My girlfriend and I used to go to The Breakers twice a month. Two years ago we stopped going due to the quality of food. My friend is a chef and is very picky. We heard they had new management and figured we would give it a shot. "Wow" what a pleasant surprise. We will be back on our twice a month schedule My friend asked to meat the chef. The Kung pow chicken and Egg Foo Young was to die for!!! Well done. Illinois's oldest Tiki Bar is our hang out again!!! read more

Unfortunately, this restaurant has gone from my go to restaurant when in town, to my stay away restaurant when in town. We used to get chicken fingers and eggrolls for an appetizer as they were handmade. The chicken fingers now seem to be frozen and pre-made and have no flavor. The eggrolls have less flavor now too. We loved that you could taste the peanut butter in them in the past and now you can't. We ordered sweet and sour chicken, bbq pork fried rice, beef with broccoli and beef chop suey. All the entrees had very little flavor and the sauces were very runny. The sweet and sour chicken used to have fresh chicken, it now uses the same frozen pre-made chicken fingers. The owner(s) appear to be cutting corners and costs which in the end, generally ends up causing them to lose customers. They have lost 6 customers from my family. read more

After reading the most recent reviews was very hesitant to return. The Breakers was the place to go years back. Well, still LOVE this place!!! Food, service was dead on. We walked in at one minute after 4 on a Saturday, they open at 4. When we left the place was packed! What does that tell you! read more

My wife & I had a craving for Chinese food tonight so we gave The Breakers a try since we heard/read good things. Maybe we went in with higher expectations but we were both pretty underwhelmed. I should note that we got take out so perhaps our food would have been better had we dined in. My wife ordered sesame chicken but was given orange chicken instead. Maybe it's how The Breakers does it but she got a few huge pieces of chicken instead of many smaller pieces, & she was underwhelmed with it. I got beef 'n broccoli but again, it was nothing special. The broccoli was good but the beef just seemed off & the juice tasted more like gravy you get with turkey on Thanksgiving. We got an order of chicken fried rice but we surprised we also didn't get steamed rice ... this has been standard/included at any other Chinese place I've ever eaten. The egg rolls were pretty good & had a nice crunch. Perhaps if we ordered different entrees, we'd be singing a different tune. We're still willing to give this place another chance, & we'll dine in when we do have that next time. read more

Had carry out and it was awful. Wonton was fried so much it was dark dark brown, not a soft spot and tasted burnt. Our crab ragoons were soggy and fishy. My wife's Hong Sue Gai was micro waved and I'll never be convinced otherwise, the texture and taste were bad. My Mongolian beef was NOT good it also tasted off and was grey. Pricey for poor poor food. The above meal was $40.00 I will never be back and my recommendation is do not go and spend your hard earned money. Did we tell them - We called immediately after opening the boxes and saw the burnt food and smelled the fishy ragoons. Their response was "that's to bad ..Sorry". They didn't try to rectify the problem, offer new food or money back. read more

There are not many good Chinese restaurants in the Chicago suburbs the breakers is the best of the best their chicken fried rice is amazing and their chicken and shrimp with pea pods and bamboo shoots is delicious you can even get the dishes spicy highly recommend. read more

New owners have brought some flavor back into the original recipes and the food is fresh and delicious. Everything is made fresh, so it can take a little extra time, but i's worth it. Still the best plum sauce for your eggrolls ever! The same looking place, but you don't go for the ambiance, thougt it's fun kitsch and a tiki drink makes everyone happy. read more

Always great food . Fast service , great drinks and plenty of food. We drive from Wisconsin to eat here because we love the food, friendly service and music on friday nights. Our server Dannie was great. Always friendly and talkative. If i could get a pitcher of Mai Tai's to go I would. I always order extra so I have some for the next day. read more

