China Gate Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Altamonte Springs

Have been ordering here for MANY years, normally all is fine. I work in a big office that orders delivery all the time...but no more. About a month ago, I ordered by phone to pick up. The dude who answered the phone was rude, short, unprofessional and cut me off while i was speaking to validate his "point". Younger, dark hair slightly asian. I merely mentioned that the previous time I ordered, the dumpling sauce was left out of the order. It was repeated back to me at the time, so was confident it was right. On a large order, it's difficult to check a large bag of food. This is what we pay them for, since they do it EVERY DAY! He took an IMMEDIATE attitude and during the closing of the conversation, he decided that in order to have the "upper hand" because he was embarrassed or offended, or didn't know how to handle the situation, (and I was MORE than polite when i mentioned it, to hang up on me WHILE I was talking.) This person is RUDE, unprofessional and does not understand the concept of common decency and respect. When I picked up the food, I was visibly upset and annoyed and called it to his attention in front of other customers. I did not yell, but was assertive and direct. He again chose to interrupt me while I was speaking, as he did to "silence" me when he hung up. I will tell you it did not go well for him. The owner was there and observed his behavior. She knows I've been a long time customer and saw how he handled it. He made nothing but feeble excuses and a sarcastic meaningless, insincere apology. He Walked away from me while I was speaking, taking NO accountability. I will never spend another dime in that restaurant no matter how good the food is. This person does not deserve his job and should choose another profession. I'm sure he's done this to other people, but I'm the only one to call him on the carpet. So, screw this place...

Over the years I've lowered my expectations for what I call strip mall Chinese food. But, every once in while, I venture back. This place has taken it to a new low. As in they've totally given up. Everything tastes like cheap, badly made fast food. No doubt their own refrigerators at home are stacked with TV dinners and freezer-burnt chicken nuggets.

The General Tsao's chicken tasted like a hunk of fat buried in the middle of an overcooked animal cracker. The wonton soup: ice cold and nearly flavorless. The deep fried wontons had something in the middle which I assume was supposed to be meat but very well could have been leather or cardboard.

Oh and the decor. When food at a restaurant tastes great they could have photos of a mail room at a slaughterhouse and I wouldn't mind. But because the food was so horrible, the odd pictures of Bruce Lee ( easily 2 dozen) made me resent the place all the more. What does Bruce Lee have to do with Chinese food? It would be like going to a karate school and having the walls lined with pictures of sesame chicken. WTH?

Some advice. Find a way to regain your passion for good food. Tell the dude at the front desk to keep his nose out of his phone or the computer and pay attention to things.

There is a disconnect between these people and what qualifies as a restaurant. The place is an insult to Chinese food, China, and food in general. I've eaten here 3 times before I left this review and I have given up on it is as well.

One positive. The place...

I get Chinese takeout very rarely, but when I do it's gotta be from China Gate. A little under $30 gets me two big containers of fried sweet and sour chicken, a container each of beef fried rice and white rice, a large bowl of sweet and sour sauce, two free egg rolls, AND a ton of fortune cookies-- enough to last at least two or three meals (and I'm a pretty big eater). The people who work there are very kind and if there's a problem with the order (I order online) they will call to make sure they get everything right. Once there was an issue with my credit card (I think I put the number in wrong) and I didn't answer my phone because I didn't realize it was them. They still showed up with my food, and got everything straightened out. I was very thankful they didn't just give up after calling me, I was really hungry!

I have to tell a story about how great these people are. After a hard breakup over a year ago, I decided to order some comfort food and I asked in the order request box if they could draw a smiley face on a box or something because I was sad... they put the food in a bag with a smiley face on it. I opened the bag, there were smiley faces everywhere. Every box had a smiley face drawn on it. They had also cut a bunch of smiley faces out of those "thank you have a nice day" plastic bags. I hadn't smiled in several days but I grinned like a total idiot when I saw it all.

I won't order from any other Chinese...