If you're coming for ambiance or decor, then head to PF Chang. This place is a a vintage hole but the food is great. Came here in 1985 to the Sharonville car show . They sold egg rolls on the sidewalk. I hated cabbage. My friend bought me one and I didn't want to be rude. It was eye opening. Haven't been down here in decades but saw it and stopped in. The egg rolls are still fabby. I take rich flavor over atmosphere. Support local places or you loose them. read more

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Delicious Chinese and close to work! Only weird thing to note is they give you rice with your order of lo mein for the lunch portion. The rice is very good but ha a lot of onion. read more

Surprisingly delightful! I was in search for an old school authentic Chinese restaurant.. like with a giant lazy Susan and decor that.. wasn't stereotypical. Anywho.. found this place.. although it was a 30 minute drive from me - it was worth it. I didn't know what to expect (being from SoCal).. and what I got exceeded my expectations. I took my mom here when she was in town and she was pleasantly delighted (she's.. a tough critic lol). Here's what we ordered.. -Fried egg noodle with beef - My mom said this was a 3/5 for her lol.. she prefers the Vietnamese version. -Hong Kong style fish filet - Umm.. this was the star for me. This was soo good and salty (just the way I like it).. 5/5! -Sauteed Greens (forgot which one) - But this was good - 4/5 Good experience! read more

I haven't been here in several years. The outside hasn't changed - it's pretty run-down. The inside has been remodeled since I was here last and it's cleaner than the outside appears. The menu is slimmed downed from what I remember and I was disappointed to see all Americanized dishes on the menu. We both ordered the Hot & Sour soup for an appetizer. I ordered the Beef in Spicy Sauce with Peanuts and my husband ordered the Rock Salt Squid. The hot & sour soup was great! We both thought it was awesome. Some of the better hot & sour soup we've had. We both thought our dishes were pretty good too. Although, neither of us were blown away by our meal. Mine was a bit too sweet, not very spicy and lacked any real depth. The service was quick and friendly. read more

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The service is horrible! They have no staff. I went there to eat and they had empty tables. I needed a table for 3 people, and the girl who works there was rude and said NO! They NEVER HAVE ANY HELP THERE. I will never go there again even though the food is good. Went to a place called the grand buffet and the food was excellent read more

First time visiting and was blown away by how authentic the foods are. To be honest, we heard about Chinese Imperial Inn for a while but didn't stop by because we afraid it is just another Chinese basic fast food restaurant. But no, despite the run down look, the foods were great. The service was great too. Our server greet us with a warming smile and quickly seat us down and take our order. The food came out fast too. I was impressed. After talking to the waitress, we found out the restaurant is over 30 yrs old, family run. No wonder why it has such great ambiance. I would recommend dinning in instead of order take out. Lot of food need to be eaten right away. Sitting in the box makes the food soggy and overcooked. Deff will come back for more. Just thinking about it s me hungry. read more

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The outside of the building is rough so this is definitely a "don't judge the food by the building!" restaurant! We chose to eat in and the service was super quick, the food is AMAZING! We got soooo much food for the price, too!!! I will drive out of my way for Chinese Imperial Inn! read more

Chinese Imperial Inn - Boneless chicken Cantonese - Chinese Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

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Definitely not a done in restaurant!! The portions are large, we could have shared a meal. Very good food. I say not an eat in restaurant because the only drink was bottled water and our server was so busy with to go orders that we were in the background.. seemed like a clean restaurant though. Definitely a place for takeout!! read more

Never been before so we gave it a try for lunch on 5/12 - wish I hadn't. The inside of the place looks like the outside - dark, dingy and sus. I went with the beef with broccoli, coworker with the General Tso's chicken. Food came out in short time and something looked off about it, but I ate it anyway. Get back to the office, within an hour I'm getting sick in my garbage can at my desk, which was a pleasant treat for my office mates. My coworker felt fine. I will not be returning. read more

