Butterfly Hadley

Good food, poor service.
I went to Butterfly Hadley last night with my 4yo daughter, my husband, and his parents. When we arrived, the restaurant was empty. After being seated and receiving our menus, we had to wait a little too long for the waiter to come take our order. In fact, we had to summon him over. That, in and of itself, could have been forgiven.
My daughter, who was being patient but was on the verge of not being so patient, was doing a puzzle that I had brought along (that I keep in my purse for just these occasions). The waiter, who was not a native English speaker, and was a little hard to understand, looked at her doing the puzzle and said, in a light-​hearted way, something like «Oh, no playing! No playing until you eat your food!» I’m sure he was trying to be funny. But no one in my party laughed.
We all ordered, and a reasonable amount of time later, the waiter brought our soups. Then he turned and seemed to be doing something at the waiter station next to our table. My husband had ordered a cocktail and, motioning to the bar, asked the waiter if someone was making his drink. The waiter (again, difficult to understand) said something like «I make it for you. No rush.» We all looked at each other in surprise. My mother-​in-​law said «Usually the drinks come first, that’s all.» The waiter looked at my MIL and said «Oh, I apologize. Okay? I apologize.» He sounded very insincere, but again, maybe it was just a language barrier? Then he went off and made my husband’s drink.
My daughter had to use the restroom, and after we washed up we discovered that the paper-​towel dispenser was empty. I told her that we should «shake and air dry» and then I went out and told the hostess that the paper-​towel dispenser in the ladies’ room was empty. She smiled «Oh, okay, thank you.»
Then our food arrived, but instead of Salmon Terikyaki, which I had ordered, the waiter brought shrimp. I explained that I had ordered salmon, and he took the shrimp away. I waited while the rest of my party started their food, but then my daughter said she had to use the restroom again. And again, we found the paper-​towel dispenser empty. I didn’t say anything to the hostess the second time.
My salmon arrived, and it was pretty delicious. Everyone in my party enjoyed their food. But the waiter was so odd, and the hostess so unhelpful, that I don’t imagine we’ll be eating at Butterfly again.

Best Chinese and sushi Ive had in Amherst area!!!

I did not find anything special about Butterfly Hadley — except for the size of the sashimi slices. They were huge! I have only had pieces that big in San Francisco. The fish itself was good, but again nothing special. So, overall, three stars, +1 star for the sashimi.

I’ll admit, I’ve only tried a few Chinese restaurants in the area. But this is by far the best!
I had a fried tofu dish which was really good, but didn’t reheat well. My friend’s general tso’s chicken was AMAZING! The ingredients really were fresh, and the food didn’t seem boxed or frozen. We also had the fried dumplings and the corn soup. Both were good as well.
Bill for all this plus drinks was around 50 bucks, which i think is really reasonable. Have already spread the word among my friends who are new to the area as well.
Service was great as well!

Awesome restaurant! My family loves the vegetarian menu. Great menu and friendly staff.

Great food and so many options! Large helpings and the nicest staff.

rude people. i’ll never order from them again.
i ordered veggie moo shu beef without egg, and recieved an order full of egg. so i called butterfly to ask them to please remake my order and deliver it to me. whoever answered the phone thought this was funny and laughed at me before hanging up.
it’s their loss, i order out alot.

To start off: this place gets 4 stars because it did much better than I anticipated. Typically, Chinese restaurants in small towns tend to be more Americanized. This is not saying that the food I guy was amazing, but like I said, exceeded expectations. You will probably notice that a lot of Chinese students from Amherst come here. that is probably a decent indication that the food is at least acceptable.

First off, you should know that there are two menus. There is a more Americanized menu and than there is the more authentic menu. The food they are the best at making is the sichuan dishes, it is their specialty. If you are not a fan of spicy food, but love fish, try out their pan fried flounder (this is under the more authentic menu).
Every time I go there I leave feeling satiated. One of the best restaurants in the area, hands down. Definitely my favorite local Chinese restaurant.

Pretty good Chinese food here. Good service and great prices as well. Not good for dates or business meetings. I reserve this place for take out or a quick lunch alone. The décor is weird… plastic chairs and primary colors… not sure what the owner was thinking. But, food wise: Chicken in Garlic Sauce is my favorite. Scallion pancakes are a bit too crispy but they have great flavor.

