Essence of China Restaurant

Alex R.

Joined 3 months ago

I cannot believe there are negative reviews for this place!! We've been going here for three years and have never once been disappointed. My husband and I love Chinese food and have been to a lot of chinese restaurants. While I can't claim to know the exact aspects that make it authentic or not, I do know what tastes good and this restaurant is good! Since we discovered them we have hardly eaten Chinese any where else. We joke around that they "ruined" other restaurants for us because "well, it was ok, but not as good as Essence." The waiter may be quiet but he is friendly, polite and always helpful and fast. He makes us smile and the service is great! During the dinner hour they have 2-3 other staff there, which is plenty for a small place like this. There are only about 10 tables in the place. All the staff are friendly and helpful, they remember us when we come in and make us feel so welcome and comfortable. It does not have fancy decorations, mood lighting, music, fishtanks, fountains or other things that have come to be expected at a typical asian restaurant, but it has excellent food, in large portions for a low cost. For drinks, 4 entrees, a side of eggrolls and egg flower soup (like everything else, it's the best I've had!) it generally costs us around $30. Tea and white rice are complimentary with any order. We are dainty eaters, we fill ourselves up with a large portion and still have enough to take home for lunch and sometimes dinner as well the next day.

Doesn't Recommend

kc4pres

Joined 3 years ago

Sadly Not Good. If you at all know what Chinese food "should" taste like. Dont eat here. Cost me 46 bucks to feed 5 people. Not too bad. Could of saved alot of money had I known that the food would barely be eatin. Wontons had meat in them that was similar to dogfood in texture and apperance. The food barely resembled what it would usually look or smell like in a decent Chinese restaurant. It wasnt very good at all. I will not be going back there again. This place couldnt even compete with "Panda Express". And thats no joke. Just save your money

Doesn't Recommend

pinky88

Joined 4 years ago

Never again, :(. We needed delivery in the West Linn area for several lawyers. We weren't expecting much but honestly the food made McDonalds taste high end. The beef was gritty and the sauce tasted as though it had 50 cups of sugar added. All of the dishes were over done with so much sugar to compensate for the lack of authentic taste. This included chicken, beef, shrimp ect. Some people complained about feeling ill afterwards. We will not be ordering from this place ever again, so disappointed.

How hard is it to cook simple dishes?

Recommends

osuchic3381

Joined 4 years ago

Great Food. I had heard great things about this place through friends and family and finally ventured in. I love hot and sour soup and it was amazing. The perfect blend of spicy. We also shared pot stickers which were good. I tried a combination meal with pork fried rice, almond chicken (I think thats the name) and shrimp. The shrimp was the best I have had and I really enjoyed the almond chicken. Service was good. I will definitely make the trip back!

Recommends

Oregon City family

Joined 4 years ago

Great food & delivery service. This is by far the best Chinese food we have had since leaving the San Francisco Bay Area.

We are frequent customers of the delivery service. We brought a large family group to the restaurant and everyone was extremely pleased with the service and the food.

Recommends

dadster

Joined 5 years ago

Nice little place to get away from it all. We have been to this little place several times on sunday afternoons for lunch in the last couple of years. People are always friendly, and the food has always been superb. For those that say fheir prices are high, we have never spent over thirty dollars for the four of us, of course that would depend on what you order. They have always had only one server in the afternoons, I don't know if they have more for the dinner hours. We always take about half of our food home, and it makes for a nice dinner the next day.

Recommends

bkkissel

Joined 5 years ago

Awesome food and service. This is a great restaurant with good food and service, convenient location, reasonable prices, etc. Looking forward to trying more restaurants recommended in CitySearch

Recommends

OregonCityFamily

Joined 5 years ago

Good, basic Chinese food. Neat old building, but watch your step where it slopes up into the dining room. Standard dishes were good -- sesame beef was flavorful but not very spicy. They have a kind-of "sampler" dish with three types of chicken that was reasonably priced with large portions -- General Tso's, Lemon, Sweet and Sour. Service was fine.

Doesn't Recommend

starride

Joined 5 years ago

Safeway chinese food beats this place anyday, sad but true.. We read the reviews before we went out because we wanted some good Chinese food. This place has some great reviews from people, dont believe them. I hate to be down on anyone but we were very disappointed. The food was icky, and they had one poor little server on running around like mad.

Recommends

redrider829

Joined 5 years ago

Great food and service!. This place is great. We eat here at least once a month! Good sized, very tasty portions. Get the string beans! As with most of Willamette the parking is not so good, but a little walk never hurts, especially since you're gonna fill up on a bunch of fab food. Remember "hot" means "hot"! The staff is also very nice. Enjoy!!