Lived in Cincinnati for over 10 years now and this is the best Chinese food I've had. Up there with the best food I've had. The egg rolls are top tier and the chicken with garlic sauce is amazing. read more

The outside looks so shady and the interior isn't great, but the food that awaits is awesome. Tasty and authentic Chinese is hard to come by in this part of the country, but I'm so glad to have found this. It is a great place for all Cantonese dishes but I want to call out the excellent seafood in particular. They have the tanks where they keep the crab/fish/lobster live, and the difference it makes in taste is obvious. Aside from the spectacular seafood, I thought the noodle and veggie dishes were solid as well. I judge the quality of a Chinese restaurant by how well it makes the classic beef chow fun, and they did a good job with it here. The noodles were quite oily, but amazingly soft and tasty. Also love that they do complimentary apps. We just got roasted salted peanuts and the table next to us got tortilla chips of some kind, but it's still a kind gesture I appreciate. read more

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If I could leave 0 stars, I would. Four of my co-workers and I ordered takeout on Thurs, 5/12. We ordered a variety of lunch specials (chicken, beef) with fried rice and egg rolls. Within 45 minutes, all of us were violently ill. I would only recommend eating at this place if you want to spend 24+ hours vomiting. Wish I would have read their health department inspections before eating here. 2 inspections with critical findings and magically no findings on their second reinspection? Seems fishy. Caveat emptor. read more

Really enjoyed family dinner here. We had a party of 8 and finished everything we ordered. List of our dishes below... Fried smelt fish - really tasty! Mushroom and bok choy - flavorful Cooked oysters tired with onions - very plump Seafood fried rice - so good we got two orders and some to go Steamed seabass - can't go wrong with seabass Cai lan - dish was okay. I liked mushrooms/bok choy better Conch & veggies - nice combo. Conch may be a little chewy for some Ample parking. Friendly staff. read more

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Lunch under $12. Not sure why the low rating but the best places i have come to find are the small mom & pop hole in the wall shops. I read some of the previous reviews and they read like ... they don't answer the phone the web sit is broken .. the building looks like crap. I will admit yes the building is a bit dated but is pretty clean and as far as not answering the phone is probably due to the fact the nice lady running the front end is by herself and is running food and doing take-out orders along with waiting on customers. Give them a break I had moo goo gi pan lunch special with hot and sour soup and it was awesome . Food quality and presentation i give 5 stars. I walk out paying less than $12 for lunch but i gave a way above average tip. I wll definitely be back. read more

Chinese Imperial Inn - Moo goo gi pan lunch with hot and sour soup - Chinese Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

Great food! Great food! Not much to look at, but food had a lot of flavor. Beware that some of the sauces are spicy/hot. The Hot&Sour soup was excellent. Fried oyster, outstanding. The egg foo young is served with the gravy on the side. The Crab Rangoons were slightly sweet, and the sauce was spicy/hot. We loved it. We are not from Cincinnati area. read more

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Since 99 closed, I have been on the hunt for a place that makes ginger scallion lobsters. Tried this place out yesterday and I love all the food. The taste was on point. Very authentic! Will be my go to from now on! read more

They have LIVE seafood! Not sure why they are only 3.5 stars. Pretty authentic Cantonese cuisine and very fresh seafood. Pricing is pretty good. Will keep coming back again! read more

Chinese Imperial Inn - Pan fried tilapia - Chinese Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

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Food was not great....service and speed was good...I had chicken fried rice....price was fair