I’ve only been here twice, but both times were unsatisfactory. They use bad oil, so the food has a slightly rancid taste. The sushi wasn’t fresh, and they weren’t careful about keeping fish eggs off the vegetarian sushi!

This is a review of the vegetarian menu at the Hadley location and at the new Northampton location, which is all vegetarian.
If you’ve never been to a veggie Chinese place, then you should at least try Butterfly.
However, if you’ve been to other veggie Chinese restaurants, then Butterfly will probably rank very low. Typical goopy sugar + corn starch sauces with mediocre vegetables with fake meat.
Two exceptions: They’re green onion pancakes are good, and they have really speedy delivery.

I ate here twice in relatively large groups. The food was delicious! The service is also quite good and the people there were very amenable to our repeated requests of bringing more food. The food may be a little spicy for the very sensitive palate but since I am South Asian, it was perfect for me! There are many vegetarian and non-​vegetarian options as well. The starter soup was also quite good. We had the «energizing» soup that had ginseng and other herbs. Really good! I would definitely recommend this place. The location is quite easy to find and the atmosphere is very soothing. It is not that pricey either. It is definitely one of the better Chinese places I have tried outside Chinatown.

Butterfly, owned by the same people who used to own the now-​closed Panda Garden (Pleasant Street, Northampton), is a solid place to meet an affinity group, visiting family/​parents, or coworkers during lunch hour. Several munches meet regularly in their party/​banquet room.
Their décor retains a lot of structural elements from the restaurant that used to be there (All Fired Up). There is a tank of at least 30 barramundi near the kitchen.
Their vegetarian meats are varied and delicious; the vegetarian meat dishes are tasty and plentiful. Their Chinese-​Japanese fusion food is the cuisine for which Butterfly is — according to the newspapers hanging in their entryway — renowned. For real meat, we usually stick to Chinese stand-​bys (chicken or beef with broccoli, General Tso’s Chicken), or whole king prawns.
Butterfly has good, friendly staff, which is a huge improvement on the staff at their previous restaurant. The food takes an awfully long time to arrive.

For my Vegetarian friends out there you definately want to try this place. They make «vegetarian» versions of classic Chinese foods.
We ate the spare ribs which we were told were awesome and were not disappointed. They literally made my mouth water.
After we tried the general tso’s chicken which was ridiculously good and some pork dish which wasn’t so good. kinda like bologna hot dogs.
Stick with fake meat and chicken and your good to go.
I looking forward to trying their soups. What a great concept and great execution!

«Eh!» is what I say about Butterfly, I’ve had better Chinese food before, and I’M CHINESE! The portions was decent but flavor was lacking. I’m giving this a 2 star because so far this is the only restaurant around the area to offer, in their gourmet menu, true Chinese cuisine. The wait staff was very polite and accommodating to my party of 3 dozen.
They serve Japanese cuisine as well, but the sushi was not fresh. I think they should master the Chinese food before they branch out to offer sushi!

Butterfly replaced Beijing Garden, It’s a big restaurant with a lot of choices, but the food is so so. Would try Panda East or Amherst Chinese instead.

I came here once, only once, about a year ago. My review is moreso a 3.5 than a 3, if only because of the time it took to get our food.
It was during this visit that I remembered why my vegan and vegetarian compatriots enjoy Butterfly: their extensive veg-​friendly menu. So, along with my cohort, we decided to test the waters. There were so many choices, we ended up with a veritable dim sum of appetizers since we couldn’t pick one thing. The food was good, but nothing to write Unilocal about (well, too much, anyway). I was definitely more impressed with the sheer variety rather than the taste.
Parking is ample, and the waitstaff are nice. It took a bit to get our food, but not a terribly long amount. Far more successful than the other noodle/​mongolian bbq-​esque establishment in the building before it.

No I will never order from you again.
My fried noodles that had a couple of shrimps and other things in it had shrimp shells little pieces everywhere! HORRIBLE. Okay. I don’t know what the rave is all about cause I don’t like you butterfly. I will wing wong instead!

Typical Western Mass Chinese/​Japanese cuisine. The Eggplant in Garlic Sauce was heavy and more greasy than it really should be. The sushi was generic, but fresh. The Chow Fun was mediocre.
Our server was really nice though. My family came and they took forever ordering with the waiter. He was very nice and patient.