Taste of China is a Chinese buffet with Mongolian BBQ. However, this was far from your typical Chinese buffet, and not in a good way.
When we walked in, we were greeted and seated…pretty normal. Once at our table, one of the first things I noticed was the music being played. Normally at a Chinese restaurant, you hear Oriental instrumental music. Not here. They were playing Spanish music, which I would be fine with…in a Mexican restaurant.
The Mongolian BBQ
The first thing we noticed was the Mongolian BBQ. All of the meats were thawed out and honestly looked like they had been sitting out for multiple hours. We weren’t even willing to try it for fear of getting sick.
The Buffet
The buffet options were fairly typical, at least the ones we could identify. Nothing was labeled correctly. Here is a list of what we tried and what we thought of it:
Fried Rice: pretty typical, large chunks of onion
Lo Mein: lacked in flavor
Rice Noodles: these were good…I liked the little chunks of meat in them
Sesame Chicken: meh…nothing spectacular but it wasn’t bad
Rangoons (cream cheese wontons): very little filling..filling had no flavor what-so-ever
Chinese Donuts: hard as a rock, actually crunched when you bit into them
Spare Ribs: the glaze tasted like it was made from strawberry Kool-Aid
Egg Drop Soup: decent flavor minus the egg shell
Macaroni and Cheese: disgusting!
French Fries: I wouldn’t even try these because they were grey
We did venture to try a few things that we could not identify…like the chucks of chicken with breading and an un-identifiable glaze with imitation bacon bits and what appeared to be some sort of roast beef. We did not try the menudo, chips and salsa, or sushi.
Final Notes…
Our final thoughts….it was extremely disappointing. We have been there before and had much better food and experiences. We paid $40 for our meals, and it definitely was not worth it. I seriously doubt we will ever go back again. And on a side note, by the time we made the 20 minute drive from the restaurant to our home, our stomachs were so upset it wasn’t funny. Tums was our friend to say the least.