Full disclosure #1: I've known and loved this cozy, family-owned-I'm-- guessing Cantonese place for more than 20 years. Don't know if it's the same family, but the current team are wonderful folks and I wish them the best. Full disclosure #2: I know that their bread-and-butter-demographic is classic Americanized Cantonese fare. No suprise, Kung Pao Chicken and all that. Full disclosure #3: I get it that not many are as lit up by true Szechuan fires as I am. But.... it is a bummer-- and maybe a bit backhanded-- that they can't or don't listen to their customers when we beg them for real-deal, take-the-gloves-off, star-anise-infused, seriously kickin 'Szechuan goodness. Just trust us when we say we want the real Scovill index notched up. They look at us like we're neophyte Asians palates and wouldn't be able to handle the authentically thermal stuff. That's what we asked for tonight, but the supposedly "hot" calamari dish we ordered came out Maple-Syrup- sweet and sentimental; Our seafood combination Chow Fun noodles were bland and un-fun. The best dish was the stir-fried pea greens, which were spot- on, snappy and delicious. Bottom line: please take off the red pepper icons next to your Szechuan dishes indicating them as "hot--" they're just not. read more

Small unassuming restaurant, but has excellent food. We are Asian and enjoyed all our dishes. Eggplant, green beans, tofu casserole, rock salt shrimp. We are visiting the area and cant wait to visit again! read more

This was an okay chinese restaurant. I had fairly mixed feelings about the food i had. First off, the shrimp was very good. Freshly fried and juicy/crispy. Their wonton soup was delicious. Large pork wontons in very savory broth. I did not enjoy the seafood casserole at all. Ended up just eating most of the shrimp in the dish. The tofu tasted kind of weird and made up most of the dish. I also tried the roast duck. It was decent. The skin was crispy but most of the pieces were very fatty with very little meat. read more

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I tried for an HOUR to order from this place. On-line website is broken. No one answered the phone. Just shutter the doors and call it quits. Will never go back read more

Great lunch specials, definitely worth the drive. Most authentic Chinese food around Cincy and generous portions. Will have to try their dinner menu soon... read more

This is a difficult one one to review! I'll start with the good the food was excellent all of it. The shredded pork, jellyfish app, hot sour soup, sweet and sour pork, clams and my favorite the rock salt squid. This is some of the best authentic Chinese I've had. But what really stands out is the price just about everything on the lunch menu is at or under 8 bucks what a steal! Similar joints charge an arm and a leg for the authentic stuff. They also give you hot tea which was perfect and roasted peanuts to start no charge... Now the bad... this place is disgusting from the outside to the inside it's terrible. There's dust everywhere and the fish tank is filled with brown water. I cringe just thinking about what the kitchen must look like. But worse of all and to me a deal breaker is that the last time I went a roach crawled out from behind the picture directly next to my table and scurried along the wall up into the ceiling. A huge let down because the food is really so good. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be back.... That being said it's a tough one to rate, because I'd give the food 4.5 stars but the atmosphere a -1 read more

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*Never going here again.* Severely disappointed with my experience considering all the positive reviews this place has received. The table cloth was dirty, the menu's were awful; ripped up, old, written on, and had white-out on it to change some prices. The view of the lobsters in their tank was depressing; they were severely crammed in, piled so high as to be almost to the top of the water, they couldn't move a bit. One lobster was on it's back, at first I thought it dead, but it's legs did move a bit once, maybe it was trying to move so as to turn over. The bathroom was dirty, cramped and disgusting; pee on the seat, dirty in the bowl, the sinks had scraps of food in them, everything looked like there was a layer of filth on it. There are no windows in the place save for on the main entry doors, which makes the place feel closed off. Decor on the walls was the nicest looking bit of the place. They had place mats under the glass on the table, the red print generic kind with the chinese zodiac; which was cool, but they looked old, dingy and had stains on them. The food tasted weird and I couldn't even finish eating what I ordered. After eating I felt sick to my stomach, and went to bed early with a headache. Ugh! read more

Chinese Imperial Inn - Pork egg foo young, wasn't all that good tasting - Chinese Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

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I think this is as good as it gets around Cincinnati for Chinese food. It is how you are supposed to do Chinese- with a big group of people, order multiple dishes, family style, and public utensil is more of just a gesture. We order the steam tilapia, rock salt squid, seafood casserole, clams in bean sauce, chow fun, peking pork, Chinese Broccoli and more. They were all really good. My favorite has to be the Tilapia then the chow fun and pork, my least favorite was the clams, the casserole was OK. The steamed oyster is a must. I have never had oyster that big. Interesting texture, almost like pate, i feel like people are either going to hate it or love it. We went with 9 people and the bill was around 20 each depends on if you got the steamed oyster. Not bad at all. It was a feast. read more

