Silver Lake Chinese Restaurant

I stopped in to try the house special fried rice. My main reason for doing so was because my local favorite is closed on Mondays. I remembered eating here once before and I enjoyed the food but never made it back.

I called to place a take out order by phone. What is neat is you have the option to place an order online and this month they are offering 10% off online orders. Once I realized you need to insert card information, I decided to call in. I would rather pay cash for $7 worth of rice.

The small rice is a nice size for one person. It is full of various meats (shrimp. chicken and bbq pork). It has green onions, eggs and bean sprouts. I enjoyed it and will definitely keep this place in mind as a nearby back up.

This place is a small chain of Chinese restaurants in my area. I normally don't order from here but when I'm pressed for time it works ok.

Having been to china a few times I would call this place a bad interpretation of what Chinese food should be (Panda express being the worst). If Chinese-American food is what you're looking for than this place is decent. Over the years I've had the:

Dry Beef Chow Fun: Large portions even when you order the small. Lots of beef and vegetables with chow fun cooked very well. This is my go to dish when I need a quick bite.

Pot stickers: Big, thick skinned. Pretty standard generic pot stickers.

Hot and Sour Soup: Also very generic starch laden soup.

Fish Filet in Garlic black bean sauce: Probably the only actual fish item on the menu outside of shrimp and scallops. A small order gets you about 60%vegetables and sauce with only 40% fish pieces. I only got like 5 small pieces of fish in my order.  Probably not ordering this again.

Deliveries usually take a while (Average 40-50 minutes) for me but pick up is ready in 15-20 which I usually go for. Being actually chinese I admit I am overly biased towards these so called "Chinese" restaurants but I also understand they cater to Chinese-American tastes so I'm not gonna hate. In the end I would deem this place pretty good for quick generic Chinese takeout.

My family and I have been eating at Silver Lake for years, and it remains our go-to place for lunch and dinner. We've dined in and carried out from all locations, with the overwhelming majority of our business going to Bartlett and Roselle. These restaurants represent the best of what this small chain has to offer. While St. Charles and Elgin are not "bad" per-se, they noticeably lag the other two for the qualities of food and service.