Magic China — Restaurant in Cibolo

This place USED to be legitimate- matter of fact, I was withholding a 5-Star review simply because I’m selfish and didn’t want to blow the little spot up.

Alas, for a multitude of reasons, they have completely fallen off in terms of quality and service. I was willing to put up with the exorbitant prices and unusually small portions because the service was very good and so was the food- not anymore.

My wife called an order in on our ‘Magic China Monday’ as we have done for months, and was quoted 15 minutes. We are 8 mins away, so, we waited 10 and then drove over. I went in to pay and sat waiting in an empty dining room for almost 30 additional minutes... ‘what gives?’ I thought...

After finally getting my food and leaving a tip, we get home to find it completely sloppy. The order wasn’t even correct, but, that won’t usually stop me as I’m willing to try new things- unfortunately, even the incorrect order was undercooked and overall just bad.

This was beyond frustrating and annoying, as we’d noticed for a few weeks that things were starting to drop off. But, the staff knew me by name, and I always left a tip even though I always picked it up myself, so I was very confused! It started to seem to me like they were just taking advantage of me as a customer.

When we called the manager, they actually had the audacity to argue with me about how long I actually waited and insisted I was lying. When I brought back my order for a refund, the person at the counter patronized me and threatened not to refund me.

Voices started getting raised, and next thing you know I’m threatening legal action just to get a refund over half-@$$ microwaved ‘Chinese food’ that NO ONE had even attempted to eat, and let the gentleman know that this interaction was being recorded via my smartphone audio notes.

The tone changed rather quickly as I watched a flustered ‘manager’ struggle to work the Point of Sale kiosk to give me my refund after an hour and a half of the whole ordeal. I admit that I took this opportunity to ‘vent’ at that time, which, really did not help the situation along at all and I apologize for my inability to remain more calm then the childish ‘manager’ who patronized me- I shouldn’t have ever stooped to his level. But, I was and still am genuinely shocked altogether that it even happened.

I expect service like that from a McDonalds at an airport food-court, but even they at their worst are at least cheaper. What’s your excuse here, Magic China? Oh- and I always respond to manager comments, so, please by all means respond to this and I will edit my review according to how you approach this. But, as I told them that day, I’m never coming back, and have told everyone I can to avoid your little joint...

I have been going to this restaurant since they opened. Never had a problem. Today I was appalled. I was treated and spoken to by the Manager /Owner Jackie like dog on the street. First my husband picked up my order, they left out several items in which my husband paid for. I immediately call back up there. Spoke with the lady (Jackie the Owner as she told me). She apologize and said thay they would remake it. She remembered me and my order by heart. Once I picked up my order and returned home. I started to eat my food and immediately start choking from the spices. I am allergic to spice. I tried calling back, but they kept placing me on hold. Just left me on hold, so I had to go back up there. When I arrived, there wasn't anyone in line. I showed the lady my phone and said you all still have me on hold and no one is in line. I peacefully started explaining what happened. She basically told me that I was lying. At this point I just asked for my money back. She told me no and they had already made the dish twice, so basically I'm just out of luck. That did not sit well with me. I explained that I've been coming here for almost 8 years and that I was a good customer. She said that she could refuse service to anyone because she was the owner. Then she just started going in on me. She told me that her employee said that he have me my rice the first time etc... I said look I would not lie to you, waste my gas and time to keep coming up here over a $15 meal. She said do you just want me to call the police on you? I said WHAT? Call the police? Call the police for what? She said because I can refuse service to anyone. I said that, if that is what you want to do. I said trust me, I'll never be back. Several of her employees were standing on the side of her just saying "please just give her her money back. She refused to. I said you could have just offered me a credit or something. The employees steady begging her to just give me my money back. Finally she opened the register and tossed $15 dollars at me. I said let me verify with my husband how much he paid. She reached back in her register and tossed another dollar at me and said $15.91. I took my money and walked out. The moral of this story is, this is how things could have gone so much differently had the police showed up. Everything is all good, until it's not. This was so un called for and disrespectful. I will never patronize this business again. I normally never do reviews, but I just had to. Oh and I recorded the conversation on my phone. I saw the directions that this was going in, so I simply pressed the record button. If I can figure out how to upload...

When I first walked in, I thought I was in the wrong place. The google review pictures are the same place but it doesn’t feel like it. The whole place feels like a pop up or a ghost kitchen trying to be Chinese themed. Specifically themed, it looks very costume. I thought maybe it was just me but when I brought someone along, they agreed before I even mentioned it.

The service was so odd. Laminated menus at a single table. A white board announcing that there is dine-in only food? You order at a tiny window in the room? Then the people were all stiff and painfully awkward. It felt like I just wasen’t seeing something and a surprise was coming, but that's just how it was.

My expectations for the food were lower due to some outside factors unrelated to the place. That was shockingly crushed though... The wonton soup had a nice broth but it still tasted store bought and watered down. The wonton was a wad of somewhat uncooked, tasteless dough. Very rice flour flavor forward. The teriyaki chicken sticks were grilled very nicely. The meat was fatty and full of tendons which made me think I paid almost 10$ for 5 small sticks of trimmings covered in a syrup that wasen’t teriyaki. Or at least a version I am familiar with. The eggroll was very much store bought, microwaved, then fried again for a crispy texture. The cabbage had that distinct flavor it gets when it has been cooked to death and the wonton wrapped had old oil flavor. The vegetable lomein was not made with lomein noodles and instead something closer to fettuccine. It had that same undercooked and flour flavor too. I'll admit, that one was a little insulting.

Overall, I feel like I wasted $25 on a restaurant adventure. That's the risk of trying new...