Chen Ling Palace

They stole from me! The service was poor. We waited for menus. Then there were too long pauses between the courses and we had to go in search of the bill. But the worst part — when we left no tip, they helped themselves from my credit card!!! 20% at that!

I love Unilocal!After reading the recent reviews while parked at Dragon House, I pulled out of the parking lot and came here instead.
First and foremost, although an older establishment, it’s very clean!
The folks that work here are very friendly! Kind! They do not act like taking your order is a burden, like most other places where there is a language barrier.
The food smells amazing and the portions are very generous! It was delicious, total food coma!
Would definitely recommend! And remember to PLEASE LEAVE A TIP! Just because it’s a service job does not mean that they are servants!

Great flavors in their food. Spicy Baked Pork Chop and Shrimp Lo Mein are my husband & son’s favorite. I love the Szechuan Spicy Eggplant. The Roast Duck, Deep Fried Flounder and OX lobster are fantastic! Corn Egg Drop soup with minced Chicken is delicious!

I came here for the Lunch Buffet. It was $ 14 total for 2 people. The man that served us was really sweet and welcoming. The food was pretty satisfying. I really liked the salt and pepper pork and the mongolian beef. The fried rice was really nice too. For the price, you get a good variety. I would definitely come back and maybe try some of their dinner menu items.

Great fresh food! Wonderful customer service ! I always come here for their good food but they do need to remodel there place it’s an old building but it does not bother me it’s still nice and the food is good

I still gave them 4 stars for the cheap lunch buffet and friendly service but they need to modify or upgrade (remodel/​refurbish) the place especially the restrooms! I don’t know with the women’s room but the men’s room needs a new fresh look! If they want to stay tuned with the current time, they should do some upgrades while still maintaining the good ambiance of a typical Chinese restaurant.

Thus place was empty on a Friday holiday weekend, food was terrible, staff tried very hard to make it pleasant, but wow it was bad.

This place is just okay. I would say it is better than Panda but that’s about it. If you are hungry for a buffet better to go here than usual Chinese buffets as their food is not as bland. Its also cheaper on the weekdays. I believe around $ 6 on weekdays and $ 7 something on the weekends.

Here are my reasons for 2 stars:
1. From what food I have tried, it has been good (only if you order fresh though, I don’t think they make it as good if you get it to go)…the orange chicken is good, and Mongolian beef, however, I’ve tried asking for my Mongolian beef EXTRA EXTRA spicy two times in a row now and it still comes out very un-spicy…but yet this is when I’ve ordered to go, so I just think they don’t like putting any effort in to go orders. My mother in law has been going there for years and every time she asks for spicy they give it to her spicy, so I’m pretty much only going to get it the way I want if I go eat with her and eat there.
2. Me and my fiancé dined in tonight and our bill was only $ 28.00 (and something cents) so we gave them $ 40, the man that waited on us (who seemed like he was over his workday and was bothered by us being there, even though we didn’t walk in late or last minute) came back with $ 1.00 change… at first we thought maybe we read the bill wrong and it was actually $ 38.00 and not $ 28.00, but I knew we didn’t order that much food, and last time I ever ordered from there I had gotten more food and for $ 40.00…I wanted to ask for the ticket again so I can make sure I wasn’t accusing him of pocketing the money and acting like our bill was almost $ 40.00, but he had already sat down at a table with 3 other workers and started eating what was there dinner I assume before they close up for the night, and we were ready to get out of there anyway since they were closing soon and we didn’t want to be a bother since it looked as if we were bothering them already…
3. So to conclude the amount of my bill, I looked up the menu online when I got home, and of course my food only came out to $ 24.00 (rounding up), and then I had iced tea and my fiancé had the hot tea, so there’s no way that could of made a total of $ 38.00, we ordered the Orange chicken $ 10.55 — pork fried rice $ 6.95 — and fried dumplings $ 5.65… So you’re telling me hot tea costs $ 11.00??? I don’t think so… because I know the iced tea couldn’t have been over $ 3.00…so basically either the guy misread the ticket, or he was trying to swindle us, or he was pocketing the change for himself, because there was a nice lady that waited on us as well and if he wasn’t trying to share the tip with her then that’s messed up… I read another review on here that said the same thing about the waiters not giving them their change back so it’s probably happened many times before… we did end up leaving a $ 5.00 bill on the table and a couple of ones just in case if we were in the wrong before we left, but now I know it was just the dumb guy that works there.
My tip for everyone if you haven’t eaten there before — –when paying your bill, PAY THE EXACT CHANGE FIRST, then leave a tip on the table… and hopefully you don’t end up with the tall skinny guy that wears glasses.

My first impression is great.
Food good, service good (very friendly) and price affordable.
Will come back soon.

I’ve been coming here with my family and friends since I was a kid! Love all the people who work here, so nice and always ask about my parents. Food is great, chicken broccoli is my favorite! I highly recommend it.

Holy … I came out here with some church people and I was blown away by this food. I have pretty high standards for Chinese food, given that I’m a Korean guy with Chinese family members. I thoroughly enjoyed the deep fried pork that still retained moisture. The roasted duck was a great combination of fried and chewy. The string beans or whatever were flavored heartily, and the flounder fish oh man was that fresh. I enjoyed my experience and given how many people were there in my group, the service was really exceptional.

