3.00
After much anticipation, I finally made my first visit to Mr. Chen's Homewood. The restaurant is nice and very clean, and is housed in an amazing Marketplace. The staff was prompt and the service was fine in general; however the food was mediocre at best, and looked a lot better than it tasted. It seemed like they put the right amount of effort into preparing the meal, except for the part where they actually seasoned it, with something other than MSG. The consistency of everything ordered was great, but it was all terribly bland. The eggrolls were cripsy, but bland. The Steamed Dumplings were the best thing we ordered, but again pretty bland especially without the sauce. The Kung Pao Combo came highly recommended, but now I am severely questioning those who recommended it, because I certainly would not. If that is one of the best things on the menu, I'd hate to taste the rest. The Kung Pao Combo was severely lacking in protein, and there was definitely a lot more zucchini than there was meat. Even though I ordered it "mild" it had absolutely no kick whatsoever; I would expect even the "mild" version of Kung Pao anything to have a little bit of kick...it's named "Kung Pao" for a reason, which is why I ordered the mild in the first place. I also had to add a ton of salt and other seasonings to the Kung Pao in order for it to be tolerable. I will probably not be back to the restaurant. Even though I split the meal between two people, we ended up throwing most of the meal away because a)it was so bland, and b) they use a lot of MSG which ended up making me sick. I have an adverse reaction to MSG, so I can tell if they use it in their food... and they definitely do....which is I also why cannot eat food from Hunan Wok across the street either (but I would choose them over Mr. Chen's if I absolutely had to choose between those two). From now on I will stick to The Red Pearl and the Great Wall, who have never disappointed me. I would have given less stars if my review were based only on the food alone.