The food here has wavered throughout the decades. Before the turn of the century, it was the place to get cheap greasy takeout with good portions. Their lunch specials were unmatched in price! After a change of ownership, the food took a huge downturn, and after a disastrous visit a few years ago, I hadn't been back. Well, I was feeling nostalgic and craving one of my childhood favorites of bamboo shoots and pork. This place happens to be one of the few places that sells this dish. This place is still mostly a takeout place, though there's usually a couple of families that dine in. The lady operating the cashier and packing orders is still the same. If you chose to dine in, make sure to take a seat. Otherwise, order at the counter to go. Lunch specials are still a decent deal, coming out less than $10. The regular sized entree have gone up in price quite a bit and are comparable to nearby establishments. Each one is enough for at least two meals though if you're dining alone. read more

Yantze Restaurant - Pork and bamboo shoots - Chinese Near Me - Houston, Texas

The service is amazing kind and fast! The food is just amazing super good and came out quickly. The place of the restaurant is super neat and clean! read more

Yantze Restaurant - Happy hour - Chinese Near Me - Houston, Texas

I revisited this place after 13 years. It was good then but it has improved a lot. First, a very charming lady from Dong Bei, China saw me walk in and immediately showed me to a table although they appeared packed. Her brother, also gracious and personable took my order and brought me my drink. The food was excellent and authentic with a little Tex Mex thrown in. It is in Chinatown but all of the clientele were young Hispanic families. In summary, if you want casual dining with food that will make everyone in your group happy for great prices, I can't think of a better place. There was so much food that I pigged out and still have enough for two more meals. For me, I would go back just to visit the two charming siblings who run the place. Tai Hoa Le! read more

Yantze Restaurant - Part of the nice, clean restaurant with nice murals and several rooms. - Chinese Near Me - Houston, Texas

HIGHLY RECOMMENDING! Been going here with my family since I was a little girl! Most Meat choices come with white rice

5 words.. "Best bang for your buck" in all of Asia town. Been going for the past 20+ years and they consistently give you a lot for the money. Yes it's not 5 or 4 star dining. But that's not what I'm paying for. I'm paying for a cheap meal with plenty to go around. read more

Absolutely amazing! After years of not coming to this place i've finally decided to visit it again. Let me tell you it did not disappoint! I ordered 3 meals for my family compound chicken, orange chicken and the famous broccoli beef! The meals were absolutely delicious all full of flavor hot and steamy fresh out the kitchen! It was better than the last time i went there! I extremely recommend to pass by one time as it will not disappoint! read more

I decided to order lunch from this restaurant around 1:30pm. As I was ordering food, the lady on the other end seems so annoyed by my questions about the menu. She kept cutting me off. I went ahead and ordered Special eggplant plate and beef scallions lunch special. Anyway, the special eggplant had shrimp and eggs in it. It had absolutely no taste as all and it looked scary to eat. It was not good. The beef scallions also had not taste. It was both gross. I will not go back at all. read more

Known owners since Hunan Plus and still great food, big servings for affordable prices. Love this place.

OMG, I totally should have taken a picture of the food here. We got the set menu for $168 dollars and it included my most favourite thing of all - Country Honey Ham. This isn't just any regular ham, it has been infused with dates and the only place you can find this is in Asia. I have never been able to find this in the states and this is one of my most favourite dishes and M knows this and so M found a place that serves it! They seriously do this ham justice - 5 stars for this ham alone! LOVE LOVE LOVE They have it available without the set menu - so people must try this ham. You put it in between two white bread sans crumbs. read more

Fast and friendly lunch service, I had the lunch special sweet and sour chicken with eggroll, soup and rice. Super cheap 3.45 and it was delicious, my only thing is that they don't let me dip my chicken in the sauce as they covered my fried chicken in the sweet and sour sauce, so next time I'll ask for it on the side. P.S. Speaking Chinese is a nice touch as they seem to work in Chinese. (Going to chinese school paid off after all!) read more

I remember when this restaurant first opened with the original owners and my family went quite often. It was packed with Asians all the time. The prices were super cheap, the waitresses friendly, and food cooked pretty authentic. Fast forward to now where the restaurant changed ownership. It's always empty and they make a profit mostly on takeout (which my dad does now). Instead of waitresses you have to get your own drinks and utensils. The cooks are all Hispanic and the food is definitely not the same as before. It's not bad, but just a step up from buffet food or Panda Express. We usually get the Kung Pao Chicken and beef Lo Mein. Both would total to be around $12 and also comes with rice. read more

