Empire Chinese Restaurant in Orkney Islands

The Chinese cuisine was very nicely prepared. The spring rolls and chicken satay starters were delicious. The staff were welcoming and friendly.

If you like rice that sticks together in lumps and a vegetable chop suey loaded with beans sprouts - like loaded - with two small pieces of brocolli a few pieces of carrot and mushrooms in some sort of sauce then this is the place to go.

Really nice well decorated Chinese Restaurant. This was our second visit, our previous was six years ago so we were wondering if it was still so good. If anything it was better. Food was good and staff were excellent. Reasonable price and fairly central in Kirkwall. Can definitely recommend this restaurant

Nicest Chinese I've had in Scotland and I tried a few! Not a man for words, but this system wants more words so here they are. Still not enough so here's a few more for good measure.

Booked a table for 2 last minute on a Saturday afternoon. Absolutely fabulous food. Staff very friendly would definitely go again.

Our meals arrived very timely however we (our entire group) were very disappointed with our meals. Food was bland and overpriced. Be very cautious

Some of the best Chinese food I've ever had, and trust me, I've had plenty . Excellent service and nice staff

Not a big fan of Chinese but my husband wanted to have some. I have to say it was exceptionally good. Spring rolls and Chicken Satay starters were amazing. I then had Salted chilli prawns which were delicious and enough for 2! My husband had crispy Beef. Cannot complain about one thing. Complementary prawn crackers were so fresh.

Really nice food. Shame we live over 500 miles away as we would love to go back.

We had a carryout. The food was nothing special and very pricey and when I ordered to took over 30min for the food to arrive . We won't be going back there again

This restaurant had prompt service and a large selection. Our chicken dish contained a lot of chicken and wasn't padded out with fillers. We had one vegetarian dish, the vegetables in satay which also contained a good selection of vegetables. Prawn crackers included. We would happily go back.

Food for take out only for take out, once you pay you cannot change your mind anymore. I ask if I could dine in but the waiter said not possible because I already pay for take out. And customers dining in are paying tips

Good value for money pleasant staff varied menu

had a take away Saturday 30/6/24 got it home opened it up and they had given me the wrong order on the chicken sweet and sour the salt and chilly rids and the spice beef was not good at all it cost £51 not worth the money will not be back

Loved the large pancake rolls. The meal was delicious. Would recommend to all.

Excellent, big portions though! First time visit and can highly recommend. Off the beaten track away from harbour but well worth seeking out.

The food was amazing but there were few dishes as chicken fried rice which could have been better as it was not that good. But vegetarian chowmine and spring roll , duck and rice those were really fabulous. Best part they do take away and dine in both but dine closes early. I was fortunate to have been on time for takeaway. And death by chocolate was so satisfying. Loved it.

I ordered Chicken Hong Kong style. As it was a takeaway. The dish was quite cold on arrival home. Although we live only 5 minutes away. On trying to eat this half cold tough chicken. It became very obvious it had been heated up. For goodness sake, Could you try a bit harder to make a decent meal for once. I couldn't be bothered to return it to you, but it really is quite unacceptable. After all my husband paid you £19. For your muck. I won't bother with you again. It's fair to say you don't give a damn about your customer's. . You should hang your head in shame. I thought it might have improved but it hasn't...!!!!!!

Great Chinese takeaway and I am sure the restaurant is as well, just never used it. The food from the takeaway was great, fast service and friendly helpful staff.

Ordered a prawn curry takeaway, although it tasted good I only had two prawns , loads of peas and onions, just disappointed on the number of prawns, wasn't value for money

They got my order wrong, very disappointed when I got home and found that I had no rice but had a strange watery chicken dish instead. My roast pork was very chewy as well. Not a good experience 😕

Larger menu selection than my favorite Chinese restaurant in the States. Everything is fresh, hot, and quick. Definitely on the short list of restaurants for future trips to Kirkwall.

Best ever munchy box . So tasty . Thank you . 谢谢

We turned up without booking, the greeting was friendly and we were quickly seated. The service was prompt as was the food. Clearly freshly cooked and so tasty! Generous sized portions (in fact we had to have half boxed up to take home with us). We heartily recommend and if we were local it would definitely become a regular night out.

Tried this place out after not being for a long time as my last meal wasn't great and hoped they had improved but they haven't. The food was so bland, greasy and flavourless, i tried to add salt but it was so damp none came out. The decor is terrible too, very outdated, the only good poing was the staff who were friendly

Good food and good service, kung pao chicken, chow mein, fried rice and beef with veg were all delicious and service was quick and good

The most awful Spare Ribs I've ever tried to eat. Mostly fat and grizzle, and bone's, Warning to others SAVE your money 🤑 Never again, What a insult to your customers.!!!

