Village Wok

I’ve been eating at the «wok» for over 30 years. I would give 5 stars, except that they used to put so much more meat and seafood in their dishes. If you guys want to pay for the atmosphere, then go somewhere else. When I go to eat that dependable Asian meal, the wok is always my first choice. I don’t want to pay for the décor. I want good food. Yes, if you are allergic to MSG, ask for no MSG, and quit complaining about an allergy that only you would know about. My kids have been eating the food from there, since they have been able to eat. My son wants to go to the U, mostly because he wants to eat there every day. Yes, our family could eat there every day. Over the last 30 years, the prices have gradually increased, along with every other restaurants, but the portions remain the same. Most dishes could feed two people easily, so I can’t complain about the prices. I always have left overs and get two meals. So, if I pay $ 10 for a meal, and I get two meals out of it, I essentially am getting a whole meal for $ 5. Try to get fullfilled on $ 5 from McDonalds. Since I have been going there for so long, I know the wait staff and management pretty well. They are great. I’ve seen some of the comments. It’s too bad that peope mostly comment only to complain. Unless you have grown up with Asian food, please don’t comment on the authenticity. I eat Asian food daily, and was born in an Asian country. The wok makes me feel like I am at home, even if it is for an hour. I don’t waste a whole lot of time criticizing restaurants. The bad restaurants, I don’t go back to, and the good ones, I keep going back to. I guess I will only do a review on the good restaurants, since most reviews of most places, are bad reviews. Yes, the bathroom is shared with a bar next door, and down stairs. I make my children go to the bathroom before we leave, if we are dining in. We mostly do carry out though, and pig out at home with a good movie. That’s our family’s perfect family date. 20 years ago, I ate there at least 4 days a week. Now, I have to drive about 35 minutes, so I can only go once or twice a week. I miss living in Minneapolis, mainly for the wok

Not the Wok of the past. The menu is too expansive, and now includes selections from areas of Asia other than China. Did takeout with a friend who had never had food from the Wok. He was very disappointed. The lo mein was a soy sauce mess. It was obvious that the cook had no pride on the food that he/​she produced.

One of the worst restaurants I’ve even been. The ingredients are old and service is world class. In a bad way…

I love this place. Greasy but so worth it. I love their fried rice and lomein the most. Also love the sweet and sour chicken. They have a huge menu, so there’s something for everyone. Fast and friendly service.
Bathroom seems haunted, but that doesn’t stop me from going to eat there. :)

Eh. I like their orange chicken, but name one Chinese Restaurant that doesn’t have that. Overpriced, snappy staff, better restaurants nearby.

Spent thirty dollars for fried oyster lunch only to find they had a spoiled taste. I got a tummy ache after lunch, I won’t be coming back.

not clean… and smelly! Foods there are horrible as well! :/​but this place opens till late (2 in the morning or something) — so this is just the place I go when I do not have any other choice and crave Asian food. Too bad there’s no other Asian places open till late around campus :/

I can not taste any asian flavor in their meals. it is like American cook a Chinese food for you lol…

Wait takes a little long even at 9:40. The menu is huge. But it’s quiet at this time and it’s not a bad environment.

dirty, greasy…
this place is not clean, and the bathroom is downstairs in some poorly lit dungeon.
sticky floors and stickier tables.
huge portions, and overall cheap, but the food is just not what it used to be. Nothing tastes authentic, and everything is a bowl of grease. The food comes out way too fast to be ‘fresh’

The best place for late night chinese foods at the u. I’ve known this place for 20 years. Their food is alright but they open really late.