Yantze Restaurant - two take out containers of food - Chinese Near Me - Houston, Texas

Yantze is another supercheap restaurant my parents don't mind eating at. They have a formal lunch special at $3.99 each for heaping servings of your entree, rice, a bowl of soup, and an eggroll. They also have a $3 "pick-3-items" lunch special where you pick three side dishes from a choice of open platters, rice, and soup. They are awfully generous with servings. I was amazed to see 3 or 4 large pieces of meat for one of the sides one my Mother's plate once. You can get unlimited soup yourself. The $3 "pick-3-sides" lunch special platters stop getting refilled after around 12:30 pm so for the $3 "pick-3-sides" lunch special, you should get there before then. They have an extensive and cheap menu. Vegetable dishes might be around $4 or $5 each, meat dishes a dollar more, fish one more. It's all still very cheap, if not the cheapest in Houston. I don't know how this restaurant stays in business at such prices. I don't remember if they take credit card; usually for small, informal Chinese restaurants we just pay cash. The service is really good for an informal Chinese restaurant. I think their food is tasty but I avoid this place because of my sensitivity to MSG; eating here makes me very sleepy in about half an hour. I saw some Asians and Caucasians getting takeout here the one time I ate here. It seems like a very convenient way to save time on preparing meals if you're not sensitive to MSG. Yantze is clean, bright, and spacious inside. They're located in a small strip mall on the Northeast corner of the Beltway 8 / Bellaire Blvd intersection, north of the Shell gas station that sits on the very tip of that intersection's corner. The strip mall faces Beltway 8. There is a tall bank building directly north of the Shell, then 2 or 3 clusters of small strip malls. Yantze is the last. You can also arrive at this strip mall from the back roads. read more

Love the beef with bean curd and Beef stir fry flat noodle.... however, I noticed most people ordered "Kong Pao chicken" it must be good too However, i do notice the flavor changed a bit; i guess the chef must has new helper since this place is getting busier than before. My suggestion to the Chef : "Taste the food before you send it out; the quality has gone down a bit from my personal point of view." Our family has coming to this restaurant for more than two years and the owner is always very friendly and treated us like "VIP" i appreciated her hospitality. read more

On some kind of Asian food kick lately (OCD, anyone?), I headed west to New Chinatown today after compiling a list from Yelp. This tidy restaurant sits at the end of a newish strip mall and does a nice job of feeding the masses. A diverse mash of people from Filipinos to native Chinese to Latinos were all chowing down happily during this visit. Decor is newish. Lacquered tables of various sizes dot the place. At the front, there is a station holding chopsticks, plates, and two large stockpots of soup. They ladle out the complimentary soups (hot and sour or egg drop) out of these. As Becky L noted, the prices are low. Lunch specials start at $3.95. Each comes with fried rice, eggroll, and soup. I opted out of that and picked the Yu Shiang pork for the wallet-busting price of $4.25. My server, a Chinese lady, was friendly but limited on the English skills. Given my limited (okay, non-existent) Mandarin skills, we were even. Luckily, the magic of menu pointing solved all of this. A can of soda will run you 80 cents. The hot and sour soup was a solid starter: thicker than I'm used to, it was laden with bits of pork, bamboo shoots, and tofu. The pork entree had a pronounced sweet taste, which was interesting at first but wore out its welcome midway through my meal. Also, it wasn't particularly spicy despite the chili logo on the menu and the presence of sliced jalapenos - I think if they used red chili flakes instead it would have greatly improved the overall flavor by setting the heat against the sweetness. The quantity was huge - I barely ate half. A large pot of rice comes with each entree, too. Overall, a good Westchase stop for basic Chinese food without any pretensions or hassle. read more

Cheap? Yes. Quality? Not so much... Thus, recession-friendly fare? Definitely. There's a couple of dishes that I would recommend at this restaurant, but also a few that I would suggest you to stray away from. With the abundance of Chinese restaurants around this area in Houston, what sets this one apart is its convenient location in a shopping strip right off of Beltway 8, so you don't have to deal with the slew of terrible drivers on Bellaire. They also have lunch specials starting from $3.95. Dinner portions range from $3.25-$7ish, definitely a lot cheaper than their competitors. I recommend the Beef Noodle Soup and Kung Pao Chicken. I would suggest to avoid the Crispy Chicken (which is more bone & crisp than chicken) and the House Special Eggplant (which tastes like black-bean flavored mush). Just be forewarned that many of their dishes feature the meat shredded or in an assortment of smaller pieces, probably of lower quality to cut costs. The ambience for this restaurant isn't exactly nice, so I wouldn't recommend it for any special occasions. It's a good place for some cheap Chinese food, but that's where I draw the line. read more

This is my go to spot! The food here is simply the best. The waiters are all very nice and always ready to help. Try the dumplings!