Spring rolls small and rather tasteless. My Crispy Shredded Chicken was fine but the sauce with my wife's Chicken with Black Bean was incredibly salty. Better eateries in Kirkwall.

Spring rolls small and rather tasteless. My Crispy Shredded Chicken was fine but the sauce with my wife's Chicken with Black Bean was incredibly salty. Better eateries in Kirkwall.

Had beef with ginger and spring onions and chicken kung po. Both utterly tasteless. Can’t understand why busy, perhaps the only Chinese in Kirkwall. This restaurant would never survive in Edinburgh or Glasgow!

6 of us arrived with no warning, within 2 minutes they had a table ready for us. Service was fast and efficient. The food was glorious 😋 and huge portions! Well done to the lovely staff xxx

Egg fried rice was so dry - clearly de frosted

The food was tasty and plentiful on the set menu. It was honest British style Chinese food. My main bugbear is with the drinks: £4 for a pint of soda water with a dash of lime cordial? You can see how they make their money!

I loved this place so good me and my sister had a lovely time and so did me and my family when we came really friendly know things of bye heart really good service very quick and very caring in there service

Tasty food and friendly/quick service

Ce fut une parenthèse exotique et délicieuse entre deux fish and chips :) bravo pour le crispy duck qui est fait maison et qui fut très bon

Had a great takeaway, staff were lovely

That’s the worst Chinese restaurant I’ve ever been. Food is just awful..

Great place to eat in takeaways can be a little hit or miss, but generally good staff are very helpful and friendly and service is quick. pice is reasonable too, worth a visit if you can't be bothered cooking

I am not sure what has happenned with the food here. When I was last here the food was good a year ago. Now iam visiting again its not great. I ordered Kung po chicken that's not exactly what I got. I have it often from different places and this was not what i ordered. It was just chicken with some Chilli flakes on. Hopefully it's a one off

Delicious food and fast service with a smile! Our waiter was very friendly and attentive. I’ll definitely be back!

没想到在Kirkwall能遇到这么正宗的中餐馆，赞赞赞赞赞赞赞赞

Great food . Quick service. Fully recommended

Excellent meal, very friendly staff

Das Restaurant ist ein Ort mit typischer chinesischer Küche. Man kann auch ohne Tischreservierung einen Platz finden. Die Bewertung des Ambiente ist jedem selbst zu überlassen. Ich finde das Essen lecker.

Good Food Here! I'm from large Chinese community in San Francisco. Its hard to find good tasting Chinese food in UK. Here one! Enjoy!👍

Good reasonably priced food in large portions. As tasty as I've found in any Chinese Restaurant anywhere to be honest

Well you arrive in Kirkwall Airport but your bag does not, get vehicle hotfoot into Kirkwall, need scoff as with flight delays no lunch, found Digs and it’s right beside a Chinese restaurant,man it would be rude not to try. Cracking place fastest service I think I have ever had in anything but a MacDonalds. Good food and not robbed does not get much better 👍👍 to quota a famous line, “ I’ll be back”

Terrible food, decor, menus and service. Don't waste your money.

This is conveniently located in the heart of the town. Our meal was lovely, very fresh and tasty and the portions made sure we were all full up. The service is great, very attentive. We would all go again. I have read other reviews and all we can say is that our experience and meal would mean we would recommend to others. We went through the week on a Thursday night.

The service was excellent but the food was horrendous. Would not advise anyone have a meal there, awful