I have been coming to The Breakers with family and friends since the late 1950s when I was a kid. I understand that the ownership has recently changed. Sadly, either they altered the old tried-and-true menu items, or they have new people in the kitchen, because we were disappointed with the food during our 09.19.2018 visit. Quality has slipped from outstanding to average. I had Hong Sue Har Pea Pods (something I have ordered a jillion times and love). This time, the shrimp was overcooked and too firm and had a distinct and unpleasant oily taste. A Sex on the Beach cocktail I had before dinner frankly tasted like Kool-Aid (not even close to being potent enough). Up until this visit, I've been willing to drive all the way from Sycamore, IL (close to an hour) to eat at The Breakers. Now that they've lost 1.5 stars IMHO, I'll just look for Asian food locally going forward. read more

Great place! i love doug wolff the entertainer that night. Great mi ties also. I would order the egg rolls. I think they are the best in town. read more

We were a party of 4 on a friday night. We were greeted by waiter with "mahola" Hawaiian regards. He brought a bowl of "crunchies" chow mein deep fried noodles - La Choy style. We ordered cocktails, $8 a pop. The Mai Tai had a rock candy stick (to stir your drink) was interesting touch. The lighting was poor as we had to set the small lamp on the table (was on shelf above table) to read the menu. We ordered egg rolls appetitizer that were pretty good, came with sweet sauce & hot mustard sauce. Our entrees were cashew chicken, cashew shrimp, beef chow mein, & pepper steak. Everything was pretty good but the cashew dishes. The cashews were chopped skimpy "bits" of that didnt represent the dish well. The sauces & crunchies were nice to have to add to our entrees. Overall it wasn't unpleasant but it could up their game on recipe improvements. read more

Always great food. Got dinner to go tonight, egg rolls and egg foo young. Thanks Arienne and Breaker's crew.

I am really confused why Breakers is getting such bad reviews???? I drive over an hour from Chicago to eat there! I discovered Breakers only 5 years ago and I wish I knew about it a lot longer. Best egg rolls around with that killr sweet n sour sauce to dip it in, the Kung Pao is to die for with a good kick to it and amazing egg foo young. Wash it all down with one of 2 really good cocktails either the Navy Grog or the Mai Tai. Finish it all off with a nice cup of peppermint ice cream! read more

New Ownership...Improved Recipes. Awesome Drinks... Had a great night at Breakers! The egg rolls were great. Food was fresh..Service was top notch.. Will be a monthly customer! read more

The Breakers on New Years Eve. Kind of a tradition for our family. Where do things like that get started? Congrats to the new owners. I've read a couple of pretty rough reviews here, but I must say we had a great experience. Our server, Emily, could not have been more polite and friendly. I have been coming to this restaurant for 40 years or so, and look forward to many more. A few small changes, but all in all the food was great, even on a busy night like New Year's Eve. I will definitely be back!!! read more

I wish I could give them 10 stars! The best Chinese food ever. The egg rolls are unique and delicious. I have been a loyal customer for 20 years. I do more take out than eating there but both are equally excellent. The service is friendly and prompt. I would recommend The Breakers to anyone and everyone!!! read more

WHAT HAPPENED!!!!! The best Chinese Food in Crystal Lake is now mediocre slop that tastes like left over reheated plate scrapings. Service was slow, I mean SLOWWWWWW... We were seated at 8.30 yesterday and weren't served until 9.40. Now if you think it crowded, you would be wrong. It was just our party of 5, and another table of perhaps 10 that was wrapping things up. I ordered Cashew Shrimp. Now you would think a predominate ingredient would be Shrimp, or Cashews but again, you would be wrong. 3 pieces of shrimp, a handful of cashews and an overwhelming amount of sliced celery and gravy. The others in my party all thought their dish was far less than what they were used to. We dropped 115 dollars and frankly, the McDonalds across the street does Chinese food better. Two more things 1.) refills on soft drinks now cost. We were never charged before. 2.) The Guitarist Singer in the bar had a voice that would wake the dead, you'd have to be smashed to enjoy his loud nasally high pitched crooning. This was simply the fecal material frosting on a lousy, lousy dining experience. Now it takes a lot for me to review a place, I simply feel these hyper reviewers are more about themselves, the result of our narcissist Facebook culture. These days a good or bad "fake " review can make or break a business, as this is one of the components that Google spider-bots seek. Last night over the top disappointment was enough to prompt a review of a once loved "never again" stop for us. read more

