Empire Szechuan

I forgot how good these guys are! Correction, how AMAZING these guys are, I give them 4 on serving cause they are a bit slow but the food is cooked to perfection, the soup is clear, yet flavorful, the beef is carefully seasoned and tender, everything is fresh, you will not want to go anywhere else after you ate here, delivery is open until 1145pm , best of the best, and that beef tomato pic was a fantastic lunch, highly recommend!!

I am shocked at how low the ratings are here. I get that the restaurant looks very casual and feels a little bit like a hole in the wall, however, the food is service is great. They have a TON of veggies options. Each food item was clearly made very fresh and came out as quickly as possible . It was also piping hot which I love. Food: We got the scallion pancakes and they were really good. The sauce that it came with was perfect. The vegetable tempura was good, but if the veggies has been cut smaller it would have better. The tempura sauce was also really yummy. For entrees my husband got noddles and he loved them, said they were flavored exactly the way he would expect them to be. I got a tofu/mushroom mix and has asked them to make it spicy. It was on point and well flavored. Service: Service was quick. We had water immediately and our drinks came out fast too. They checked in on us often as well and the restaurant was fairly crowded as it was late at night and one of the few spots open in the area. Insta: @TheShahLALand

I've been going here for years but now I'm going to stop. Recently they've raised prices and the quantity of filler (broccoli, vegetables, pineapple, etc.) in the entrees is getting out of control. In an order of beef and broccoli I had 8 huge stocks of broccoli and 3 very small pieces of beef. The pork buns were really good and now are completely unrecognizable. They were in pieces, torn open, they looked like someone had picked through them with their fingers. They were still very willing to box it up and sell it to me, and when I commented on the very different appearance, the response I was met with was "then don't order it. We can't be expected to check the quality of everything" The service has always been bad but the food was worth it. Not anymore.

Empire Szechuan was not good. The service was lacking. The waitress seemed as if she was in a rush and not friendly. The restaurant was crowded and when more people came the waitress told another person to move and that person didn’t even finish eating yet. I ordered hot and sour soup which did not taste like hot and sour soup. It was sour for sure but had a weird after taste. We also got the Szechuan pork with broccoli and general tso’s chicken which was salty and the flavor was not evenly distributed in both dishes. It came with a side of rice. I got fried rice which tasted like trash. Did not even taste like authentic fried rice. This is definitely not an actual Chinese restaurant geared for Chinese people. It’s worse than Chinese takeout. The price of the food was not worth it either. The last dish I got was a build the dish bowl. I added snow peas, fried tofu, Chinese broccoli, and eggplant. The sauce was disgusting on top. It was way too salty. $37+ for this? I could’ve gone to a buffet and eaten way better.

The last remaining Empire franchise. I have been enjoying thier Cold Noodles in Sesame Sauce since the mid 80s. Ive yet to find a better one in NYC.