Blue Willow Restaurant & Lounge

Ordered to-​go, had it ready when I arrived. Food was good like always (ordered the same as last time). Seems like less food when you order to-​go. Still good price.

I have been coming here for over 15 years and it’s ways very good. The décor is old but the food and service is great. Amazing prices for the quantity and being a big guy and having left overs, yay! This is a must stop

I would go here again if someone insisted on it, but I would order something different.
I definitely got a creepy vibe from the place: none of the lights were on, there was a mysterious humming sound, and the bathroom was very old with a floor that was so greasy that my shoes were sliding around with every step.
The woman who seated me was so disinterested in her job that she was looking down and playing on her phone as she walked people to their seats, and she was talking to someone on speakerphone while she walked around. So that was weird.
I got the Kung pao chicken lunch special. As other reviewers have said, the portions are huge but the food is mediocre. They brought complimentary tea (good!) and soup (very salty but fresh-​tasting), followed by the entrée. The vegetables that come with kung pao chicken always seem to be a grab bag, but it seemed like mostly celery. Which I guess is great, if you really like celery. The meat was noticeably low quality. Really fatty and… Mushy.
The server, a younger gentleman, was very nice, and he checked on me frequently. The servings are so huge that he didn’t have to ask if I needed a box; he just brought one. With such a large quantity of food, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that the quality is subpar.
I’ve heard people mention this place as a default for Chinese food in Salem. Now that my curiosity is sated, next time I will opt for Mexican.

Huge portions for cheap when trying to feed a big family. They even give us complimentary soup and extra crab puffs with our big to go order.

Well all I can say is this place needs condemned… first the soup was thicker than gravy and old, followed by a stinky old egg roll with white, mushy cabbage that stunk and was sour. Guess they thought if the fried it long enough in old oil we wouldn’t notice… waiter was annoyed we sent it back. Then to top it all off a cockroach was walking down a beam in the dining area right next to our table! ! If it comes out in the day imagine how infested it is when the lights go out… walked right out did not pay and will never ever return! Word of advice if you don’t like «white people «open your business in China!!!

This was the worst Experience I have ever had eating out! The short haired Middle aged lady that helped us was so Rude! I only ask if there was any difference between the TV Special on the Menu and on the board and she said in a angry tone «You ask too many questions what do you want, I don’t have all day » I ordered the TV Special and got a Pile of greasy food that was well below average in my opinion. I had asked when ordering the food for water and never got any. So when she walked by I ask her could she please bring me a glass of water? she told me to «Shut Up she is Busy» I told her that was very Rude and Ask for her name and she said it was «None of my business what here name was» well that was enough for me and it was time to leave I paid cash and left. To make matters worse the next day we both got sick for two days. I don’t know what caused it, but I could surly take a guess it was the food we ate. NEVER AGAIN Will I go back there! I felt I should share this with anyone considering them, BE WARNED!!!

If I could give zero stars I would. Worst Chinese food I’ve EVER had. Rice had no flavor except for the BBQ pork, which was decent. Pork chow mein had no noodles. Either they gave me the wrong dish, or they forgot to put in noodles. Save your time and money. Two bites of each and I tossed the rest. Garbage!!!

Great service, friendly staff but the food was just ok. We had Sweet and sour chicken which was ok but just warm. Pork fried rice and it to was just lukewarm and had no pork in it. Portions were large though.

Extremely Dirty. Could not justify eating here. Afraid of how unclean and unsanitary the kitchen might be. We got up and left without ordering.
The entrance door was filthy. Inside it was cluttered and dirty and dingy. The waiter led us back to our seat, and I noticed the rug was dirty with spilled food in many places. The waiters apron and pants were extremely filthy. It did not give us any confidence in the cleanliness of the kitchen. We were afraid we might get food poisoning.
We have watched restaurant impossible too many times, and observed mom-​and-​pop shops in a filthy state with unsanitary food conditions. Unfortunately, Robert Irvine would have a heyday cleaning up this place.
Although we would have liked to eat here and patronize a locally owned business, we had to get up and leave without ordering our food. Too bad, as it seems they have so much potential. I hope they get the place cleaned up and adhere to higher quality standards.

Bathroom smells and is in a terrible state of cleanliness. The décor and such looks old worn. BUT! The food was probably the absolute best Chinese food I have ever had. It was fresh, tasty and absolutely the best quality. They were also fast and relatively friendly. This will be my new Chinese food stop for sure.

this place has been around for really a long time. the bar is small but very friendly, they pour a mean drink here.
pricing for the food is very fair and it’s a good meal.

My parents took me and a couple of their friends for lunch at Blue Willow and it was exactly as I remembered it when I first ate here back in 2001 or ’02. Inexpensive, large portions, but sadly, very poor quality Chinese food.
There is just one server who is also the cashier. He doesn’t speak English that well but is good at remembering who gets what. Pretty decent service for such busy work though.
I ordered a lunch special, Kung Pao Chicken and pork fried rice. Honestly, I didn’t like the food 15 years ago and I couldn’t get myself to find anything good about the lunch special I had.
I asked the waiter if the kitchen could make something that wasn’t on the menu like beef chow fun with gravy which is a must have when we order at any Chinese restaurant in Hawaii. He said, «I never heard of it.» soooo I just kept picking at my food. *super sad tummy*

Great food! Cheap & you get a lot of food! I had eaten Won ton soup and a little bit of my boyfriends lo mein noodles. Great service and clean!