This is another one of the small restaurants that I love to go to! The seafood is fresh and they have water tanks of crabs in the back (although they are a little filled to the brim). Although the service is a little bit slow, it still gives off that "family" feeling. The egg rolls are delightful, the egg drop soup is awesome, and the Hunan Shrimp is superb. Whats really cool is back in the day (summer '04/'05), When I used to work at Jungle Jims, I ran into the front server/host of the Chinese Imperial Inn! -Steve- read more

The food was great until I started to eat again this afternoon and saw a rubber band in my food. I work in food safety so I wasn't fully disgusted. Only until I took one more bite and chomped down on metal. I called and told them about it and they said that they only work there. I don't know what I ate last night because it was dark and I wasn't examining every bite of food but it is really crazy that I found two things with in a matter of minutes. read more

Chinese Imperial Inn - Chinese Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

Best food, family owned and reasonable price. Love the beef and Broccoli, egg rolls and egg drop soup. Portions are very generous.

I came here for the lobster and it was great. It was flavorful and the sauce was awesome. The rest of the dishes we ordered, which includes pea tip and beef stew was average but had a homestyle feel that definitely satisfy my nostalgia of Chinese food. Would come back mainly for the lobster again! read more

Chinese Imperial Inn - Chinese Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

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My family loves coming here for their authentic Chinese menu and their prices for their dishes. Everything is cooked with the right taste. Fish maw soup is a little too thick (heavy handed with cornstarch), but throw some red vinegar and white pepper and drink it down, all the flavors of the seafood soup will be mind blowing. We usually order a Chinese vegetable dish whatever they have available at the time. It usually is cooked in a garlic stir fry or steamed. We also usually get the steamed sea bass, steamed oysters, and rock salt pork chops. The steamed items are usually cooked just right, and steamed with ginger and garnished with cilantro. Rock salt pork chops come with a lot of meat, and fried to a good crisp, not too salty at all. Recently they changed their style of black bean clams, to a weird overly sweet dark thick sauce. My family was picky and couldn't eat any of the new black bean dishes with the new sauce. The new sauce isn't the authentic flavors that they had enjoyed in the past. Pros: staff is nice and attentive, majority of the time food is good, a great selection of dishes Cons: the new black bean sauce Overall, a very good place to get a Chinese style seafood dishes at a affordable price. Fresh ingredients and flavorful. read more

Chinese Imperial Inn - fish maw soup, steamed seafood, clams, rock salt pork chop http://instagram.com/pawpawpaulina/ - Chinese Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

Definitely one of the top Chinese restaurants in Cincy, I wanted to wait to get some photos of this delicious food before I wrote a review. I usually come here with my family and when we do, we order the Thai style seafood soup, rock salt smelt, sauteed lobster, pan-fried whole flounder, beef chinese brocolli garlic stir fry, and beef with water-spinach garlic stir fry. We've basically been happy with anything we've ordered here, but these are our favorites! Our service last night was particularly slow (forgot to cook a dish) and they didn't check on us much but as long as you get their attention for whatever you need, they're very accommodating. Tables are a bit small, but it's because of the giant lazy-susans in the middle that make it great for eating family-style. Portions are large, so the pricing is reasonable and they have their own parking lot as well. Overall, this is a must-try if you want some authentic Chinese food with very fresh ingredients and not oily or too salty either! read more

