Chang Jiang - Eastside - Madison

This is a very long review. The short version is ... the next time you want Chinese take-out, get it from Chang Jiang East Side. Period. First of all, DO NOT confuse Chang Jiang East Side (4929 Commercial Ave with the Chang Jiang restaurants on Raymond Rd, Muir Field Rd, and Gammon Rd in Madison. They are not the same, and they are not the subject of this review. My wife and I love Chinese take-out, consider it our decadent treat, and have ordered it regularly wherever we have lived, from as many different restaurants as we can. Chang Jiang East Side is one of the top three, if not the best, Chinese restaurants we have found in our 60+ years of life, head and shoulders above any other in the Madison area. For starters, it is clearly family owned and operated, by people who care deeply about the quality of their food and their service. They treat each customer as if he or she is the most important person in the world at that moment. If they tell you your order will be ready in 15 minutes, they mean 10-15 minutes, not 20-25 minutes. (For this reason, we no longer call ahead to place our order, but drive to the restaurant, place our order in person, and wait. Why take a chance that you'll be delayed and the great food will have begun to cool down? The food we have ordered in the 5-6 times since we discovered Chang Jiang East Side has been, without exception, wonderful. My absolute favorite, which I've never seen anywhere else, is Coconut Shrimp. We never pass up the Crab Rangoon or Steamed Pork Dumplings. I recently ordered the Crab Stick appetizer for the first time, and it is now on the permanent list. We can also recommend the Boneless Spare Ribs, Hot and Spicy Beef, Beef with Broccoli, and Beef with Garlic Sauce. The only reason I don't mention any chicken or pork dishes is that our tastes favor beef and seafood, so we have never ordered those. I have no reason to believe they're not also wonderful. Since my Asian wife makes the very best fried rice in the history of the world, we have never ordered it from Chang Jiang East Side, but based on everything else we've had, I recommend you give it a try.

We get food here pretty often. Normally sesame chicken, crab ragoons, and dumplings. The food is always good and the wait is short.

Food was great and ready in 10min! After reading the low star reviews I found that most of the reasons were external and not about the food. The staff was friendly too!

Very large portions at a great price. Food was delicious!!

Not the best Chinese food but certainly far from the worst. I would say it’s better than the average chain. I tried the chicken with snow pea and she had the moo moo gai pan, small sizes for about $7 each. I added some of my own seasoning as I found it a tad on the bland side. Perhaps next time I’ll ask for something on the hot side. The parking lot is a bit cramped as there are several businesses packed into a small strip small space. The employees were very friendly and even wished a Merry Christmas!