This place is TERRIBLE now. A few friends and I used to love the Gailan Beef Chow Fun. So we went there one day, and we each ordered the dish because it was so good. 'WAS' being the operative word. What we received was something completely different than what we were used to. The noodles were soggy, the sauce was weird and just didn't taste as good. We noticed that the people that own the place had changed, and that the old chef wasn't there to cook our food. Each of us only took about three bites of our food and couldn't handle anymore. It was wasteful....but the food was that awful. We then decided just to go somewhere else for lunch. That was about a few months ago. I checked the online menu today (since I guess they put up a website), and it looks like they've raised their prices as well. Still pretty cheap food...but everything is about a dollar more and the food is downright gross now. I'm seriously super sad about this because this place was one of my favorite places to go for food. read more

I have been going to Yantze when it still use to be Hunan Plus. Come to think of it I've been eating here for over 10 years. This place has it all: good food, cheap food and good portions. The food here is amazing for the price and you will not find another place like this anywhere. I remember one time we ate here with 6 ppl (all grown adults) and the bill was under $25!! If you are looking for a restaurant for a quick cheap good eat then this is your place!@ Shredded Beef w/ Bamboo Shoot!!!! Goo!!!1 Edit: Lunch Special Includes Fried Rice Choice of Meat, Eggroll, Choice of soup and Ice Tea all for $4-5 read more

This place was good. Not anymore. I happened to make the trek from work to here during lunchtime with a couple of coworkers. I was raving about how delicious and amazing this place was for the past couple of years. It appears that the family that opened Yantze (and Hunan Plus) are not the ones who run it anymore. I noticed right away that the people are totally different. And many other changes have occurred under the new management. OK, it might not be that bad. The menu looked the same, and at this point i was still hoping the food would be too. I was wrong. I ordered my favorite dish - the kung pao chicken lunch special. First up was the hot and sour soup, which now you have self serve. It was gross - too much pepper, not enough sour. Literally water, cornstarch, pepper and the regular vegetables and tofu. Normally i would chug it down, but couldn't make it through half. My meal arrived and it looked like what i wanted it too. Tastewise, it was different. My tastebuds where alarmed to be tasting a subtle sweetness to my kung pao, when i was hoping for spicy and salty. It just wasn't the same. As for my coworkers, they said it was alright. I felt like i needed to apologize to them for what they got. I was talking with another friend who is another fanatic of this place and he too said it wasn't the same. It just seems that they either have a different style of cooking and or the quality has dipped. Either way, it's not to my liking. Would i go again...maybe, just to see if my last meal here was a fluke. But until then, My recommendation is that if you liked it before, then be ready for something different. You be the judge. read more

WTF? That catchphrase doesn't describe this restaurant, but rather Yelp's search function or my inability to spell correctly. I have been wanting to review Yantze for the longest time. Every fraking time i typed in the name of the restaurant in that lightly shaded boxm nothing came up. Then today, by serendipitous chance, the heavens opened up and I was allowed to enter. Like Becky L stated, Yantze is Hunan Plus 2.0. The restaurant itself is bigger, more brightly lit, and cleaner. The dishes are pretty much exactly the same but cheaper! A cleaner atmosphere makes food tastier. Ordering family style is a must. Dishes that we order constantly are shredded pork with dry tofu, snow pea leaves, water spinach, ma po tofu, tomatoes with eggs, salty fried pork chops, beef flat noodles, kung pao chicken...geez I could probably state the whole menu. Get stuffed at $5-$6 a person, including tip. read more

Came with some friends for dinner, and forgot about the quality issue and ordered fish. I know that I should not expect much for the price....I think it was $6, but that whole fish in spicy sauce was in really bad shape... it smelled like the fish had been rotting on the beach for a few days....LOL.(it was not fish sauce either) They agreed to take back the dish only if we ordered something else for the same price. All the other dishes not containing seafood were good, typical Taiwanese style Hunan/Sechuan sauces. Friends actually seemed to like the place even after the fish, it does say alot about the value about this place. read more