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Don't let the dirty exterior fool you, this hole in the wall has quite a few delicious items. I love the free tea and peanuts. The price is also very fair for the portion size. This is one of my preferred Chinese restaurants in the City. The jellyfish was decent. One of the better jellyfish dishes in Cincinnati. It has a good salty flavor and some crunch to it. The clams were good. The msg content seems to be a little high but I still enjoyed it. My tempura battered rock salt squid held its own. I prefer my squid fried naked though. The hot and sour seafood soup was above average, but a little blander than what I'm used to. Sichuan Chili still has my favorite H&S soup. Last and least, the peaking pork. The mildly sweet and savory sauce was good but a lot of bones though and not enough meat. I wouldn't get it again. read more

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Cincinnati isn't really known for its irresistible, cheap, delicious Asian food, and definitely not Chinese food. Imperial Inn is pretty popular among the local Chinese community and really is a good central location for big family or group gatherings. It's your typical traditional Chinese dining locale in Sharonville. It's small but cozy, but it misses the mark on a few things. First, if you want to eat here for a quick bite, this isn't your place. Second, if you're looking for simple, authentic Chinese food, tbh you're not going to find it that easily here in Cincinnati. Third, if you're not that open minded and you're not Asian, this place definitely won't float your boat. It's good and the price point is decent. They are very heavy on the seafood, with lobster, shrimp, and boiled fish galore. I've never ordered anything for myself as an individual here, only been here several time for big group celebrations and remember that it's all family style. So if you don't like sharing, check out their other options, but be prepared to not be blown away. read more

I decided to give the Chinese imperial inn a chance since it is close to where I work, and one of the few places open after 9pm. I placed my order on the phone and was told it would be ready in 15-20 minutes. When I arrived 30 minutes later, the employee realized that she had failed to give my order to the kitchen, it was still sitting next to the phone. Although frustrated, I decided to wait, it was ready about ten minutes later. She did add some fried noodles to my bag and apologized for the wait. Important note: I ordered spring rolls from the menu. When I started to eat them I was surprised to find shrimp inside. The menu said nothing about shrimp being in the spring rolls. Could be very dangerous for people with allergies. Not to mention the shrimp are uncleaned and extremely unappetizing. Everything was mediocre and oddly smoky tasting. Will not be returning. read more

Chinese Imperial Inn - Spring roll - Chinese Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

my family and I have been coming here for years. they are family owned and operated which makes it more appealing for me to go here. I like to support smaller businesses and they are definitely one of my favorite places for the most authentic Chinese food around this area. some of my favorites are the lobster, crabs, and tofu. of course, everything is delicious so if you get a chance try everything! it is a very small space but so cozy. their service is excellent and I have never been disappointed the many years I have come here! read more

I've been trying out several Chinese restaurants in town and while this one looks like a hole in the wall - it's very good! The wanton soup wonton has the thin skin and their veggies are all very good. Highly recommend! read more

Sad to see new operators of this restaurant I have been going to for about 40 years, always enjoyed the food but new operators have changed how prepared . read more

Don't judge a book by its cover. Restaurant's service and ambiance typically play a significant factor when I review but sometimes it just doesn't matter. An example? Chinese Imperial Inn. I follow a rule about Asian food. If lots of Asians like it, it's legit. If I am the only Asian on the premises, it's a no-go. Chinese Imperial Inn is where the Asians are and have been. Why? Because the food is delicious. Prices are comparable to other Chinese takeout places but unlike those places - everything is delicious. Rock salt squid? Delicious. Clams in Black Bean Sauce? YUM! Whole fried fish that the pull from the fish tank? Give it to me! Ginger Lobster? I'll take two. Roast Duck? Yes. Steamed Oysters? Mmmmm. Chinese Eggplant and Water Spinach in Garlic Sauce? Yes & Heck Yes. Get my drift? read more

The BEST I have found outside of Boston, MA where Cantonese cooking is amazing! This place rocks! Huge lunch portions which was very fresh and flavorful. The place is not fancy but still gives you the authentic Chinese vibe. It was very clean and nice. Our waitress was very helpful and checked on us and was friendly too. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants the best, authentic Cantonese Chinese food around. It is in a nice, quiet, safe part of town too! Great place and I hope to be back soon when in town again. read more