Chen’s Cantonese Chef

This is my husbands favorite but I am not a huge fan. The egg rolls are good. Sweet and sour sauce is authentic with chunks of pineapple and peppers… Call me old fashioned but I like the orange stuff out of a jar better. Chicken chopsuey/​Chow mein is good but I wish their was more meat and less bean sprouts. Décor is cheesy and they don’t deliver but we will keep coming back for the chop suey until we find better!

We have loved this place over 30 yrs. Ya, its outdated and could use an update. But to me that is part of the charm. Like Maria’s was to Italian food… As far as food and taste I would give Chen’s 10 stars. We love it and hope its around for many years to come…

Stay away. Eggrolls have peanut butter, deep fried bitter, nasty taste. The peanut butter is not mentioned on the menu. So they will kill someone with a nut allergy.
Also had house fried rice. The pork in the dish was spoiled. Smelled and tasted like I was eating from a garbage can. My wife had sweet and sour chicken. It was frozen doughy mess, with hardly any chicken.
YOU’VE BEEN WARNED

I finally found a delish Chinese place here in Rockford !!! I love Cantonese style food and this place is great! The restaurant is dated. But the staff is great and the food to die for, the man and I go twice a month on date nights !!!

The owners are friendly. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything good to say about the food or atmosphere. My parents took me here when I was younger & I didn’t mind it then. Now I noticed the little things like water stains on the ceiling tiles & food without flavor. I will not be returning & do not recommend it to friends. However, I think my parents still visit occasionally.

Place was deserted at 9pm on a saturday night. Super outdated and dusty décor. We were all joking that it looked like a front for the Cantonese mob. Fried Rice was dry, gritty and tasted like it was made with toilet water. Water glasses were dirty and tasted soapy. Some in our party got typical «Americanized» dishes like sweet and sour chicken and beef and broc and reported it was edible but not great. The veg in our dishes seemed fresh to their credit, but the sauces were thick, viscous, and flavorless. The service was reluctant and after the food came to the table, nonexistent. AVOID AT ALL COSTS

This was the WORST Chinese food that I have EVER had. I hate wasting money, but I will never go back to that place again. I was so very disappointed with this food. Never take a recommendation from a stoner about a restaurant. Everything tastes good to a stoner when they are stoned.
I only ate a little of the pressed duck and I had a bit of their lobster dish, the rest of the night was diarrhea and restless.
NEVER AGAIN!!!

The first place I ever tried Chinese food! Been going back and loving it for more than 30 years!

When you get tired of the garbage food all you can eat chinese restaurants — come over to Chen’s and you’ll appreciate the quality ingredients and carefully prepared delicious food. The eggrolls are the absolute best in town and the Chicken Chop Suey can’t be beat. We also love the Hong Kong T-​bone. Deliciouso.

There shouldn’t be anything but 5 stars for this joint. Best Chinese in town by far. Yea the place is a little old school but so is their food. Classic Cantonese dishes that will blow anything from here to Chicago out of the water. Hong Kong t-​bone steak w noodles is Devine. Beef and garlic is up there as well. I also recommend the egg rolls and crab rangoon. Give it a try!