Food was great. Low price, good service. Best Chinese in Salem. We even got soup on the house with the two entrees that we ordered.

History
7 years.
The Ups
— Solid, Americanized Chinese food, and a lot of it. Unless you compete in eating contests, you’ll be taking a fair amount of it home.
— Cheap. Three or four people can eat for under $ 20. My mainstays have been mostly things with the word ‘House’ in them (which incl. various meats), the fried rice (s), Chow Fun, and appetizers. I have tried much of the menu though and can’t remember ever eating anything bad.
— Consistent. If you like it here, your future experiences will be mostly the same.
–Take out is usually only 10 – 15 minutes for a 3 – 4 piece order.
The Downs–
— Minor — Depending on who is working, as a regular you will likely have your name remembered and receive a warm welcome. Often though it can be rough around the edges, either in manner or spoken English.
— Minor (for me) — Greasy spoon. Generally clean but few frills and well used. The space could use an update.
— Consistent. If you don’t like it here, your future experiences will be mostly the same.
Location
Clean but older strip mall along the middle of Lancaster Rd,. Lower-​middle class neighborhood but hardly ‘gangland’, as someone else put it.
3 – 3.5 Stars
I’ve never been in the lounge, but a quiet dive is probably a good description.
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How I rate —
I try to be a tolerant, patient, and polite person. I do not exaggerate and I believe that very few experiences rate in the extreme (almost never a 1 or 5). Definitely a carnivore but otherwise not picky. No allergies.

i would give 5 stars to the customer service of this place. ive been here a lot, and i always feel welcome here. The staff are awesome. The food is good. and they give you huge portions. HUGE… I always order a meal that consist of iether mongolian beef or kung pao chicken. ive always been happy with what ive gotten here. I would pay more for the food here if they charged it. The location is in middle of gangland so you may be involved in a shoot out, but the food is always good.

I love this place! Been going since 2004, and the quality hasn’t changed! Massive food portions for a low price. The tea is also amazing!

I’m from Salem and live in Seattle meow. When I lived in Salem we would go here a lot. All I have to say is to take advantage of your time with Blue Willow, cherish it, because food doesn’t get as cheap as this. The food is good, VERY good compared to how much you pay. Yeah the service is kinda bland and not very socialable but neither are drive-​thrus which is how much you will be paying for bad food. And besides the great prices is the HUGE portions. I mean for lunch you can pay $ 5 for a combo and have leftovers. Where else can you do that? Every time my dad would pay for the meal he would giggle in happiness and that’s what counts.

Went to Blue Willow for the first time last week with a group of friends, and I will not be going back. Food is cheap, but you usually get what you pay for, and that is true here. The waitress was unfriendly and really seemed like she did not want to be there (according to my friend who had been there before, she is always like that).
I ordered the chicken & broccoli, which came with egg flower soup & steamed rice. The egg flower was oddly thick and yellow. It looked like someone had urinated in it and lacked flavor. My chicken & broccoli dish was not much better, with rubbery chicken and oily looking vegetables.
The worst part of my dining experience was when I found a dead bug on a piece of broccoli. We brought it to the attention of the staff, who removed my plate and said they’d remake the dish. However, they never returned with any food for me. They just left me with my existing side of steamed rice and that was it. They never apologized or tried to fix the problem.
Understandably, I had lost my appetite by then, but I think it’s very poor customer service to just leave a patron with no food to eat when they come to your restaurant. Will never, ever be back.
P. S. the waitress also had another mishap with a patron from a different party in the restaurant, spilling water all over his cell phone. She just walked away because apparently she had better things to do. The poor guy was left to clean up the mess & get his phone to work after her careless mistake.

This place is cheap and you get a lot of food.
For about $ 14 dollars my husband and I got 2 large meals that were enough to leave us feeling stuffed at dinner and still have enough for lunches the next day. Unfortunately the quality was not very good the first night and even worse reheated, the leftovers ended up in the garbage or in our dog’s food dish.
I had a combination plate with pork fried rice, almond chicken, and sweet and sour chicken and my husband had Kung Pao Chicken, extra spicy. The pork fried rice wasn’t bad and the vegetables in both our meals seemed fresh and not overcooked. Unfortunately the chicken in both was rubbery and chewy. The sauce was heavy and greasy.
We’ve been here twice and both times it seems as though there is only one person working the front desk and dining room. I felt that the wait to order was longer than the wait to get our food. If the service was great or the place was packed I could understand the wait but neither were true. Server was really unfriendly and I felt that we were an inconvenience for her, that she had something better to be doing.
Overall if you’re more concerned with quantity than quality, you shouldn’t mind this place, but if you care about quality pay a little more and go somewhere else.