You know I have been dining at village wok for about 8 years and I was introduced to the place by my cousin who was attending U of M. This is the best authentic Chinese food I have had in Minnesota. My favorite dishes are the following:
1. 5 spice fried bean curd
2. 5 spice fried squid
3. Wonton soup (appetizer)
4. Pan fried pork pot stickers
5. Chicken wings (appetizer)
This is what I order every time I go to village wok (once a month). They have mostly new servers but the ones who have worked there for years remember my order. The service is usually on point unless they are swamped. If you don’t mine tofu the fried bean curd is what you will love. It’s spicy, crunchy, flavorful and truly taste so good. I absolutely love the bean peppers, I have bought it before for only $ 5.00. It is so inexpensive to eat here, I would rather come eat dinner here than go to the club or bars. If a guy EVER takes me here for dinner without me asking I would convert my life for him. Their mango monsoon smoothie is delicious too. You can taste the mango powder but man do I love that (only at this place). I get the worst cravings to eat here and I will drive 40 minutes to dine with friends and pay for meter parking just to taste some bomb ass Chinese food.

Oh, Village Wok. I really do hesitate to give such a low rating. However, I’ve tried to love this place but I just don’t. The fact that they have gotten shut down twice since I’ve known about them, due to needing a proper inspection by order of the MN Department of Health, leaves me unwilling to eat here again. The restaurant is almost always dirty, and a bit grungy and just does not feel clean. Now of course, places can get shut down and re-​open and be just fine. So I gave them two second chances since then and no more. I walked by there one day in July 2014, and I couldn’t order my takeout due to the huge glaring sign on the front door saying they are closed for inspection and cleaning.
I do enjoy their Fried Tofu (Bean Curd) and their spicy black bean sauce. Now that sauce is great, and they serve it with many of their dishes. Their Lo-​Mein is quite good actually, with lots of veggies, sauce and chicken /​shrimp or pork. Their cream cheese wontons are thicker than usual, not thin and crispy like you get at most places. I don’t fault them that at all.
MSG allergic /​sensitive people beware. I say this only because I experienced an awful allergic reaction, much unlike any other I’ve experienced before. I ordered their Shrimp Sichuan lunch deal (comes with fried rice; I would’ve preferred plain white rice but she grabbed the menus away so fast I didn’t have a chance to utter any kind of preference). The fried rice tasted very salty. It could do with about a quarter of that amount of salt, this coming from someone who loves her soy sauce! The sichuan sauce is thick and EXTREMELY salty. MSG is supposed to enhance the savory flavor of meat and vegetable dishes. Enhance, yes. Overpower and cause palpitations? No. As I was paying my bill and walking out, I felt numerous palpitations /​fluttery heartbeats pounding in my chest. I felt dizzy, weak and nauseated. I had to sit down or possibly lie down and take a nap, neither of which were possible at the time. I was developing a severe throbbing headache. A call to the nurse line confirmed that I had an MSG allergic reaction, which shocked me because I have eaten Chinese food (and lots and lots of all kinds of Asian food in my time) and never had this type of reaction before. Ever. I spent the rest of the day flushing my system with loads of water in a desperate effort to rebalance my equilibrium.
So, I say in all honesty, be careful if you know you might have a reaction from their food, especially if it contains a lot of MSG. If you’ve been eating here for years and love it, great. I know it won’t be possible for me to dine here ever again.

Are you a fan of small menus? Maybe this place will show you to the good side of life when you lay eyes on their massive, 34 – 36 page menu! They have something for everyone but not exactly my preference
Also, the portions are large and filling, justifying the slightly higher prices. Some items are really «heavy «aka drowning in sauce or overly deep fried (which can be a good thing, but not constantly). However, the dishes are always cooked at just the right length and/​or time; I love most food cooked slightly longer to enhance the flavor.
High marks for the service, the staff is well read on the epic menu and helpful. Also, the restaurant is open til 1:45a! Like I said, nit the greatest food but not bad, either. Party hard

It’s good and affordable. Nothing too great. Not bad food though.
This is a great location for groups. The staff is pretty average. Not a bad spot on campus, but there are definitely better options around.

Nostalgia got the best of me.
I came to eat here quite a bit as an undergrad.
I stopped by to have an old favorite here, Chicken in Black Bean Sauce extra spicy.
True enough to form, it disappointed mightily! No spice whatsoever, even their hot oil wasn’t spicy.
All of a sudden, all those memories of Village Wok took me back to the great disappointment I had in each and every meal there.
I enjoyed the 1am dining sessions there with my friends, not the actual food itself.
If you’re 18 – 21 and haven’t had good Chinese food before, this place is great.
If you’ve sampled anything remotely decent beyond Panda Express, you’ll be greatly disappointed here, as I was throughout my late teens and early twenties.