Small aging building located quite central to the main street in Kirkwall. Empire Chinese Restaurant quite frankly is just not up to standard. I guess its still standing owing to the fact its the only chinese in Kirkwall. I was in with a group of friends. We were shown to a room with dingy lighting and very stereotypical chinese decorations. We had to walk past towels hanging on the wall, and a good few customers crammed into a tiny waiting area for their takeaway, and bags of random sweeties priced at £9?! On being sat at our table, the waiter was pleasant, he asked us for our drinks order and suggested the tsingtao beer, most of us went for this. I opted for a can of coke. Unfortunately what I received was sweet water. I would be pretty confident in saying it was from a bottle sitting on the shelf. It was replaced with no hassle. The menu was full of your standard chinese items, good variety with a few surprises like lamb. What shocked me was the ridiculous pricing. For example... £13 for a portion of house fried rice? Ive eaten at a good few chinese restaurants and never have I seen rice priced this high. I was so shocked infact that I did not order anything. I struggled to come to terms with my own personal order consisting of a starter, rice and a main coming to over £40. I was allowed by my party to taste food items for the benefit of this review. We ordered ribs for starter. There was no meat on them? You're paying £7 for a plate of bones. They were covered in onions and a small salad. I assume to make the plate look bigger. The meat was tough, and over cooked. Another party member ordered crispy wontons, and when they arrived the majority was pastry, with a small ball of what seemed to be potato inside? Again it's the first I've ever seen of this. Whatever it was it was definitely not chicken or prawn. On the upside the satay chicken was okay and the chicken was cooked. Waiting times for the mains weren't too bad, they came with plates that would probably be quite dangerously hot for a small child. When the mains arrived they looked nice. Presentation wasn't top quality but we weren't expecting fine dining. We had lamb and black bean sauce. The sauce was nice, the lamb was tender and on the whole was a very nice change to have in a chinese resturant, accompanied with egg fried rice. The House special fried rice looked good, good sized portion (which for £13 you would expect) with good chunks of meat on the top. The flavour was lacking, however, and it was very greasy. Kung pow chicken looked good, but had zero flavour, and unfortunatley the meat was described as 'chewing cardboard'. The noodles were good and as a plus not too greasy. We had an issue with one of our dishes, in short someone in the kitchen wasn't wearing a hair net and as a result a strand of hair ended up in a main. Again, main looked nice but unable to comment on the taste. A hair is enough to put you off. I will note the managment were happy enough to cancel this off our bill. Our other main crispy shredded chicken with spicy sauce was a let down as well. It tasted as if the sauce had been sitting in a bain maree for a while and just mixed in as and when the order came on. The chicken itself was fine but nothing to write home about. We begrudgingly paid our bill and left. I do believe that this chinese needs some guidance in the kitchen. It can't keep relying on being the only chinese in Kirkwall. It needs to up it's game if they plan to keep charging the prices they are. I personally will not be back. I believe there is a second chance for most places, but in this instance it will not come from me or my party. I really hope this chinese finds it's rhythm again soon, because Kirkwall deserves a quality chinese. Follow me @the_viking_diner for more in depth reviews.

Excellent food. Everyone enjoyed it. Service was quick considering how busy they were.

Worst Chinese in a very long time House curry ? contained two small prawns and one piece of pork with a ton of onions. Chicken satay from the freezer and only slightly warm in the centre no sizzling platter as described. Food returned to the kitchen.

The food was great we had sweet and sour chicken Hong Kong style with fried rice that was so soft it felt like it melted in the mouth, battered chicken balls, soup, and muscles and for dessert we had ice-cream Sunday and a banana fritters in syrup. I would definitely recommend coming here for something to eat if your are in the area, service was good and the staff ate really nice.

Will do gluten free if you ask. There is a limited choice obviously but they are conscientious and will check ingredients before advising. Just make sure it's obvious that you cannot have any gluten at all if you are coeliac rather than it being an intolerance. It wasn't any trouble all the questions I asked them about it.

Tasty food with quick and friendly service.

Warm welcome and really tasty food.

Food was alright, but found this last 3 times now, every time we order one off the desserts they are never placed in the order When we collect. By the time we get home we ain’t going to come back again. Please can you in future make sure orders are checked before giving to customers.

Very disappointed with our takeaway tonight. My husband collected it. He had a chicken curry. Bland and full of raw onions.big inedible chunks. Just thrown together without care . Overpriced for this dish. Please cook your lumps of onion better and make it more presentable.

Excellent service and great food

Delicious food and friendly staff. What more could you ask for.

Excellent service and the staff was amazing. Thank you very much.

Absolutely beautiful food, well presented and truly tasty - the staff are friendly, proffesional and accomodating - definitely will be visiting again! Xx

So I ordered sticky chilli beef and special fried rice this was acceptable however the pancake. Rolls were disgusting and the chowmein did not get touched it was noodle not chowmein absolutely disgusting it cost 31.00 I For a pile of dirty food

Went for a takeaway not a big order, ordered young chow fried rice and curry sauce, first noodles came out and then I was handed chicken fried rice and was told that was my order when I questioned it. The fried rice lacked flavour and came out within 5 mins of ordering which is slightly concerning literally got a box of normal egg fried rice with a little chicken in.

Byłem dwa razy, za pierwszym wszystko smaczne. Po drugim skończyło się bólem brzucha.

Ordered sesame prawn toast. Looked appealing but when cut open showed no sign of any prawn. Basically a slice of bread deep fried with sesame seeds. When I explained this to the server I was informed it was minced prawn. I think this is common practice in many Chinese now. Disappointed.

Efficient and friendly. Would go again!

