Food was not great. The fried rice tastes really weird. Doesn't taste like normal fried rice and there's cherries in the sweet and sour sauce which I've never gotten at other Chinese places. Chicken was pretty dry. Service was quick and ordering was easy. Portion sizes are a good size. read more

Plum Garden - Sweet and Sour Chicken Lunch - Chinese Near Me - McHenry, Illinois

My dear friend Maureen has lived in McHenry county for decades, and she swears that Plum Garden serves the BEST Chinese Restaurant style food that Chicago's northwest suburbs has to offer. So when she moved me here, after my total destruction in Los Angeles, following 27 years of living there, the first Chinese eatery that she took me to was this one, because she knew that authentic Chinese cooking meant a lot to me, and that I deeply missed my old home. And, while eating our lunch special - even as she made "yummy" sounds over her food here, I sat dumbfounded, because for me, it wasn't Chinese food at all. I guess that after living for so many years in the heart of America's most authentic Chinese food making community, the "626", I just couldn't Fall for the hideously Americanized dishes that Plum Garden presented as being actual "Chinese" food. So, to review this place fairly, I instead have to look at this stuff as simply "Chinese-inspired food" adapted to succeed in the culinary exile of McHenry county - and in McHenry county ONLY". That being said, let's take a deeper look into the imitation Chinese food that is offered here. First, the POSITIVES. Plum Garden is spacious and clean. Even the bathrooms are pristine (for public bathrooms). The dining area is large, with an odd decor of semi-fake Chinese style artifacts hanging on the walls, and a loose theme of Chinese astrological signs permeating whatever bits of restaurant materials that it can, from placemats, to menu covers, to coasters. This offered at least some reading while one was waiting for their food. I have eaten here three times, because Maureen loves me, and she thinks that this food makes me happy, being 'sort of' Chinese, which she knows makes me feel 'at home'. So I have tried a number of my own lunch dishes here, as well as tasted all of hers. We have never come here for dinner, because dinner here is almost twice as expensive as lunch, and the lunch portions are huge. So, I can only review LUNCH. But lunch here is a good deal. We received SOUP, An APPETIZER (an enormous chicken Eggroll, a meal in itself), a MAIN COURSE, and RICE (plain or fried). The fist time I order Sweet & Sour Shrimp, and Maureen ordered Chicken Egg Foo Young. Both were pretty darned good. For our second lunch here I ordered Mongolian Beef (or so they called it), and Maureen ordered General Tsao's Chicken. These were both tasty but less successful than our first lunch. On our third visit I ordered Garlic Shrimp and Maureen ordered Orange Chicken. Again, these were both less successful than our first lunch. Overall, the food here is tasty, but it's not really Chinese. It's not even As Chinese as Panda Express, but it is better - fresher - more homemade - and the portions are MUCH Larger. The service here is also good, even though there is not an Asian face in sight. To wrap the Good things up - the Lunch is a good deal, everything tastes fine, and I went home with enough leftovers that they took me two days to eat. They even gave me a to-go cup for my tea. One last good thing is, at the end of the meal we got fortune cookies. Old School. The NEGATIVE things: Music played loudly, filling the dining room with an in congruous selection of some pre-selected play-list of 1980's rock, no doubt the result of the owners purchasing a generic contract from Spotify's "commercial 'background music' selection for businesses". And the few others in the dining room were all old, like me, and the music playing loudly had Nothing to Do with Any of us. When I asked the manager to change the music to Chinese, or at least to lower the volume of the 'canned' music she refused. Also, on two out of my three trips the staff got my order wrong. The first time was when they brought me Sweet & Sour chicken breast instead of Sweet & Sour Shrimp. They corrected it quickly, but still, I'm a demanding bitch, and a lot of other people wouldn't have said anything, and just eaten the wrong order. So, in general, the good things outweigh the bad. If you are looking to eat fake Chinese Food that is tasty and has a decent lunch deal, up here in McHenry, this might be the place for you. But don't expect anything truly Chinese. read more

This restaurant was such a pleasant surprise! I had family coming into town and we took them here for a nice dinner out, and the restaurant is much bigger on the inside than it looks from the front. The inside is nicely decorated with a mix of booths and tables. It was easy to find parking on the street near the restaurant. We were seated quickly, and I appreciated the restaurant staff being quick to fill waters and that the food came out quickly. We enjoyed the food for the most part and the large portions. read more

Plum Garden - Crispy Honey Chicken (large) - Chinese Near Me - McHenry, Illinois

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Updating my review from a couple of years ago. Food is still great and the staff are just as good. Tonight I had the Perry's Lo-Main and Pork Fried Rice. Amazing! Love it. Still the best Chinese food I've ever had. read more

Plum Garden - Perry's Lo-Main and Pork Fried Rice. - Chinese Near Me - McHenry, Illinois

The food was delicious, I love their egg rolls! The service was great, very attentive & the ambiance was very nice!