Ok after years of coming to this place I have to Yelp it. If you live in the area you have got to check this whacked out bar/restaurant. Why 5 stars? Atmosphere is funky 50's Hawaiin dive bar. Has a friendly comfortable vibe. Mai tais are outstanding and strong. Two are pretty much all you need. Entertainment on weekends is actually decent. Love the food, and lastly the bartenders are sweetie pies! read more

Absolutely love it there! The food is amazing, the staff is amazing. What a relief to find great food at an amazing price. I had came in from Upper Peninsula Michigan and when I went in, I was treated like family. I will be back Everytime I come into town! I was a sous chef for a bit for an amazing executive chef and I believe he too would agree with me. They also make one heck of a Mai-Tai. read more

If you are thinking of eating here I have two words for you... NO! DON'T!!! My co-workers and I ordered dinner from them and all agreed it was the worst Chinese food we've ever had. I ordered General Tso's chicken (so did my boss) and we both agreed it's one of the benchmarks of a good Chinese restaurant. What we got was dry crunchy chicken (not sure how the center was crunchy when it seemed to be shredded white chicken-like material) covered in yellow gelatinous goo that resembled melted chicken fat. If you are a General Tso's aficionado you know it comes in a hot and spicy RED sauce. There was virtually no flavor at all and after exchanging a few disgusted looks, my boss and I threw out our poor excuse for Chinese food. A co-worker who ordered egg rolls tossed them in the trash proclaiming, "Wtf is this?! Shredded green crap in a soggy mass of wet breading? Yuck!" Long story short, $70 worth of food ended up in the trash and my boss ordered us pizza. If you want better Chinese food I recommend going to Panda Express or having some random Chinese person with the flu vomit on a plate for you. Maybe their Mai Tai's are good.. I'll never know because of having such a bad experience, but maybe you need a few to make their food seem palatable. I learned in college that even dirty taco cart food tasted good after a night of chugging Keystone Light and bottles of Boone's.. Final word... AVOID!!!! read more

a great TIKI bar with some pretty good Polynesian food. Love the Pupu platter and the Canton shrimp. Good fried rice too. THier tropical drinks are FULL of booze! read more

Fun place whenever I went, with great cocktails, friendly staff and usually pretty good music. I am not going to call it a place of great food, but more a fixedly tiki bar with fun entertainment. read more

Ok this place is AWESOME!!! You just don't find places like this anymore. Totally old school, American-Chinese, like you stepped back in time. The drinks are delicious. We had the mai tai and the tropical itch and both were proper. The egg rolls are the best around with homemade sauces. The shrimp with lobster sauce is one of our favorites. The food tasted really fresh and our waitress was so friendly and helpful. She had too many tables but managed to be attentive and always had a big smile. This is the quintessential old school Chinese restaurant!! read more

This place is not good at all. You get a very american version of chinese food and it tastes very bland and boring. Drinks are good though

Love this place and have been coming here for over 40 years. On our victor tonight we found out that it's under new ownership. I had a chance to speak with one of the new owners, Jason, and he is very customer service oriented. The food is still excellent and the service was top notch. If I could give this place a 10 star I would but yelp only allows 5 star. Jason was right out here communicating with the customers and open to suggestions. My whole family loves this place and we will be coming back many times. Congrats to the new owners. You rocked it!!!!!!!! read more

Eh, fun drinks but the food is below average. Slow service and a very cramped dining room. If you do end up going here, get a Mai Tai, it comes with rock candy in it! But be careful, they're strong. read more