Not an extremely busy place, but amazing food. The Singapore Noodles are the best! Great, friendly staff as well.

I bring my mom here for the lunch buffet. The servers are very good with her. I prefer more authentic style Chinese/​dim sum, but for americanized Chinese food it will do.

Lazy staff they had no food in the buffet they just kind of sat around it’s too bad because the food when available is great not coming back any time soon.

Great family style Chinese food in the IE. I also try to stop by when I visit my family and it’s always as good as I remember. Best Chinese in Riverside!!!
Pan fried noodles is my absolute fave! Salty pork chops are always delish’. But the walnut shrimp is a must. The deep fried whole flounder with sauce and green onions is a group must have.
I miss Chen Ling… Wish I could go more often.

Best authentic Chinese food in Riverside!!! Must try salted pork chop and sweet & pungent chicken.

Four stars: mostly because the food was so good it made up for the look of the place. One star short-​because their menu said they had shark (which I was craving) & they didn’t have shark (because it’s illegal LOL). In short– menu needs to be updated.
When you’ve had a taste of authentic Chinese food, to me, sometimes Panda Express will never be good enough for that Chinese food crave. That’s why I am so glad to have tried Chen Ling Palace! :) Let me warn you though-​it doesn’t look like a palace at all (inside or out) & you’re not being served by some fancy waitresses or butlers. Just FYI. We came on a Friday night. The place was not packed at all but we did enjoy the peace & quiet. The staff was nice too. Most importantly my husband & I thought the food was good! (Even better than Mandarin Garden on University Ave). We ordered the Peking duck, Assorted crispy noodles, & Pan-​fried lobster w ginger & green onions. Yum! Yum! Yum! Tasted like what real Chinese food should taste like. Good portions, moist, flavorful. I guess if you’re not used to the authenticity (MSG included) then you should cross the street & go to Panda Express.

Not gonna lie, I was apprehensive to eat here when I first walked in. But I decided to give it a try and I’m glad I did. The food is really good, closer to authentic Chinese than the Americanized versions most places serve. It has become our go-​to Chinese restaurant in Riverside.
So, why only four stars? Well, the place could use a little freshening up. And the service can be a bit brusque.

Finally we find a non-​generic AYCE Chinese buffet w/​authentic and yummy flavors (the way it should be). This is a traditional Chinese restaurant w/​old school décor that has a daily buffet from 11am to 2:30pm.
The weekday lunch buffet is only $ 5.75, and it is a steal. That’s how much I pay for ONE piece of rib eye steak at Ralphs (when they don’t have the 50% off meat sale), so I get more for my money here!
My husband is a fan of everything Chinese (he is Filipino), and I am a fan of good Chinese grub myself.
Forget the chopsticks, we only had 1 hour left before the buffet ended at 2:30pm, so I decided to eat most of my food with my bare hands because it was faster to chow down that way!
Now for our grub on…
The egg flower soup was a very nice surprise. I love egg flower soup, but not many places know how to make a good one. Leave it to this place to make the BEST one I’ve ever had (even better than the one I had in Chinatown L.A. and Frisco). I even forgot to take a picture of the egg flower soup ~ it was that good!
I had 3 cups (24 ounces!!!) of the egg flower soup alone. I was about to go for my 4^th one (something I rarely do), but then they brought out the fried salted pork chop. The pork was Mmmm yummy. Maybe it was the MSG (who knows!!) but this pork was delicious.
I then went on to try the kung pao chicken, not spicy at all but still good.
Everything we tried was pretty good:
salted shirmp
fried rice
chow mein
mongolian beef
orange chicken
beef and broccoli
damn good veggie egg rolls, etc.
My husband (who traveled to Hong Kong years before we met) said that the flavors at this restaurant were spot on.
They did not have the A/​C running for the first 20 minutes that we were inside. My husband was using the table napkins to wipe the sweat off his forehead (I could already see the droplets forming on his head). We were about to say something about how hot it was in there, but then the table across from us complained before we did. The A/​C went on automatically after that. Let me tell you that it was 100 degree weather outside, but it felt like it was at least 90 inside the restaurant!!!
Someone (not our server) brought our bill after only 25 minutes of eating at the buffet, and it was not over for us yet (it’s not like we were at the dessert stage). I’ve never seen anyone bring the check to us after only less than half an hour at any buffet. I did NOT like that, and decided to push it aside to make more room for my next chow down ~ more fried pork, salted shrimp, and kung pao chicken!!!
The only reason why I’m giving this place 4 stars instead of 5 is because of the following 3 reasons:
1. They brought out the bill too early (first buffet that does this to us). Were they trying to tell us something???
2. It was too hot inside the restaurant. The A/​C should have been running the minute we walked in.
3. They only had fruits for dessert and not much else (for a buffet).
We will give this place another shot at the buffet, but we will do the weekend buffet instead of the weekday one.
You cannot go wrong w/​this buffet at only $ 5.75 per person on a weekday (excludes drink). They also have a buffet on weekends ~ it is under $ 10.