I always get the combination fried rice and sometimes the hong kong chicken. i have been eating this for a food while now and the fried rice alone is very good and the hong kong chicken is very good too i love this restaurant! The best Chinese food in town! read more

First time ever leaving a review and I would just like to say, this place is absolute dog shit. I don't see how yall even call this Chinese food. Taste like it came from the freezer section of Walmart. Absolutely terrible, may as well had went to panda. read more

So happy I found this place! The Hong Kong chicken is very tasty!! The egg rolls are huge and like nothing I've ever had. I've been to China and this isn't traditional Chinese food but very good American Chinese that is cooked fresh and doesn't taste greasy. read more

Been going here many years the food is very good. Prices are a bit high. Just always have a problem with my to go order. Something is always wrong with my order. I order two eggrolls they put 20 sweet sauces in the bag. Just think it's very wasteful happens almost every time. Maybe if you're not so wasteful with stuffed people aren't going to use the prices can come down some. I've mentioned it No one seems to care but overall it's my favorite Chinese food. read more

I am new to the Crystal Lake/Mchenry area. I was told by many to try Plum Garden! I loved the food! We ordered carry out two days in a row. The crab Rangoons were the best I have ever had. They were made with delicious filling! They had the most filling I have ever had! The potstickers chef style have just enough of a kick. Plus the fried rice was huge with lots of meat and veggies. Their egg rolls are gigantic and awesome! I'm so glad we found this place. It's hard to find good Chinese food! One huge issue is their carry out. There is no place to park. I wish they offered curbside. read more

This is difficult for me to write, because my wife and I REALLY wanted to like this place... it's close to home, and the atmosphere was great. We loved the way the place was decorated, and the service was also great. But the food was not.... Chinese. Like seriously NOT Chinese. There's probably a reason they have the kitchen obscured, because I doubt there's a wok in the place. My General Tso's chicken was just chunks of chicken meat with a batter that just got spongy and flavorless when they were either deep-fried or cooked in the oven and then smothered in some sort of sauce that was somewhere between orange chicken sauce and sweet & sour sauce. It was not garnished with dried chiles, garlic, sesame seeds, or anything else typical of this dish. To top it off, some bites were cold. Wife's beef with broccoli wasn't bad, but also lacked an authentic Chinese touch. For authentic Chinese food we'll stick with Panda Express for now and keep looking for an authentic local dine-in place. read more

Bad news use to be a staple of McHenry it's wemt down hill. Drove out to pick up dinner super disappointed now the prize dish Hong Kong Chicken is nothing more then chicken tenders in a dish no veggies and egg rolls are frozen knockoff oh and $65 read more

Plum Garden - Chinese Near Me - McHenry, Illinois

Food is amazing. I try different dinners when I go. I always get the egg drop soup. and 2 egg rolls. never disappointed.

We really enjoyed this restaurant. We had Crab Rangoon which were a nice size with lots of filling, followed by General Tszo Chicken and Mongolian Beef. Great portions and great flavor. Modern Chinese ambiance with a fabulous neon dragon light covering one wall. Good selection of modern music. We also enjoyed the tropical drink flight which was so unique and enough for 2. Great place. read more

Food was alright. I've had way better! The fried rice had no flavor. It was basically white rice with soy sauce. Not coming back.

Very good for the area. Everything I've tried was great, from soup to entrees to drinks. To go is well organized. For rice based meal it has gotten too expensive for my continued business. read more

Yum!! 4 of us ate here and tried multiple things. All were delicious and we can't wait to come back. Service was excellent and food was so good! Mini Egg rolls, Hong Kong chicken was fantastic! Beef and broccoli and chefs rice all delicious. read more

Food is ok, that's all. The egg rolls are huge but not crisp. The sweet and sour chicken was good but a distinct cherry flavor. Not sure if I liked that. Rice was ok. If you can go to Chen's in Crystal Lake, much better. read more

The food is very good and just what we ordered service what excellent customer service is also very helpful

We met friend here today for lunch and from the moment we walked in the service was impeccable! We were greeted right away and shown to our table. Our server, Hannah, was fantastic, very attentive and answered all our questions. Our meals were served quickly and all of us were very pleased with our choices. The servings are very plentiful and delicious! Hannah kept an eye on our table all through our meal and was quick to get us anything we needed. We lingered over our meals for quite awhile as we enjoyed them sooooo much! We will definitely be back and hope that when we return Hannah will be working! Delicious food, impeccable service from Hannah. We cannot wait to return read more