I admire the fact that the new owners really desire to keep everything the same, but they are not off to a good start. I really wish them luck, but please explain why you would change the recipe for something as simple as fried rice (red peppers?) and very important, the Mai-Tais and Egg-rolls were not the same. I admit, the food under the old owners was never going to win any awards, but the Egg-rolls were some of the best in all of Chicago. You HAVE to get them right. Service was slow, they got one dish order wrong, one dish had to be sent back because it wasn't close to edible (but they charged me anyway). Even the long-time servers seemed lost and unsure of what was going on. I'm seriously afraid that if the new owners don't get this fixed quickly The Breakers will become just another fond memory of the past. read more

Brought a big group of 13 adults and kids for dinner, we had a great time. Super service, Mai Tai's, and Chinese food was really good. We'll be back! read more

We go to Illinois every other year. My husbands grandparents live really close to Breakers. We had the food a bunch, but had never gone in until our recent trip. The food was just as good, if not better then I had remembered (yeah they have amazing egg rolls and mai tais). The inside was fun, we will def go again when we are back in town. read more

This is the best place to go when you want a break from the average restaurant. It's tiki themed, the cocktails are fun and the food is phenomenal from the egg rolls which are awesome to the variety of options traditionally Cantonese dishes to cheeseburgers and GARLIC fries!!! Everyone in my family loves this restaurant they have a nice separation between bar and restaurant so it works for a date night or a family dinner. I highly recommend The Breakers! read more

I love this place it honestly makes me think of Indian Jones. I don't know why maybe the way it's decorated or something. Great dishes good atmosphere.i personally would take young kids here but to each their own. Good drinks too. read more

If your looking for good old fashioned Chinese come here, fried rice is the color it should be... Brown, not that nasty frozen dinner yellow stuff that the others serve. The egg foo young is never disappointing and the gravy is made from scratch. Not to mention the mixed drinks will make the experience that much more enjoyable:) read more

Mai tai's were very good but the food was the worst Chinese we have ever had! Will only go back for the Mai tai's!

Service was good, but the food, well...I've had better. I always see this parking lot jam-packed and finally decided to give it a go. The egg rolls and crab rangoon seemed almost seemed like they were sitting under a hot lamp to stay warm. The portions of the fried rice and sweet & sour chicken were large. More than enough for 2 people. The place needs some design show to come in and revamp the place. It is quite dark inside and dated. read more

Want to go to a place where "everybody knows your name", the bartenders are outstanding, the wait staff is friendly, the atmosphere is tropical, the entertainment on weekends is quailty and - oh by the way - they have great food - than head for the Breakers! We have been going there for 13 years and have never had a bad experience. read more

New owners & food & drink were good but service was ridiculously slow. We finished our dinner & then didn't see our server again for 30 min. Then they packed up our food & then came with the ice cream 15 min later (part of the meal). We spent 45 min eating and 45 min waiting. Then we asked for our almond cookies (part of the meal) but they had none. So for a check of $66 for two, not worth it! read more

The best place for Chinese in my opinion--egg rolls, Mai Tais, fried rice, egg foo young and mushroom kew are so good! Fun atmosphere like a Polynesian tiki bar. Oh and I have been to and lived in many places including Hawaii, but love The Breakers! Always come back when I visit my hometown. read more

The egg rolls and sweet and sour sauce here are great. The entrees are alright, but the true reason why my family comes here is due to the atmosphere. It's cozy and kind've feels like you are in a trailer which is somehow appealing. read more

So sad when new owners take over and start changing things. Service was extremely slow if you got service at all. this was our favorite place for Chinese I would even drive all the way from the east side of Elgin for take out. Used to be the best egg rolls around and Shrimp Pea Pod now no matter what we ordered ..it was bad. read more

We've been here before but this time our server was rude acted like she didn't want to be there. Other tables were getting great service. My Kong po beef was not spicy at all after asking for extra spicy, soup was horrible very bland. Just all over service sucked. Drinks and food over priced for how bad they tasted. Probably not coming back.. read more