Jim and Nancy do not disclose the fact that they will review a restaurant before they attend, ensuring their reviews are unbiased and uninfluenced by their position with My Sun Day News.
Nancy is now in the preparation stage for her hip replacement surgery. Among other things, she cooks like a mad woman and freezes delicious dinners to enjoy while convalescing. This results in a huge shopping list of vegetables needed to prepare her dinners. Since any produce you buy in the Huntley area has a shelf life of a day and a half, we made the trip to Hoffman Estates where there is a huge produce market on Roselle Road that she loves to shop at. As long as we are out there, what else could we do but stop for lunch. We decided on Yu’s Mandarin in Schaumburg.
Yu’s Mandarin
200 E. Golf Road
Schaumburg 60173
(847)882-5340
yusmandarin.com
Directions: Take Rte. 47 South to I-90 East to Roselle Road South to Golf Road East to restaurant.
Estimated Travel Time: 26 minutes
It was a Friday afternoon lunchtime when we pulled into the parking lot, and it was jam packed. We were wondering if we would get a table to satisfy our Chinese food fix. Luckily, because the restaurant is so large, we were immediately seated at our table. This restaurant is nicely decorated and an interesting feature is watching the chefs manning their flaming woks behind the glass partition. It is truly amazing how quickly they can prepare a meal.
While checking out the menu we noticed they have a huge selection of weekday lunchtime specials. These include an egg roll, a wonton, soup, and fried rice. While we were deciding on what to order, the waiter came by with a complimentary pot of hot tea.
Nancy spotted one of her favorite dishes which was the Mongolian Beef ($13.50). This is marinated slices of beef, onions, and green onions bedded on crispy rice noodles (you know the ones, they look and crunch like Styrofoam). Nancy chose the Egg Drop Soup. It’s not her favorite so she gifted it to me. Nancy’s beef was tender and delicious. The sauce was absolutely incredible. She was definitely in heaven.
Jim tried something new for him. He ordered the Orange Chicken ($12.50). He chose the Hot and Soup which is one of his favorites, and he was not disappointed. The orange chicken was breaded and cooked in a sweet and spicy orange sauce complete with orange rinds. He said it was very tasty and he would order it again.
We were surprised when a robot the size of R2-D2 came rolling up to our table with his big eyes blinking. It is really amazing that this robot can maneuver a busy restaurant without running into people or knocking over tables. There were shelves inside the robot with our food orders waiting for our waiter to serve us. That was the coolest gizmo we have ever seen in a restaurant. We think that it is only a matter of time before they are the ones behind the window flipping our food in a wok. We swear this robot sneered at Jim. Be afraid, be very afraid. The robots are slowly taking over.
FYI: This restaurant is handicap accessible.
To sum it up, how can you go wrong. Their lunch specials are awesome for the price, and we still took home doggie bags to add to our meals in the freezer for Nancy’s hip surgery. Maybe we can get our Roomba to serve the leftovers to us!!!
The cost for our veggie run was $29.10. Being served by R2-“Yu”2 robot, priceless…
Jim’s take: I loved my lunch, but I don’t know how much to tip a robot.
Nancy’s take: Good food, good prices, and good leftovers.
Have comments or restaurant suggestions for the Dining Duo? Send them an email at thediningduo@gmail.com