Wed 05/11 While it was dayam cheap for their lunch special ($3.49), I didnt LOVE it. Had beef and scallions, came with rice fried with egg (their version of fried rice), hot&sour soup, and an egg roll which took 5 pieces of paper to drain out the oil. Gaaaah-lee my poor arteries. The Mr. had kung pao chicken and he got tired of all the grease that he picked out the peanuts and ate that only. We'll be back some other time for their fish. $6 for a whole tilapia. read more

Every time I go to Houston, I visit Yantze at least once. At times, I'll go twice a day. The prices are ridiculously low and the portions are perfect! I have taken family from out of town and am now told to bring some back with me whenever I am out of town. The lunch specials are a great value as well. I can't wait to be back at the end of the month!!! read more

Food is good but not great. The place needs to be updated. The service is pretty fast and the lunch menu is affordable

This is truly a hidden gem!! Although the portions aren't huge, and the free hot and sour soup is.. well free. the food is pretty tasty. But the real deal is the price! four adults ate there (with a diet coke), and it came out to less than 14 dollars!! read more

After the initial shock of the $3 dollar lunch and consequent endorphins surging through my body wore out - the next few times I tried this place I realized you really DO get what you pay for. While not bad, the quality certainly is sub par. HUGE portions, but eh ok food. Probably would only come back ... once or twice a year when I feel particularly down and out or in the mood to deluge my body with grease. read more

This is place is not good. It's cheap and that's about it. The mapo tofu was the strangest looking and tasting mapo tofu I've ever eaten. The bamboo in the beef/bamboo dish was not the right texture. The fish barely had any meat. read more

I didn't even want to give one star. The owner of the place had staTed that they never had $3.00 dollar or $4.00 menus. The owner was also eating the heck out of his lunch with a few other people and the guy was not professional. Who the heck wants to eat at the greasy spoon restaurant? Cappy place to eat and you have been warned. read more

You definitely get what you pay for here, well, except maybe a little bit more. The portions are pretty decent and the price is fabulous. Seriously, I came here with my boyfriend and nephew and we were stuffed when we left. We also took the other half that we didn't eat home. We ordered the House Noodle Special, the Beef Scallion dish, Snow Pea Leaves, and a Sweet and Sour Soup. Oh, and we also ordered a ice tea and gatorade. The grand total? $20!! Yes, if your budget is tight and you are craving some Chinese food then you've got to come here! The downside? Food isn't upscale, it isn't always consistent, and the restrooms needs to be maintained. However, the price is right and the food is edible. Be aware, stay away with anything with a white sauce (per the boyfriend) and I haven't had the fish. But for $6, I wouldn't eat it. Besides that, I have no other issues with the place and I will definitely be coming back. read more

Calling all Hunan Plus lovers, this is the new Hunan Plus. The longtime owner of Hunan Plus sold her restaurant (over in older Chinatown) and relocated to this shopping center right off of Beltway 8 and next to Mama Assumption's. The menu is exactly the same, just reprinted and laminated in a nicer way. You might even recognize the waitstaff. Trust me, the new digs are a lot bigger and nicer. It doesn't get any tastier or cheaper than this, folks. The menu is very straightforward, dishes are $2.95, $3.95, $4.95 and a little bit more for seafood and special dishes. Lunch specials are all less than 4 bucks. It has all the familiar favorites for lunch time fans such as General Tso's Chicken or Broccoli Beef. But it also has more authentic dishes like the Shredded Pork with Bean Curd which is one of our all time favorites. It's spicy and flavorful and will only cost you $3.95. The green beans are always delicious, fresh and crispy. This is a place I'll really miss if we leave Houston. EDIT: The Twice Cooked Pork is tasty and so is the Pickle Combination (sour chicken broth). read more

Ok I come here often the ownership changed twice here I miss the first ones they were awesome known them for 20 plus years . Anyway the food is great order the spicy chicken you shaing is also great I also order thesnow pea leaves mmmmm read more

