hmmmm, what shall I say, it looks like the sterotypical, a little soviet style Chinese restaurant,…read morefirst floor overlooking a busy crossroads and with the typical fake Chinese decoration in short: just what you look for when you want a not so expensive Chinese restaurant ! And thats what you get !! Decent food, nothing special at a very reasonable price the buffet that is also on offer looked a little dodgy but the rest was fine. The most interesting feature was a bright turquoise blue welcome drink that probably would make your urine shimmer at night when you drink too much..

The price is good, but the food made us sick. There was two of us; we normally cook at home and…read morenever have issues. After eating at this place, we were both sick for a week. Avoid at all cost.

Outside: Hidden down an alley. Inside: Clean and…read morecomfortable. Food: Authentic Chinese Cuisine Service: Fast and Friendly Price: ~$15 per person Dong Bei Lou (North East Tower) Is a hidden gem in the city of Essen. If you like authentic Chinese cuisine, stop reading this and just go! This charming Chinese restaurant is tucked away down a kind of alleyway that you would be likely to miss if you weren't looking for it - but you SHOULD be looking for it. I visit Essen every year for the Spiel board game convention and there are a lot of mediocre and crowded restaurants near the convention center. Dong Bei Lou is both fantastic and seemingly off the radar so it checks a couple wonderful boxes there! The servers (and owner) were welcoming to us on each of our visits and the food, servers family style as is the Chinese custom, was mouthwatering on every occasion. One thing to note is that many of the dishes are spicy, and not the standard "white people spicy" you get at more westernized chinese restaurants. Expect Sichuan red chili and numbing black peppercorns in some of the dishes and do avoid the things that they warn you are spicy if you do not like spicy food. Otherwise, you cannot go wrong on this menu. Vegetable dishes were cooked to perfection and flavored well. Meat dishes were tender and savory. The beers were cold and the food was hot. What more could you ask for. What's that? You want to fill out your authentic Chinese dinner experience by concluding with K-TV? No problem! There is a Karaoke booth in the bar area - so step in after your meal and sing your heart out. Truly, Dong Bei Lou is one of the best Chinese restaurants I have experienced outside of Asia. Check. This. Place. Out.

The Chilli House is located on the more quieter part of the Rüttenscheider Straße. The setting is…read moresimple and rustic, all dark wood which makes the restaurant a little too dark for my taste. They service is normally efficient but not overly friendly. When it's packed, it can get slow! The menu is huge, they serve all kinds of different Asian food including Thai, Chinese and Japanese. I came here for lunch and they have a lot of different good value sets. Just be prepared that the food is not authentic Asian. The names of the dishes may sound like that but they are not. If you understand this, you may have a decent meal. It is very popular amongst locals but I will not return if I don't have to.

My favorite place in Essen, one of the best Thai's I know globally ! Very good value. Try the…read moreNoodle soop with Pork and Ramen.

AMAZING! I went for my birthday and had a bonus 50% off my meal :) we did the all you can eat…read moreoption. So many bases (noodles, rice), veggies, proteins, etc to choose from, so there really is something for everyone. The spicy garlic sauce is HOT. Way spicier than I anticipated but very yummy. Second round I got Thai curry, and was disappointed in the sauce. Cocktails were delicious and so was the starter soup: coconut lemongrass. It was served with curry bread and some kind of dip. We also got the homemade raspberry sorbet which was super yummy. I definitely will be back to try out more sauces and flavor combinations! The service wasn't amazing, but the restaurant was packed so I'm not deducting a star since everything else was great.

It was at Mongo's that I discovered the wonderful, delicate taste of crocodile. I was a bit…read moreskeptical about trying Mongolian barbecue in this small city in Germany, but after so many business trips during which I ate only bratwurst and schnitzel, it turned out to be a welcome change. We were a group of ten and so made reservations (though it seems that reservations are a must for groups of any size), and most of us picked the winning formula: a 25€ all-you-can-eat buffet. The drinks were extra, and we shared a bottle of red wine (not amazing) and each had cocktails (these were good). The self-service bar had everything you could think of, from the typical bean sprouts and mushrooms to okra, jalapeño, pineapple, different types of noodles, seafood, and then meat. I wasn't expecting to see crocodile, camel, kangaroo, turkey liver, and ostrich among the choices (hello sustainability?), but I was curious to try them. Once you pile your bowl with these raw ingredients, you set it on the counter before the chefs and in a few minutes it arrives, steaming hot, on your table. We ate and ate and then ate some more, but at some point we had to stop. The benefit of the buffet is that you can try so many different flavors and toppings, but quickly I found a favorite: a noodle-heavy, vegetable-heavy bowl with lots of crocodile and chili garlic sauce (my fellow diners also seemed to prefer this sauce to the others. It was genuinely garlicky, but if it isn't spicy enough, you can add more chili on top of it from the small chili bar across from the main serving station). I would come back to Essen just to eat here again. I haven't found anything like it in Paris!