Formosa Cafe

I really wish I loved this place, but I just don't.  I love the concept, and am a big patron of Hollywood Boulevard theater next door.   However, the place is just a little dreary and creepy.  The food is mediocre for Chinese food.  The food was very similar to what you would get at a local Chinese pick up place.  For some reason, it just expected to food to be better.  The last time I went here on a Sunday afternoon, there was only 1 other table with customers.  The service was great, food was okay, but I felt like I was eating in an old museum.

Excellent food. Best Chinese food  in the area. I recommend using the parking in back.

This is a pretty good American-style Chinese place.  The decor is five stars; the food, maybe three and a half.  I'm a vegetarian, and there are exactly three things on the menu I can eat, which is pretty standard for an American-style Chinese place (the usual trio: vegetable medley; fried rice; lo mein).  Unlike most American-style places, the egg rolls are vegetarian, and the decor is smashing.

We got the lo mein and the vegetable medley, which come with egg rolls.  The egg rolls were freshly fried and the vegetables not mushy; wrapper wasn't too thick and was crisp, not tough or chewy.  The lo mein was fairly standard; the vegetables were pretty good; not overcooked.  And at least they used different vegetables for both dishes.  We've had American-style Chinese at a couple of places around the Wheaton/Glen Ellyn area and this is better than any of them; I wouldn't put it in the same ranking as Lao Sze Chuan, but that's really a totally different kind of restaurant.  
There's also a not-terribly-Asian dessert menu; if we come back we'll have to leave room for creme brulee.  I'm not sure I'd get take-out from this place; delivery is free, but you'd miss the atmosphere, which is the point.  The food is not destination dining; the decor is.  This would be a good place to bring folks from out of town who are looking for somewhat familiar food (like my in-laws) or a group looking for something a little different.

Service was good; a little slow to get started (we were here for lunch; the host was also our waiter, and there was no one at the host station for us or the folks who came in after we did).  Drinks were refilled, food and the check were produced fairly quickly.

I'm not sure how many times the movie-style decor will bring you back, but do check out the information on it in your menu and on the walls.  Since Anna May Wong is really the only prominent Asian actor or actress from glamorous Old Hollywood, the decor is slanted more towards her than perhaps it should be - if they were willing to go more modern and do some chop socky actors as well, that would add some variety (there are some concessions to modernity - two autographed photos of David Carradine hang over one of the doors; there's a Mulan mini-poster on the bar and a Kill Bill poster in the back hallway).  As it happens, I love Anna May Wong, and enjoyed the main dining room behind a bar, which is a tribute to her.  If there really are only two copies of the glamour photo of her from "The Thief of Baghdad," I'm glad I got to see it.  

Even if you don't care for old Hollywood, the three-hundred-year-old doors which serve as tables; the old Kwan Yin and Buddha statues and other random Chinese antiques should keep you interested, as should picking out all the celebrities in the ranks of signed photos.