Yen Ching

Great Atmosphere. Great customer service. Complimentary tea was really good. I’d give the food a ⁷⁄₁₀.

I like Szechuan food. Having been to Tacoma Szechuan down the road a few blocks I decided I should check out other Szechuan places to see what they have to offer. I popped in and got a table for one for lunch. I ordered the Szechuan prawns which came with soup, fried rice and appetizers which consisted of a small egg roll and a friend wonton. The soup came first and was not typical hot and sour soup. It was the color of chicken stock with lots of tofu, carrots, mushroom, bits of pork and crunchy bits of water chestnut. It has a very faint sour taste with a bit of heat. Not bad but not my favorite version. The entrée, fried rice and appetizers came out after a bit of a wait (not as fast as the other place mentioned above). The shrimp was battered and fried which made it a bit rich. The sauce had a nice heat to it but was loaded down with a ton of carrots and celery (but no broccoli), to the point that the celery dominated the dish. The fried rice was very light in color with a spattering of veggies and egg in it. I prefer fried rice with more ginger and garlic but this was not bad.
Would I return, maybe. My first inclination is to head back to Tacoma Szechuan but if TS was closed I would not hesitate to return to Yen Ching.

Despite its warm and inviting ambience, nothing else came through for us. Food came out barely warm, unbearably salty. Our server does not speak English very well so attempting to explain it to her would be pointless. To top it off, when we told her we did not get what we ordered (beef instead of chicken), she looked at us like we had three eyes.

Had a dinner a while ago for three, ordered a wanton soup then we got a combination of Spareribs, Happy Family (Chicken, Scallop and Shrimp) and Eggplant with Garlic Ginger Sauce. For appetizer we got dumplings.
All of our orders are excellent, we are all asian so we know our stuff. Szechuan is known for its spicy cuisine unfortunately my aunt does not like it so all of our order is not spicy version. Still it was pretty good, the place is also fantastic. It feels like your in a 4 star or 5 star Chinese Hotel. Aside from that service was also pretty good, our waiter always greeted us with a smile.
We plan on going back next time, I am specifically interested on the lounge since I did not have anytime to go there. Will give another review

I visited my mom last month and she told me about this restaurant. I love Chinese food but I haven’t been able to find anything that I like in the Bay Area. We went to this hidden Gem. It is nestled in the corner of a strip mall. Very non descript until you open the doors. It is beautiful inside. We were greeted immediately. The menu is a bit large and overwhelming but we managed to find what we wanted. We ordered the chicken chow mein which is not my favorite but it was so good. We had the Mongolian beef and the meat was incredibly tender with the perfect amount of sauce. The bbq pork fried rice was heavenly, I kept eating it until I got caught hogging it all. They also have very attentive servers. This is some of the best Chinese food I have ever had. Highly recommended.

I’m giving this place my rating based on food and the food alone. More specifically their Mongolian Beef and potstickers are on point. If I was to rate based on the sit-​in service… I wouldn’t. It’s that bad. I’ve been waiting to pay for about 20mins. (As of this review I was sitting in the booth… still waiting!)
Food: 3 stars
Service: 0 stars
Overall: 2 stars
Take out is the only smart option here.
Finally left at 8:10 after a total 30min wait just to pay.

I had ordered carry out last year on Christmas and food was cooked well and the wait wasn’t very long. Fast forward to sitting in the restaurant on Christmas this year, the service was TERRIBLE!!! We had a reservation and we were passed along for person who did not had a reservation. After the lack of eye contact and no communication we were told to follow the lady, she walked us around the whole restaurant and no tables were cleaned and even tried to sit us with another couple. Umm no!!! Then she placed at a large table (only 4 of us) and forgot about us. She did not take our drink orders before placing a food order. We waited about 30 minutes for our food it was undercooked and ill-​prepared. I was told I couldn’t have a glass for my beer because it wasn’t clean dishes. The service was poor, the food was gross, and I had to tracked the server down to pay for my bill. Yes it was Christmas but that is not an excuse for POOR service. It’s sad when your sitting at a table and you can see people coming and going with their carry out order and you been sitting for ages. When she was taking our order she walked off, when I was placing my order. That was the last time I’ll be eating from there!!!

Food is great! Hot sour soup fantastic. I drive from Everett and look forward to it. The waitress is terrible! Incompetent at best. Might be the last time i come here. This is the third time that I’ve had to deal with her. The man is overworked now.

Probably the best Chinese food I’ve had in the area. Service was great. We had the Mongolian beef, sweet and sour pork, vegetable chow mein, and fried won tons. All were amazing.

Great choice for Chinese food, the high price reflects the quality of the ingredients .
Excellent fried rice.

Food was good, not fantastically great. Sweet and sour pork was tender and juicy. Mu Shu pork was a delightful meal if you use their sauce, otherwise could be a bit bland. Steamed rice, that came with the meal, tasted like uncle Bens. Legit, sit down resturant for a decently peaceful night out (unless you get sqwaky kids next to you). Music a bit too loud. I can give 4 stars for atmosphere, food and value. Meal for two, sharing an appetizer and 2 entrées was $ 35 + tip.