We have visited Plum Garden a number of times for lunch and always enjoy the food. Service is usually pretty good but we had a larger group at my last visit and had a few bumps We were quickly served drinks and placed our orders between the 11 of people in our party. The appetizers came out pretty quickly. There were a couple issues with a few soups never making it out until the main dishes came out on the table so that was a little frustrating. The food was very good and everyone enjoyed their meals. I had sweet and sour shrimp and crab Rangoon to start. Both were very good.. the sweet and sour shrimp is just a bit to sweet for my liking though. But enjoyed it ! The table wasn't fully take care of leaving dirty plates from the appetizers which is kind of annoying to me. The iced tea was a bit funky and had an odd tasty to it. Overall the owner Perry does a very good job here. The restaurant is nice inside and the food is consistently very good. Portions are good and would recommend you check out plum garden. I think we had a bump on this visit due to the size of the group. It always a treat to wrap up your meal with a good fortune cookie or almond cookie. read more

Plum Garden - Crab Rangoon w sweet and sour sauce and spicy mustard. - Chinese Near Me - McHenry, Illinois

First of all the food was great. Not so the waiter. She was rude she gave us our bill while we were eating and kept looking to see if we paid yet when we did pay in cash she brought back the wrong change when we asked about it she said she took her tip out. We would like to leave the tip ourselves I wonder if she is doing this to other people. She has no right to do this. Her name was Mireya G never had this trouble before read more

Friendly servers and staff, decent location and clean. The food, however.... Ew. We started with the crab rangoon, which was ok. It wasn't sweet (a pet peeve of mine), so I was thankful for that. The Plum Garden egg roll, which they boast as award winning (for years!!) was disgusting. The won ton soup smelled like onion water, but I was told "wasn't horrible". My daughter couldn't eat the sesame chicken - she said the breading was gross and couldn't get past the yellow color of the sauce, which I didn't quite capture in my pic. My kung pao chicken looked and tasted like fajitas, perhaps due to the overwhelming onion smell. I like onion, but WOAH. It overpowered everything it touched. The other members of our party weren't happy with their meals either (sweet and sour chicken, and a shrimp dish that I cannot remember the name of). Your best bet is to try a different restaurant. read more

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Moved away some years ago. Really miss the Hong Kong chicken and the Mandarin egg rolls. The service was always friendly. The atmosphere nice and filled with Chinese art. Perry is always a welcoming host read more

Plum Garden - On vacation. - Chinese Near Me - McHenry, Illinois

Been coming here for literal decades. Last 3-4 times, terrible customer service, rude, never have the orders ready or can't even take orders. Amazed it's still open read more

Our lunch at Plum Garden was excellent. We had eight people in our group.The eggrolls were large and very generous in size and delicious. The lunches that our group had were varied. Everyone raved about the food. The service was excellent. Even though it is not close to our home, we are definitely going back again. Easy parking also. read more

So very kind and supportive. I have been very blessed to enjoy the offerings of this fantastic place. I fell in love immediately after leaving them after my first meal there and I must say that is a real gift. read more

I have been going to this restaurant for 20 years, my partner and in-laws family since the place opened in 1965. We're done. Today was the last straw. The last three experiences have each been frustrating for various reasons, from incorrect and cold orders, being gaslit by management when legitimate complaints were lodged, dishes with no taste, poor quality meats and this today, an order of Mongolian beef so saturated in Asian hot peppers that a Hindu from Delhi would have been running for a bucket of water. I like hot and spicy and can usually handle the hottest items on any ethnic food menu, but whoever is cooking has no idea of the heat profile of the ingredients being used. The one in our family who will eat home made salsas that her Hispanic friends make and swear no American can possibly eat, sampled the Mongolian beef and said, "No, you're not crazy, that is incredibly HOT!" The staff run from nice to scathingly condescending. It's hit or miss whether you're going to be attended to by someone who understands the restaurant business or one that believes they're the center of the known universe and you're cutting into their Instagram and TikTok time. There is no consistency nor does there seem to be a real philosophy of customer service. As much as it costs to eat here, I would rather drive 25 miles to Chicago Prime Steakhouse, get a beautiful steak and service so good that if I dropped a napkin, a server would snatch it up before it hit the floor. Instead half the time Plumb Garden reminds me of a cheap Chinese version of The Soup Nazi the way they herd their customers around and speak to them. I miss the days when Mama Moy licked her fingers and sealed the egg rolls with spittle. At least back then both the food and the customer service were excellent. Recently it's been a struggle just deciding to spend our dollars there or go elsewhere. We're not going to have that dilemma any longer. It's a group decision that our dollars will be spent elsewhere. read more

