I wavered between giving this place three and four stars, finally opting for three because of some consistency issues. When the food is good, it's a four star restaurant (assuming one brings the right expectations to bear; more on this below), but it's a trifle mediocre at others times. I've eaten here off and on for years, and this vacillation in quality is a fairly recent development.How one reacts to this place will largely depend on what one is looking for in a Chinese restaurant. Empress is an Americanized Cantonese restaurant of the sort that one used to find all over the place before buffet places (and their unlimited portions of soulless crap) drove most of them out of business. About the most challenging ingredient one might encounter on their menu is the odd canned baby corn in a stir fry dish, and in general, we're talking about Asian people adopting Asian cooking techniques to suit an American palette. I think there's a place for that, and Empress fills this niche much better than an establishment that can't be bothered to cook to order. It's pretty easy to sneer at restaurants like this if one regularly treks out to Sharpstown for duck feet and Sichuan hot pots, but it's much more profitable, in my opinion, to judge places by the standards of what they're trying to accomplish, not by what they have no interest in becoming.The menu hasn't changed in years, and one can find all the standard Chinese-American dishes one would imagine in a place like this. Sauces are not too sweet or gloopy, though they sometimes use too much of them (that consistency thing I complained about). Eggrolls are not vegetarian. Since I've become a little wary of late, I've started ordering fried rice or lo mein , which are both pretty difficult to screw up (though the lo mein is surprisingly good).Service is attentive, and the place, while not fancy, is a palace compared to what it used to look like. For those of us over a certain age, this is what Chinese food used to mean, back when going to Chinatown was a much bigger deal and much more of an adventure, so it's nice to have a place to relive some of that vibe once in a while. I'm glad Empress is still around.EDIT: I passed by today on the way to Vieng Thai (10/6/12), and a temporary sign covered the old one, advertising "Empress Pho." It would appear that someone bought them out and is using the decades old good will of the Empress name for their business.

The dumplings are not bad , I have had better but the place is always clean and the employees are always nice, that's why I go back.

The food is generally good - better than a number of places twice the price - and the dinner portions are very, very generous. Its a great value. I really like the sesame chicken and hot and sour soup (which is hotter than most Chinese restaurants). I wasn't a fan of the chicken and cashews, but my wife has had a lot of success with the beef dishes.The delivery takes half the time that they quote you.