I used to love going here as a kid with my family to get some wonton noodle soup and hot pot but over the years, as management has changed, the quality and taste of the food has progressively gotten worse. As their menu continues to expand, the focus is really shifting from what they have always been known for — their wonton noodle soups. Back in the day this place used to be packed all the time but now if I stop in, there are only a few tables with customers. I know they can do better.

Have been there 3 times in the last few years. Not sure if it was random food poisoning this time around, but both my husband and I got sick from our last meal there.
If you like authentic Cantonese food, I would recommend Hong Kong Noodles or Peking Garden (in St. Paul) instead.

I worked overnights at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. Despite have about 10,000 bars and restaurants in the area, we, on the night shift, often felt like there were very few options for night food.
A fellow co-​worker came back with Udon noodles from this place one night. Yeah, I was pretty much just taken my the site of them! They are open until 1:45am which was really nice for our shift. I have basically stuck with the Udon noodles in Hot Garlic Sauce or Teriyaki Sauce.
In general, it take about 10 minutes from the end of the phone call to getting food. We were less than a block away. I believe they are take out only. The restaurant itself is pretty «hole in the wall». If I were still a college student, I probably would have been there nightly.
The portions are EXTREMELY generous. For those of us who did 12 hours shift, we had 2 meals at work and a quick dinner at home. I just loved the texture of the noodles, the spices and flavors of the dishes mentioned above. Staff was always very kind to relatively crabby night nurses bombarding the place 20 minutes before closing. I would highly recommend. In fact, now that I am writing this, I think I will be making a stop there this week. I miss those Udon Noodles!!!

This village was a staple in my schedule back in the day when I was a student at The U of M. I always seem to take a trip down memory lane when I’m here. I often get flashbacks of kissing boys, hot sour soup, Bruegger’s, Twix bars, books, buses, honeybuns, Cheapo, parties, and Ben and Jerry’s. Am I also thinking about my first suggestive experience with him? Absolutely.
My good friend, Chantry, brought me here for the first time when I was nineteen, skinny, and naïve. One day she saw me sitting at a table on campus enjoying lunch alone. She asked me if I wanted to be her friend? Well, let’s just say you can never have too many friends!
I remember eating here with Chantry on numerous occasions. She introduced me to the hot sour soup. I was scared to try it, but ended up really enjoying it. Which is why I wonder why don’t I order it these days? I remember ordering lots of fried chicken wings. And I remember Chantry liking black bean sauce. We both love the hot jasmine tea provided at the table. I would like to suggest they supply all tables with a lazy Susan. That would make for easier access to jasmine tea and spicy chili oil.
These days, I’m still placing orders for fried chicken wings. Those never ever get old. On cold days, the pork wonton soup is nice. Although, the wonton wrapper is too thick and chewy in my opinion. The wontons here remind me of Eddie Cheng’s wontons. My two friends always get the fried pot stickers. They’re made with the same thick wonton wrappers. They are filled with pork and you can get them steamed or fried. I don’t care for the sauce that it comes with.
Noann and Donna are sisters. They got me hooked on the Japanese fried bean curd (tofu) at the Wok. This dish is too good to be true. It’s so crispy and flavorful. I love Chinese five spice. In fact, I would have to say it’s my fav spice rub. Who doesn’t love star anise, Chinese cinnamon, cloves, sichuan pepper, and fennel seeds combined?! The order comes with steamed rice. What I love to do is mix their spicy chili oil condiment with the steamed rice. This along with their fried tofu is quite possibly the best bite of your life. I’m not fudging when I say that. Try it and see for yourself.
I have never left this village long-​faced. This place holds a very special spot in my heart. From firsts with boys to Japanese fried bean curd, I always beam when I think of you, Village Wok. That said, if you haven’t already paid a visit to this village, move it to the top of your bucket list.