The service was good,ben are server was very attentive. The drinks were looked nice my friend said they were good(i do not drink alcoholic beverages) the mac and cheese egg rolls were the best. I ordered pepper steak that was nasty the it was not even steak it was a just dried up pieces of beef that tasted old, the rice was good. My friend liked her meal. The restaurant will be closed for 2 weeks it is going to be remodeled. read more

Plum Garden - Restaurant dining room - Chinese Near Me - McHenry, Illinois

Ser vice was excellent , food great and Owner very nice and accommodated. Large portion and good cookies for desert too. My son enjoys going as well. read more

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Best Chinese food ever!! Best egg rolls and Hong Kong Chicken is outstanding!! Chop suey, crab puffs, chicken lo mein...all delicious!!

The food is always top notch. The staff are very friendly and attentive. Good amount of food for your money. I would highly recommend this restaurant. read more

My husband and I went to Plum Garden for the 1st time. We had the Kung Pao chicken, Orange Chicken, Honey Chicken, pan fried noodles and plain fried rice. The plain fried rice and noodles were an upcharge. I really enjoyed the noodles but the fried rice was...LESS THAN plain. No flavor at all. We should have just got the white rice and not paid an upcharge for what seemed like white rice with soy sauce. The Orange and Honey chicken were the same chicken with different sauces on top. We liked both but had a couple of inedible pieces of chicken. I don't know if it was rib meat or too well done, but we spit out a couple of them. The Kung Pao was spicy and good but had HUGE chunks of green pepper in it. I would think they could cut their vegetables better. We had an older server who was nice but hard to find. She took quite a while to take our order. A table was sat after us and got their order taken and appetizers before we ordered. She let us sit for a while without drink refills once we received them. I don't know if she needed help or what, but we were disappointed with the service overall. We'll give them another try. I hope that I can change my rating. We just may have visited on an off night....we'll see... read more

My friend and i we're waiting on our friend for a long period of time and we were taking about her in frustration and the host told our "friend" about it! Ew foods as salty as the service! read more

Super egg rolls. We had the double dragon. Very good. The volcano drink was huge. Definitely for sharing!. Server was great, friendly. A tad pricey, That seems to be the way of the times. but we will be back! read more

Plum Garden - Volcano - Chinese Near Me - McHenry, Illinois

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First place to give me a blessing when I got myself lost in McHenry. They gave me a gift certificate for a meal, everything was so good and I just love them. I enjoy the old school everything about this place, the level of service is outstanding and the portions are mahoosive. They have a nice lunch special but prepare to want everything on the menu. Their hot mustard on the table will peel paint so be aware! The egg rolls need to be eaten with a knife and a fork. read more

I won't go back, I won't recommend... zero stars. My son And I placed an order on a Wednesday night, online. We were told to pick up at 6:30, I placed it at 4:50pm. We arrived at 6:34pm ... my son walked out of the restaurant at 7:10 pm!!! When I asked him what happened he said that: 1. There were 3-4 people in front of him, the first couple of people were taken care off within 5 minutes, then the woman went into the kitchen got 15 minutes And she could be heard laughing And talking !!! 2. Then came back say people And stood there for another 10 minutes before addressing the next pick up person. 3. She was also extremely rude to anyone that wasn't a regular customer (she was very pleasant And polite to ) but horribly rude to anyone else! 4. We finally got home and found they had added sauce to a fried dish instead of keeping it on the side, especially when it SITS got over a half an hour! Overall, the food was mediocre, at best. I regret that I added a tip with my order. It was disappointing. So very disappointing. read more

pre covid best Chinese in mchenry by far since then food is severely lacking in quality everytime we've gone. The fried rice is bland and very plain, the serving sizes are good, but fo not make up for poor prices of under seasoned and poorly made food. read more

What an unexpected surprise! Very unassuming from the outside, and once inside the space is large and can accommodate quite a crowd; several tables and booths. Everything was tidy and clean, even the bathrooms. Food was excellent and the drinks were too. I had the drink flight which included a sample size of each drink from the bar and all were very good. Our server was attentive and friendly. We each had fried rice with our meal which was also very good. My husband had Mongolian Beef and I had Chicken Chop Suey. I haven't stopped thinking of that chop suey since... some of the best I can remember. Easily got 3 meals out of our entrees with leftovers twice. Can't wait to go back! read more

Love the atmosphere. Hot tea for me is always a plus. Food was good, very yummy, service was great.