I wish I had checked out the reviews for Chens before we dropped $ 62.00 for a miserable dinner last Friday night. My boyfriend had been talking about taking me to Chen’s for over a year. He hadn’t been there for about 10 years but had good memories from his last visit. Plus the place is close to home and we like patronizing local.
Chen’s was busy with two servers for an estimated 30 tables and a hostess when we arrived. We asked for water and a pot of tea. Although the tea was well steeped, it was not hot upon arrival. We asked our server about two menu dishes: Lobster Kow ($ 18.25) and one of Chens’ «suggested» menu dishes, Cantonese Style Lobster Tail (shelled) ($ 18.25). The server told us that she couldn’t describe anything on the menu because she «only worked part-​time». Although her disengaged response alone should have been ample warning of what was to come, neither my boyfriend or I wanted to spoil the evening for the other so we ordered.
We ordered the Appetizer Plate for two ($ 14.95). I ordered the Cantonese style lobster tail and my boyfriend ordered the lobster kow. The server brought out a generic-​looking oval plate with two egg rolls, four small BBQ riblet pieces, four «Rumaki“‘, two crab rangoon, and two deep-​fried chicken balls with a lichee inside and walked off without a word. When we were able to get her attention again, we asked her for the sweet and sour sauce and hot mustard the menu indicated came with the appetizer and she referred us to a couple of bottles on the table. The hot mustard was fine, just hot enough to cause a little nasal drip without overpowering the egg rolls. The sweet and sour sauce on the other hand was quite runny, reminding me of a watered down apricot nectar. The flavor and consistency did little to accent the appetizers. The «Rumaki» were pieces of chicken breast and water chesnut slivers wrapped in bacon. The crab rangoon was the best appetizer on the plate with ample cream cheese inside. Overall, the appetizers were fairly generic but edible.
A short time later, our server dropped off a covered bowl to my boyfriend without a word. Under the cover was a gelatinous looking white mixture of cornstarch and water with about six small nickel-​sized lobster pieces, bok choy, canned mushrooms and water chestnuts. My boyfriend asked if we could get some fried rice to go with his entrée when he got our server’s attention and she delivered it in another covered dish. The fried rice was overcooked and dry, with no discernible vegetables or other ingredients other than a tiny bit of scrambled egg. At this point, I still had not been served my entrée but our server now advised that my dish «takes longer» which had not been previously mentioned.
After a couple more minutes (by now the dried up fried rice with its unusual overpowering spice note was cold), our server delivered my entrée in a covered dish without a word. Under the cover was a brown sauce of black bean and garlic, with four inch long pieces of green onion, a little scrambled egg and about six small nickel-​sized lobster pieces. Although the sauce was plentiful, it overpowered the meager green onion and lobster.
Needless to say, we were both stunned at the chintzy amount of entrée ingredients, the lack of ingredient quality and the poor service. We expected our server or the hostess to come by and ask us how everything was but no one ever checked back with us. Had we been able to get someone’s attention without causing a scene, we likely would have sent it all back, paid for the mediocre appetizer and left.
We ate what we could of the cold, disappointing entrees in relative silence. After several minutes, our server asked if we wanted to take my entrée home and carried it away to box it. She returned with a carry out container and asked if we wanted ice cream for dessert which we declined. She then dropped the check for $ 55.00 on our table without even a thank you or an offer of taking the check for us. Although, I felt that the service and food was so poor that a tip of more than a couple of bucks was unnecessary, I didn’t want to embarrass my boyfriend who remembered our waitress from the long-​time closed Royal Dragon, so I left a $ 7.00 tip begrudgingly.
We paid our $ 55.00 check at the register and the hostess also never inquired about our meal. We left and my boyfriend remarked how awful our entrees had been, especially mine. By the next morning, my boyfriend was upset about spending $ 55.00 for such an unpleasant meal so we went back to Chen’s to complain. The manager we spoke with was rude and told us the food isn’t supposed to be authentic Chinese and we should have known that. The experience drove me to write this– my first review ever. We will never go back. Save yourself the experience and go to Imperial Palace where the $ 4.95 lunch specials ($ 7.95 for dinner) are served hot, delicious, and attentively, and include soup and crab rangoon!

Ok, let’s be honest. It’s a dump. It hasn’t been updated in decades. Therein lies the charm. It’s like a time warp for me, and I never want it to change. It’s a place for eaters, not diners.
I seriously doubt the food is «authentic», but I don’t care. Neither is Chipotle and it’s still good. The egg rolls are phenomenal. Literally the best anywhere IMHO. I also like the sweet and sour chicken.
If you want authentic, fine dining… Get out of loves park, you fool.

Dark & Stormy! Norm is an original kontiki ports bartender and he makes the tiki drinks like they are supposed to be made! He even has Orchids of Hawaii mugs he puts the drinks in if you ask. Mai tai, zombie, singapore sling. Norm is the best! The food is great too!

