Kungfu Kitchen - Lake Buena Vista — Restaurant in Dr. Phillips

Came here on a Saturday evening with my girlfriend. Added my name onto the waitlist and we were seated in about 10-15 minutes.

Here’s where things start to turn sour. Originally we were sat at the edge of a table that can accommodate 6 people. I believe they were going to seat two parties of two on either side of the table with an empty chair between the separate diners. We did not mind this at all because even when we eat at other restaurants like First Watch, we often choose the “community table.” Fast forward about 3-4 minutes, the hostess interrupts the gentleman about to take our order because a five person party just walked in. She muttered to him to move us to a smaller table with “more privacy” in the corner of the restaurant. Realize that both my girlfriend and I literally just heard her say the actual reason for moving us was so the larger party could sit there. What a convenient excuse. 🙄

We’re not one to make a fuss so we understood their intentions and moved to the corner seat without issue. I will say the original chairs we sat on at the larger table are quite tight around the hips and thighs, so if you’re bigger boned like I am, you can feel the chair squeeze your body. The bench seating placed around the edge of the restaurant was actually much more comfortable to sit on.

So at our new “more private” table, the waiter finally begins to take our order. We order the chicken soup dumplings, the pork/crab soup dumplings, a house special ramen with soup, chicken ramen with soup, and two cups of ice water with lemon.

Also please note that the “Ramen w/ soup” and “Hand-cut Noodle w/ soup” have a dollar difference between the pricing. I asked the waiter what’s the difference between the two dishes to warrant the extra dollar for the hand-cut noodles. He told me the literal shape of the noodle is the only difference, both are made from the same dough, hence my girlfriend and I chose the ramen style noodles.

We wait about 20 minutes and our noodle soups arrive first. At this point in time, we actually received our noodles before we got our cups of water. We wait another 5 minutes and our soup dumplings arrive on the table. 25 minutes of sitting at this new table and we received all of our food prior to being given our drinks. Please refer to the pictures attached to see that I actually finished my bowl of noodles before even getting my glass of water. Eventually I wave down the hostess to help grab said cups of water, which she does.

It is at this time, I realize that no one waiter or waitress is assigned to any specific table. They work as a group to perform the jobs of waiting, bussing, and running food to the table. This can explain why our drink orders were never followed up upon. The initial gentleman that took our order never followed up on our table until I asked for the check. Overall there seems to be a lack of communication, detail, and attention to each table’s needs because there is no designated jobs between the workers on the floor.

I will admit that the food is indeed delicious. The soup dumplings remind me of the ones you can find in chinatowns in much larger cities and the noodles were fresh and chewy, and the soup had a delicious richness from a bone-broth base. Overall no real complaints with my food. All dishes came out quick, fresh, and hot. My girlfriend found some wilting and brown cilantro in hers which wasn’t appetizing to the eyes.

The food here is definitely worth checking out if you want some authentic and delicious Shanghainese cuisine but the bad taste the service left in our mouths will likely keep us from...

10/11/24: I am excited to finally come to this restaurant to try out their scratch kitchen dumplings and hand pulled noodle. Servers are very attentive and friendly.

Items ordered Marinated pig ears - My husband and I liked it! The pig ears (cooked of course) is thinly sliced and marinated in a savory sauce served chilled. I love pig ears in general so it's hard for me to write negative about it unless it's salty. For the pig ears lovers, I highly recommend this appetizer. I think it would be perfect if there's some sate chili paste added to give it some spice.

Xiao Long Bao - soup dumplings. I ordered the crab and pork filling. The filling is tender and piping hot, loaded with the soup inside and wrapped with a very thin layer of dough. It's my favorite place for Xiao Long Bao in Florida so far! I highly recommend this.

Ramen noodle soup with roasted duck and bok choy - kids love the bouncy chewy ramen made from scratch. Duck was tender and flavorful. As for the broth, I am not much a fan for it. For a Chinese-style ramen broth, it's decent. I split the bowl of this ramen noodle soup into small portions for five of us and the three kids devoured it all. But for a foodie who is used to the more herbal flavored broths of Thai, Lao, and Vietnamese noodle soups, then the Chinese-style broth like this lacks flavor, and taste like plain water/soy sauce/salt liquid. It's just a matter of how salty the broth is for this type of noodle soup. No offense.

