When I invited a business associate out for lunch - and warned him he’d be a guinea pig for this review - I let him choose.

Being in a somewhat questionable neighborhood, I wouldn’t recommend the Imperial Palace for dinner, but the food makes it well worth braving the area for a quick business lunch.

The restaurant shut down for about two years after a fire, and reopened last fall, newly remodeled, with a more efficient layout, though the atmosphere still felt a bit like a strip mall. The background music wasn’t so loud as to force companions to raise their voices.

We arrived at 11:30 a.m., with the idea of beating the lunch crowd. We needn’t have bothered. When we left an hour later, there were plenty of empty seats. That may be because many of the old fans don’t know the place has reopened.

We were seated right away. The tables and high-backed booths are positioned to offer privacy. Ask for a table, though. The booths featured a weird pattern that made your eyes cross after a while.

We asked for sodas, which came in a can, and put in our food order. The egg drop soup came in moments. It was loaded with vegetables and egg. Now I generally only eat this stuff because my doctor tells me I need to eat more veggies, but this was pretty good. I have an excuse for not finishing my veggies this time, though. The food came too quickly: We barely had time to blow the steam off the broth.

The food was as good as I’d remembered. My lunch companion had the Almond Chicken, priced at $7.95. I ordered the day’s lunch special, Mongolian Beef with Sweet and Sour Chicken for $8.95. Both came with an egg roll and fried rice.

The food wasn’t drenched in oil, rare for most Chinese places, so the vegetables were nice and crisp. The beef was tender, the chicken tasty. The plate wasn’t loaded with fried rice topped with a miniscule portion of meat, either. In fact, it was just the opposite: Lotta meat with a ladleful of rice. My only complaint was that the sweet and sour sauce was more of a gel than a sauce, clumping into the grooves of the chicken and almost overpowering the taste.

The Palace features daily lunch combination specials, even on weekends. All run $8.95. For $7.95, one can also get the typical variety of Chinese, Mongolian and Szechwan-style lunch specials as well.

For those willing to brave the area for dinner, the Imperial Palace offers a range of options, including soup, Chow Mein and Chop Suey. The restaurant offers a good selection of vegetable and seafood entrees in addition to the regular Chinese food fare.

Most individual dinners range in price from $9.95 for the Black Mushroom with Chinese Greens to $13.95 for the Scallops with Vegetables.

With at least eight hours’ notice, cooks can offer a nice variety of duck entrees, including Crispy Duck for $14.95 or Peking Duck for $29.95.

The Palace also has a good selection of family dinner combinations ranging in price from $11.95 to $17.95 per person.

For our lunch, the service was great, up until the time the check came. Our server was friendly, answered questions with a smile and brought our food quickly. She checked on us twice shortly after the food arrived. We were about halfway through eating when she brought the check.

We nearly had to jump on the table and wave red flags to get anyone’s attention after that, even to pay the bill.

Imperial Palace

400 Sitka St.

Anchorage

(907) 274-9167

Bottom line: Go. At least for lunch. The Imperial Palace is one of the best Chinese food restaurants in town. And for Chinese food lovers, the wide selection, the great tastes and the quiet atmosphere makes it worth trekking into a less-than-desirable area.

Photo/Rob Stapleton/AJOC

(Out of a 4-check system.)

Melissa Campbell can be reached at editor@alaskajournal.com.