Grand Cafe

We use to live in Normal, and we visited the Grand Cafe about three times a week. We moved to Sterling/Rock Falls, and could not wait to get back for their food. From there we moved away to the State of Maine and then Up-state New York. We lived out East for 9 years. Now we live in the Quad Cities, and every chance we get, we are at the Grand Cafe. It was the first date where I took my wife. It is truly a family run operation. Once you have their food, you will grave it all the time. They are not just the best Chinese Food in Bloomington/Normal, they are the best anywhere.

The Grand Cafe, open since 1921 in the downtown culteral district has some of the best American Chinese food in the US. I have been to at least 100 American Chinese restaurants over my 40 years of restaurant-going and this one is NUMBER ONE! This is the one all the local people recommend. Some of the staff members have been there for 30 yrs. I highly recommend this one.

While the service and the quantities of food were good, the food quality was terrible. This was probably the worst Chinese food I've eaten. Bland, saturated in gravy, and greasy. The leftovers weren't worth taking home.

Casual, great food... friendly and unlike so many others the food does not all take the same.....

Grand Cafe is the best Chinese restaurant in town!! The food is WONDERFUL!! The decor is lovely. You can't beat their lunch prices. Their Egg rolls are to die for!!

Found intact artery (2 inch long, 5 mm diameter) with associated vein, nerve and lymph node in eggroll. They totally use waste meat in eggrolls. Many dog food factories won't even use these parts!!

They have the best wontons and egg rolls in this area .

Grand Cafe has been around for a long time. Their food is consistently good as is their service. Their egg rolls are the best I have tasted.

I highly recommend Grand Cafe!

I lived in Bloomington in the 80's and now live nearer to Peoria. Last night found ourselves over in Bloomington about dinner time and decided to go back to Grand Cafe, a place we used to visit for lunch very often back in the day.

I had forgotten how good they are. Now, if you're after haute cuisine Chinese - all wood ear mushrooms and exotic presentation - you're not likely to find it here. It's much more along your ""chicken almond ding/moo goo gai pan"" type of dishes. However, here's what sets Grand Cafe apart: everything, I mean *everything* appears to be homemade from scratch. And it all shows. They have the best egg rolls anywhere. Forget about those frozen ones everyone else puts out. These are made on site, stuffed with cabbage, pork and whole little shrimps, and seasoned to perfection. They are awesome. Similarly, the crab rangoons have not seen a day in a freezer. They are fresh and creamy and incredibly crispy on the outside. The shrimp dish we ordered was overloaded with shrimp. My husband had orange chicken and it was big hunks of chicken breast (not little nuggets of ""stuff"" and scraps like other places) breaded in a light, cornmeal tasting (?) batter - it was delicious.

The location of this place stinks. The decor is dark and hasn't changed in the 30 years I've known the place. But there's a reason they've been around as long as they have. The service was excellent, the food reasonably priced and really, really tasty. Like the best Chinese comfort food ever. I highly recommend this place. I have been away from it too long and I'm looking forward to going back again soon!

Always a good experience for over twenty years. Reasonably priced, home-made chinese. Not a fancy place, but clean and quaint. I only wish they had a buffet!!

Plenty of seating. Reservations suggested and I suggest calling an hour ahead for carryout orders..