Stir fry wide noodle with beef, shrimp and egg. I requested to omit the bean sprouts and celery for the kiddos. The thinly sliced beef is very tender. Shredded carrots are fully cooked for the kids' preference. The wide noodle was bouncy and chewy in a good way. Shrimp was cooked just right. The only reason why I would not order this dish again is because of the stir fry sauce. The stir fry sauce reminds me of the brown stir fry sauces at the typical Chinese fast food restaurants in the mall. At least that's the first thought that came to mind when I took the first bite of this stir fry noodle dish. The three kids didn't like the sauce flavor, nor did I. I do hope they offer different choices of stir fry sauces like other authentic Chinese restaurants we have been to.

Scallion pancake - It was VERY thin and VERY crispy. The three kids loved it. I am not much of a fan of this thin crispy scallion pancake though.

Shanghai Pan Fried Pork Buns - I liked it, but not love it. To be fair, we were all too full to fully enjoy this appetizer. Our little guest that joined us for dinner said she likes the Xiao Long Bao better than these fried pork buns.

Notes: The oriental interior design has a neat look with a pleasant atmosphere and very welcoming feel. The restaurant appeared to be very clean, but when I looked at the kiddos putting their face onto the faux leather pillows that are on every chair as a back or butt cushion, it gave me a different perspective. 😂 I told the kids if people were to use it as a butt cushion, can they imagine of how many fart molecules have penetrated into these faux leather pillows and now they are rubbing it onto their face? It makes me wonder how often do the folks here actually sanitize and wipe these pillows down? For the environmental-friendly foodies, this restaurant uses brown paper bags and waxed brown paper to-go boxes. I do appreciate they didn't use styrofoam to add more to...

I came to check out this new place with my friend, having high hopes that I shouldn't have had. Mind you, I understand that the place has a "soft opening," so I would assume that it's an opportunity to show themselves in the best colors. So if these are their best colors, then that's just sad. Let me explain.

First, the restaurant is very small with a bunch of tables stacked almost upon each other, especially the ones that are against the wall. The tables are SO CLOSE to each other that it was highly, highly uncomfortable. I felt like the strangers were breathing into my food and I was in their plates as well. There was no way to have private conversations because everyone could hear everyone. The servers themselves barely fit between tables to deliver the food.

Speaking of delivery - the very first thing that was messed up (aside from no space) was my order. Seriously? I specifically asked the server to get veggie pancakes without beef, and she even specified. Then they brought beef pancakes... I'm a vegetarian, so I couldn't just keep them (not that I should have anyway!). They took them away but it turned out that the guy sitting next to me got my pancakes and already ate some. So the server gave the guy my beef pancakes and I had to wait even longer for my veggie ones.

Some time later, the people sitting on the other side of me also got their orders messed up, so they too had to wait to get their orders corrected. Everyone was visibly irritated. It didn't help that when food got out, there was barely any space on tables because they were so tiny! Being squeezed into no space AND having almost nowhere to put the food was absolutely ridiculous!!

The entire environment seemed extremely chaotic, no one knew what they were doing, it was very disorganized and a total mess. It seemed that the staff had no experience of serving at restaurants, communication was terrible, and there was no manager to assist anyone.

Moreover!!! The pricing for the food was waaaay too high for the taste and volume! This pricing would be appropriate for a high-end restaurant, which it definitely was NOT. Maybe that's why I had high hopes in the first place. In hindsight, it seems arrogant to charge such outrageous prices for the experience they offered.

The food was good and that's about the only acceptable thing about my experience. My friend liked the food but otherwise was extremely disappointed. Unless they fix the space issue and train the staff properly to know their tables at least, it is not worth coming back at all. As I think about the mess, lack of privacy, lack of space, and high discomfort - it gives me shivers. Who wants to...