Fantastic Chinese restaurant. Really good quality food. Owners are kind and accommodating. It's real great asian food. Totally recommended in Kirkwall?

Service was very quick. Staff were very friendly and welcoming. Food was amazing

Very good service. The place was very busy at the time but that's because there was an event in Kirkwall on the day. The first time we ordered food over the phone and a small mistake was made on the order but thats not likely to be their fault. The second time we ordered in person, paid for the full meal and we were missing quite a bit of what we ordered. Once we took the food home we massively enjoyed it as it was really high quality and tasty.

Average quality, not bad but certainly not great.

They don't give the price when you order for a delivery. Prices are quite high. This does not compare though with the price the driver asked for the delivery. 5.6miles = £15!! We are on holiday so maybe he took advantage of this. Our own take away delivers this distance for £3.50. I know fuel is a bit more here and everything is more expensive so we would have happily paid up to £7.50 to possibly £10.

They don't give the price when you order for a delivery. Prices are quite high. This does not compare though with the price the driver asked for the delivery. 5.6miles = £15!! We are on holiday so maybe he took advantage of this. Our own take away delivers this distance for £3.50. I know fuel is a bit more here and everything is more expensive so we would have happily paid up to £7.50 to possibly £10. Food was OK, chicken curry was very bland and bulked out with masses of onions.

Great food and served super quick. Friendly staff

Despite visiting Orkney with work for several years, I've never had the courage to dine here. Chinese food is often not authentic. Having read the positive review left by Leon, I decided to order a takeaway. Totally agree, it's very good! Stir fry noodles had a smokey flavour that is expected from the high heat used in authentic wok stir frying. Place was very busy but I didn't have to wait long for my order. Lots of staff and a very busy sounding kitchen. Polite staff and service. Looking forward to my next order when I am back working in Orkney. Keep up the good work

I've been eating there with a friend. The food can be eaten but is below average: I had at least 5 slices of ginger in my meal which was way to much. The prices on the menu we were given don't seem to correspond to the one on the menu you can see from outside. The service is very efficient but in some sense too efficient: we did not even have time to eat the snacks that the food was already given to us. Last, the bill was not detailed. I would not recommend.

Friendly and efficient service. We visited last minute without booking and it was busy. The food was great. Good sized portions. Loved the garlic and pepper sauce with the chicken and the chow mein was lovely too.. Everything tasted freshly cooked and after a long day in the Orkney wind we enjoyed every mouthful. Will definitely return when next on the island.

We had a fabulous meal here tonight, the service was brilliant. I have coeliac , so need gluten free and they were very clued up on what would be safe for me. The service was brilliant too, we were the only ones in the restaurant,...

During a stay in Kirkwall, we visited the Empire. It’s a nice friendly little restaurant near the centre of town. The service was excellent. All the food was freshly cooked and delicious. Would defo recommend although slightly pricy.

I cannot fault the staff, service and food in any way shape or form. Don't be fooled by the look of the building as it doesn't do this restaurant justice.

5 out of 5 is almost impossible, but this came pretty close. Typical Chinese organised chaos but everything fell into place.. how does that work?? The menu was as expected and the service, quality and price was great, many locals popped in while I was...

Lovely meal and staff friendly and attentive, would recommend highly.

Good food and staff are friendly

Excellent food and excellent service. We'll certainly be going back.

Excellent quality food (large portions), good service

Whilst on vacation in Orkney, the chill made me crave some hot comfort Chinese food. Fortunately, I came across this restaurant. The food was absolutely fantastic and authentic (so much so that it reminded me of the food back home in Singapore). I dined here twice over the 2 days that I stayed in Orkney - I think that fact speaks for the quality of the food. The owners were also very friendly and welcoming.

The staff are always very friendly and the menu has a good variety. Service is speedy, but never feel rushed.

Nice food but they filled it out with to many onions, for me.

Really enjoyed the soft shell crab and beef satay, will return if I'm in orkney again 😋

Good service, good food and very polite staff :)

Beautiful food, plenty to choose from, very quick service, friendly atmosphere.

Great food and can deliver too, bonus.

Good food, reasonable price and great service too!

Great service and food. A lot more expensive than a takeaway.

Best Chinese carry out i have had, I had chicken chow mein loads of chicken very tasty. Wife had rice and things, excellent!!!

Very attentive lovely people.....food fab and lots off it

Freshly and quickly prepared food. Sauces etc very tasty, but "fillet steak" in pepper sauce, tough as old boots hence a star deducted.

My wife and I were in Kirkwall on a day trip from Thurso and were looking for a decent pub to get a drink and a snack and came across this place so why not. We both had soup which was very good and I...