In my experience with the Chinese restaurants in Philadelphia's Chinatown, Imperial Inn has proven to be more of a touristy eatery than one for us locals. It is also not the most authentic. At other restaurants you see that most of the crowd is Chinese. Not so much here. I've also found the food at Imperial Inn to be blander, saltier, greasier, and overall, more Americanized than the food at the other restaurants. They charge more too.
Everything reeks of MSG, and I get terrible headaches from eating certain meals here. (ex. Peking Pork, Walnut Shrimp- which was a bad deal since they gave less than other restaurants and charged more) But this restaurant is still all right. They have the nicest decor out of all the places in Chinatown (even though they've been around the block), and the service is okay. However, I came here with someone who spoke Mandarin, and some members of the wait staff could not understand him. They only understood Cantonese...
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