China Star — Restaurant in Abilene

Walked into the door and was asked how many people we had. We had five, the hostess did not bring us to our table and instead pointed at a table and told us, "you can sit there". Once we sat down a waitress was quick to get our drink orders and offer us some soup. We had one order of hot and sour soup and one order of egg drop soup. The drinks and soups came quickly. Serving ourselves was not a problem as the few people in the restaurant had formed a sort of psuedo-queue. The food itself however was a different story. We had arrived near a peak time for restaurants everywhere. Dinner time. The food that was out looked old and over cooked. Eating the food was difficult partly due to the presentation, but mostly because I could taste all of the food items had been cooked together. The beef tasted like pork, the pork tasted like chicken, the chicken tasted like fish. Its was very strange and not at all enjoyable.

And for some reason there is either no air conditioning in the building or the ac is broken. It felt nearly 90 degrees in the main room. As one could imagine, this was very uncomfortable.

The food tastes all the same with the only difference being the spices used in cooking. And I mean all the food. Everything I ate tasted exactly like the last thing I ate. Definitely not good. And because it had been sitting out for probably a few hours too many, the food put my intestines in knots almost immediately.

Needless to say, I needed the bathroom.

The bathroom was awful. The floor was so sticky I could feel the floor trying to pull my shoes off. It was so sticky that the sound of whatever was on the floor ripping away from my shoes was echoing in the small bathroom. And to top off this unfortunate trip to the restroom, it was hot. With the ac being out, or nonexistent, it was broiling in that small room. I had sweat dripping off my face while I tried to do my business.

I did not have a pleasant experience here. I do not plan on going back. I will not recommend this place to anyone I know.

The only reason I'm giving 2 stars instead of 1 is because the waitstaff was fast, and polite. Literally the only saving grace of this...

I recently dined at China Star on September 22nd, and I must say I was quite disappointed with both the food and housekeeping conditions. While the staff was exceptionally nice, the overall care of the facility left much to be desired. The condition of the buffet area needed to be cleaned as the backsplash was stained and the glass covering at the buffet was nasty. The bathrooms had the stickiest floor which is due to not changing out the mop water or using a cleaning solution.

Let's start with the food. I had high expectations based on the memories I had as a child, but the quality of the food was poor. The flavors were bland, and the presentation lacked creativity. It felt like the kitchen was cutting corners in terms of quality. For the price I paid, I expected a more memorable dining experience. The best item we had was the Jell-O and that's saying something.

Moving on to the housekeeping, I couldn't help but notice the poor condition of the facility. The tables and floors were visibly dirty, and it was clear that maintenance was lacking. This detracted from the overall ambiance and made it difficult to fully enjoy the meal. Cleanliness should be a basic expectation, especially in a place of this caliber.

I do want to reiterate that the staff was courteous and attentive, which was a redeeming factor in an otherwise disappointing visit. However, I hope the management takes steps to address these issues to provide a better experience for future guests.

I am sadden to see the downward spiral of this establishment as it once was the best Chinese buffet in Abilene...

My client took me there to get some lunch, we got it to go, and we both ordered soup I ordered egg drop soup & client ordered hot & sour soup we went & picked our food ( not very good ) very dry. When I asked for a to-go bowl for my soup the lady (who greeted us when we first came in) told me they serve it in the back, I decided not to get the soup & told her never mind about my soup & she immediately got extremely upset & told me all the restaurants serve the soup from the back & I told her that was not true because my client has taken me to other Chinese restaurants & we always get it to go & they give us a to-go bowl for our soup, the lady then threw the bag @ me instead of her putting my to-go food in the bag then told my client never to bring me back again! I told her I would never step foot in that establishment so she had nothing to worry about, I also explained that I do food reviews & she said she didn't care! So in my personal opinion with employees like her, it's not worth going to eat there for retaliation if you decide to change your mind on your order. This is the China star on 1st St. When she went to get my soup out of the bag she was so mad that she took my client's soup & left mine in the bag! The egg drop soup had some black stuff in it & yes I threw it away before getting a picture of it. ( I was too...