here last night for some delicious chinese food. Since we were short on cash we were looking for options and Empress garden came into mind.
We were seated immediately as soon as we walked in. They gave us water and came back to take our order. My friend got the pork belly and tofu on rice which also came with boy choy. I go the string beans with minced pork, extra spicy. Everything was hot and fresh. The pork belly was perfectly melt-​in-​your-​mouth good and the string beans were crispy just the way I like them. The service was on point and everyone was kind to us.
Thanks again for another great experience!

Go Philly! Making excellent Taiwanese dishes.
Family and I took a day trip to Philly to check out their Chinatown. We found this restaurant through Unilocal and was not disappointed.
Their scallion pancakes were great and their beef noodle soup is worth getting. Would not recommend their Xiao long nap because I think it’s from Wei Cheng (stuff you buy at the supermarket that is pretty good for frozen soup dumplings). Also their veggie dish is well seasoned.
Definitely a comfortable neighborhood sit down restaurant with no frills and good food.

I always get the Indonesian Fried Rice and General Tso’s Chicken both extra spicy. That’s comfort food for me. Even when I get the food to go, it’s still delicious. My Indonesian friends all claim the Indo fried rice here is the best in the city. Their Taiwanese food is decent too and they have good lunch specials.

Excellent meal as usual, I had the chicken fried rice w/​Mai Fun noodles.
Meal was hot, chopsticks were clean, restaurant was nice and quiet even though it was full.
Definitely a great place to eat.

Beside Sang Kee Duck, this is my new favorite, go-​to, Chinese/​Taiwanese place in Philly! So not kidding, it’s a at least once a week, will walk over half and hour through rain or snow, kind of place for me.
Best dishes here that I stuff my face till I get food-​coma are as follows:
–chicken chow fun (no gravy. why is that even an option?) Lace it with Sriracha like you’re supposed to.
–Three Cup Chicken
–string beans or watercress
–fried pork chops
–eggplant
–egg drop soup
Other pros:
–clean
–fast and friendly service
–the prices are killer good
–the fortune cookies there actually make sense
–the portions are plentiful
–the teapot of tea is fresh and good
–they don’t judge you when you keep coming back to eat alone because you can’t stay away from their addictive food.

Yummm! Some simple, tasty, Chinese food! We had such great service here! The waitress kept telling us to let her know if we needed anything.
We ordered the wonton soup, house lo mein, spring rolls, and the steamed dumplings. There won ton soup was very good. I love when the won ton soup has a dark broth. The spring rolls were very fresh. The house lo mein and dumplings were very good.
A nice teapot of jasmine tea is always a plus :)

This restaurant in simple terms is nothing out of the ordinary, it’s similar to other Chinese style restaurants in the area. The staff that work there are average and the food is average. The portions are a good size both times I’ve been here. We ordered the sweet and sour chicken and as an appetizer the scallion pancakes.
The scallion pancakes came out first so that was good, it comes with a sauce which compliments the dish. The sweet and sour chicken was average, nothing to rave out. They deep fry the chicken and the sauce is a little bit to thick for my own choosing but to each it’s own. They give you free tea and water which is cool.
The staff could’ve been a bit more attentive. They also seem disorganized a little bit. We had three different people come to our table to give us food or clean up our dishes. The gentlemen that works there I feel was the most professional out of the three. The prices for food is ok and I would come back here again in the future.
The dining area is a bit small but it works so not a deal breaker. There’s only one bathroom I believe so that could be an issue for some. They greeted us upon walking in and we were seated immediately. Overall I gave it 3.0 stars out of 5.0. I think the service needs to improve for sure.

I’ve passed Empress Garden more than a dozen times. It’s fairly nondescript from the outside but when I finally went in, I really enjoyed the meal I had here. This is one of the few Taiwanese restaurants in Chinatown. It has a very clean feel and one of the walls is a huge glass window that looks out onto 10^th street, so there’s plenty of natural light and sunshine.
I tried the Taiwanese beef noodle soup. Just under 7 bucks, steaming hot, a very generous amount of beef, and very flavorful. (Maybe a little too flavorful actually, I found the broth a teeny bit on the salty side) I wouldn’t have minded a little more of the veggies but still a great portion size for the price; I had leftovers for later. My friend tried the Indonesian curry and really enjoyed it. The curry itself was a little on the watery side, but we weren’t sure if that’s the nature of Indonesian curry itself or how it was prepared here.
Best to avoid ordering from the lunch special menu even though those items, like General Tsao’s, may sound more familiar to those who don’t know a whole lot about Taiwanese cuisine, b/​c those are distinctly Americanized dishes. In fact, my friend was originally going to order the Hunan chicken lunch special and the waitress actually asked if she was sure, adding that those are Americanized dishes.
Obviously if you know Chinese, now’s the time to bust it out with the waitresses but they speak English really well too, at least from the exchange I heard between the waitress and an English-​speaking patron.
I already have my eye on the pork chops with rice (sounds fatty but heavenly) for my next trip here, and sometime I’ll try the oyster pancake appetizer too.
The only drawback, which is a minor one, is that there’s only a single restroom and it looks like a broom closet converted to a bathroom b/​c it’s so narrow. Really, I don’t know how people with a slightly larger body habitus would squeeze into this, and the sink is tiny. But hey, you’ll be spending most of your visit here chowing down, not in the bathroom, so all’s well.