Hunan Plus was a Saturday night tradition for my parents and me for many years, so I was delighted to discover Yantze, which is owned by the same woman and run by virtually the same staff. (I believe Hunan Plus still exists, but it's run by different folk now, so don't go there expecting the same food!) For those who are familiar with the old Hunan Plus' menu, Yantze's is nearly identical...right down to the ridiculously low prices. I have been eating here for at least the past ten years, and their prices have only increased slightly. Most of their lunch specials are just $3.50, the portion is quite large, and it includes all the soup you can drink! The soup is nothing special, but the food is really quite good. Seriously, where else can you eat for $3.50 and have leftovers too? There is traditional fare, and tons of food to please American palettes as well, like Kung Pao Chicken. Like another Yelper mentioned, cheap food attracts everyone, so the crowd here can be a bit unsavory at times. Lock your car doors! And ladies, leave your fancy designer purses at home. My favorites here are beef with bamboo shoot, beef noodle soup (a HUGE bowl for about $3) and do ban tilapia, which is a whole tilapia smothered in a spicy sweet sauce. I recommend adding tofu to the sauce, you'll love it if you enjoy mapo tofu. These three dishes total about $17...my husband and I easily eat for a family of four, and we always have plenty of food left to take home! The cleanliness of Yantze is questionable though. There is also no liquid soap in the restroom, just an icky bar of soap placed by the sink. So yeah...you might want to bring some hand sanitizer too. read more

With this economy and if you are looking for Chinese food that is cheap, I mean really cheap! This is the place to eat at. You can feed 10 people with 7 to 9 dishes of food for under $50 dollars. Pretty cheap! But!!!! Their food tend to be on a salty side so I would recommend you tell the waitress not to make it so salty on the dishes but other than that. This place is very yummy. read more

This is my second time here after about 2 years. First time wasn't that memorable but I remembered it was really cheap. Lunch special are either $3.49 or $4.49. I got the beef and broccoli. Big portion indeed for under $4. Hot n Sour soup didn't seem like the typical taste...wasn't bad but it wasn't how I liked it either. Looked more like a murky brown color. The beef and broccoli....hmmm...I question what kind of beef they use. It was fatty and mushy...eek! Comes with an egg roll and fried rice. The fried rice is just steamed rice with a few pieces of eggs...so don't expect too much. I would go here again if I was really strapped for money but other than that...eh. read more

This place changed its owners, and the dishes are not cooked the same way compared to the previous ownership. It also turned itself into a self-service restaurant where I have to get water and forks myself. The cashier/manager lacks the same friendliness compared to their predecessors, and they somewhat remind me of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. It is a big place, and can be quite a walk from one side to the other, especially if you have 4+ people... it just makes things so much more awkward to walk across the restaurant back and forth like that. The prices also went up, but the dishes are still cheap in my opinion. Their beef fried rice is pretty good read more

I'm a fan of pretty much every menu item here, but especially the "chicken with black mushroom". Are there things that could be improved? sure, but the prices make up for any negatives. Oh, and the lunch combos are unbeatable. read more

Was there for the first time today for lunch. My husband swears by this place. Chinese colleague took him there for lunch one day and my husband was blown away with what you get for $4.00 including soup and an iced tea. I had the chicken and vegetables and thought it was pretty darn good for that price. I couldn't finish it so it went home with me for lunch tomorrow. read more

My first time here. I came for the lunch special about 2:30pm and noticed about 90% latino crowd here. I asked for the Seafood delight lunch special that came out to $6.00 including tax. This is a self serv type of restaurant. They do have a free ice tea here. So when my food came, I was shocked to see pieces of chicken on my plate. I immediately went to the owner/cashier and mention that this must be a mistake. She said it is not a mistake. It is chicken and you will find shrimps underneath. The shrimps were very tiny, like the frozen types. I was disappointed, never the less, finished my food. I don't think I will come back again to try other dishes. read more

Off the B8 feeder with plenty of parking spots. They suck at wiping tables and you have to use the same bar of soap as every one else. Now on to the pluses - very cheap but delicious and AUTHENTIC chinese food with prices averaging $4. As you can read, I like this place because it doesn't put a dent in my wallet. Stay away from the battered meats because it's 90% batter. Service is not bad but not great also. read more

It had been a while since i've been here. The layout is typical Chinese restaurant. The place is mainly Asian operated so don't expect your waiter to be fluent in English. The wait staff is very nice and courteous every time i've been here. The food is pretty good and its cheap: Orange flavored chicken, Sweet Sour chicken, 2 Egg rolls, Sweet Sour Soup and Steamed rice for under $12 oh yea and that included a ice tea and a water. read more