I have been going here for 25 years. I still dream about the delicious hot and sour soup. All the food is impressive. This is a traditional chinese restaurant with amazing service.

Having been a long time customer at this restaurant, I decide to go with my family. The restaurant was maybe 25 percent full. It took about 15 minutes before the waitress took our order, and another 20 minutes before we got our food. But the worst is yet to come. The waitress took away nearly half portions of the food and never boxed them. Instead of waiting another 20 minutes for the food we all decided to leave. The main issue with this restaurant is not the quality of the food or the serving size, although it’s been reduced with the new plates that they put out. It’s the service. Very poor tonight.

By far the best Chinese food in Tacoma so far. The food was awesome and the price, reasonable. I ate the foods before I took pictures of it.

First time being here and we will definitely be back!!! Had a great lunch with my family and for a reasonable price. I love that they were both Mandarin and Szechuan style because they had Honey walnut prawns on the menu (my fave)

This is the best place we’ve had Chinese food. We’ve tried a couple others but this is definitely our favorite. The Mongolian beef is great. Not very spicy and the meat was very tender.

Our family of three went on a Saturday. We ordered the dinner combo for two because our son isn’t into the soup or rice. So dinner for 2 plus a lot of appetizers. Apps were coconut prawns (sons main course), sample platter & bbq pork.
Sample was crab rangoons, fried wontons, pot stickers, & bbq pork. All was fantastic. Sons prawns were great too. Soup was sizzling rice totally tasty. Spring rolls are fresh and yummy. Almond chicken & sweet & sour chicken entrees were so good as was the fried rice. Wasn’t greasy, tasted freshly prepared. You could tell it was all made in house & not from a bag like so many other places.
Oh and the restaurant was clean! Ppl who complain about prices here, c’mon really? Freshly made, good quality food costs more. If you want cheap then go find some dollar food nasty dirty place. You get what you pay for people.

I’m on a never ending quest for awesome Chinese food in the south sound. So far I haven’t had great luck. Yen Ching is alright. The ambiance is good, the koi pond is well maintained and didn’t just bum me out like so many unkept koi ponds do. The customer service was fine.
Now, about the food and drinks. The hot tea was nothing of note, just OK. I love it when I’m surprised by a delicious nutty green or Jasmine tea. Not here. I had the Yen Ching special Chow Mein (beef, chicken and shrimp). The flavors were good and the shrimp was cleaned well, it was just too oily to really enjoy. My friend had the mixed veggies and chicken and said the flavor was there, the veggies were cooked well, but the whole dish was over sauced and oily. Bummer. This review is based on one visit — I’ll be back to see what else they have to offer.

It’s been awhile since I wrote a bad review, but I’m due for providing community service again.
I was looking for a place to pick up some Chinese food to go for my nieces and nephews. Unilocaled and saw that this pace had a website, so I proceeded.
Decent prices on the website… they just forgot to mention that those prices are from 1988 because I was being charged about 5 bucks more for each dish than what was shown on the website. Mentioned it to the lady, but she said that the website I was looking at must be for a different Yen Ching. My bad, didn’t realize there were so many Yen Ching restaurants at this exact same address.
Order was supposedly going to be ready in 15 minutes. Showed up at 15 minutes after getting off the phone, and food was ready 15 minutes after I got there and already paid for it. What they meant is that it would be ready 15 minutes after you arrive 15 minutes after you were quoted the estimated time. Fooled me.
Got the food and… WTF? That’s it? Yep. 4 dishes, each in half sized to go containers. $ 54.03 was what I paid for 4 dishes (see picture posted). If I was ordering lobster dishes, I would understand. But chow mein, hot and sour soup, Mongolian beef, and orange chicken? Seriously?
I opened up the boxes and I almost cried. I never felt so robbed.

I read about this place in a not so recent TNT Diner column. Other TNT Diner recommendations have been superb, but this one was just OK.
First, let’s highlight the good:
Speed of service was unbelievable. We walked in around 6:30 on a Saturday evening. The place wasn’t packed, but I saw two parties walk in just in front of us and another two right after. We drank some hot tea, ordered, and before we could even get into a conversation our meals arrived. Couldn’t have been more than 7 minutes.
Also– a giant bowl of rice was provided. Normally I have to request at least two extra servings of rice, but the large bowl was enough for both of us.
Now, the bad:
Virtually nonexistent.
Finally, the meh:
Plenty to spread around. The meals were authentic (to the Americanized Chinese restaurant legacy), but not all that flavorful. I admit, I’ve become accustomed to Chinese restaurants asking «how spicy?», but that didn’t happen here. Nor did anyone ask us how the meal was.
Ultimately I’d have to say that Yen Ching is to Chinese food what Shoney’s or Perkin’s is to American food. Good in a pinch, but not exciting in the least. Definitely not worth going out of your way for.