This place is typical of marginal Americanized Chinese food. Bland food made with a cornstarch based white or brown sauce. Yuk. I had the Shrimp Gumsum with decent sized but not much else is going to appeal. If you are super hungry anything will taste good. Too bad they cater to the indiscriminate palate.

This is the most Americanized Chinese restaurant I’ve been to. The only things that make this a Chinese restaurant is the art work, the tea, and the hot sauce. The décor is very tacky and the ceiling is poorly maintained; you can see so many areas with water stains. Imagine what the kitchen would be like.
I had ordered the Hong Sue Chicken, which are pieces of breast meat deep fried, and served with bok choy and a thick brown sauce, like that of wet dog food. The fried rice was dry and overly browned. No Chinese would eat Chop Suey or Egg Foo Yeung.
For a place in Rockford, it’s pretty pathetic. I could find better Chinese food at a truck stop in Elko, NV!

To all previous reviewers: IF YOU THINK THESE ARE GOOD EGG ROLLS THEN YOU’VE NEVER HAD A GOOD ONE. Spurred on by the glowing reviews the Hubs drove me 50 miles to sample egg rolls capable of bringing fellow Unilocalers to near orgasm. What a huge disappointment. I found no difference between Chens and China Buffets egg rolls. They are not homemade egg rolls. I agree that the sweet and sour sauce is homemade and was very tasty. The fried rice we got with our Dinner For Three was white rice with soy sauce. No meat or veggies! WTF? The Crab Rangoon were very tasty but hardly worth $ 1 each. My quest for orgasm inducing egg rolls continues unabated.

I’d give this place 10 stars if I could. By far my favorite food of all time. You would never know what a treat you were in for by the look of it from the outside. And the décor is old – I don’t think much has changed since I ate there as a kid. But, hold on… none of it matters the second you bite into their egg roll. Mmmmm. I am salivating now just thinking of it. Chen’s was the first Chinese restaurant I ever knew. Since then I have searched high and low as I have moved from place to place and I have NEVER found an egg roll that comes close. I don’t know how they make them, but they are incredible.
And it doesn’t stop at the egg roll!!! They have the best sweet and sour dishes anywhere. I love how the sauce is a nice brown color and not the candied red thick goop that so many places have. The pineapple they add along with tomatoes and green peppers just completes the taste. Everything I’ve had there has been superb!
Drink the tea. It comes in a silver tea pot with authentic teacups – and it is perfectly brewed by people who absolutely know what they are doing.
Chen’s is consistent, too — no matter where I’ve traveled since moving away from Rockford, if I get a chance to visit Chen’s it always feels just the same. Even the owners never seem to age. This restaurant has got to be the best kept secret in Rockford!

I would actually give the restaurant 3.5 stars. Maybe I’m being too hypercritical of the restaurant since the owners are actually Cantonese people, which is a rarity in Rockford, since most of the «Chinese» restaurants in Rockford are actually owned by SoutheastAsians/​PacificIslanders.
Let’s start with cons: They lack classic Chinese vegetables like Chinese broccoli (is that even excusable considering that Valli Produce carries this??). Their Orange Chicken was soggy — the breading was not crispy.
Pros: location with lots of parking. Nice décor inside. Slippery egg sauce beef with rice was pretty much spot-​on delicious.
Also, the owner says he doesn’t use MSG in his dishes.

Probably my favorite restaurant, ever. I grew up eating this stuff and can’t get enough. Everything is great, but the egg rolls are to die for!
Note that they are closed on Mondays; I’ve arrived one too many times on a Monday, only to realize too late that they are not open.

I fricking love this place to death. The sign outside reads «YES OPEN» You guys better be open, because it’s amazing. The best Chinese food in the Rockford area, but the competition is crap, so that isn’t saying much.
Do they lace their plum sauce with something addictive? Because it’s so damn good. The crab rangoon is delish. I only get the Cantonese noodles. Haven’t been there for awhile…
One more awesome thing is the décor of this place. What is it, like 60’s — 70’s? I love it! Give me a mai tai and noodles!