North China Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Gatlinburg

TL;DR: save your money and just skip this one.

i don’t think i’ve ever left a bad review at a restaurant, but this was genuinely some of the worst food i’ve ever paid for. we came in on a tuesday because everything else seemed to be closed, and we’d never been here before, so we thought, why not?

let me tell you why not. everyone at my table (6 people, zero picky eaters) spat Something out into a napkin, something i never do and never see my friends do either. all of the meat was so weird and had a gelatinous texture which was so offputting to all of us that we all just picked around it and ate some of whatever vegetables we had on our plates.

the food was a little overpriced, even before accounting for the quality, and our server was very awkward and inattentive despite us being legitimately the only singular table in the entire restaurant, and we had to ask several times just to get refills on water. i’m assuming this is why the gratuity is automatic. i usually would tip extra on top of that, but it was honestly overall extremely underwhelming and barely edible.

everything was so bland, just plain and sad. i actually regret spending my hard-earned money here, and i’m really, really not typically one to complain. i’ve worked in restaurant kitchens for years and i totally get it, sometimes you have an off day, and i never complain. even in this case i still didn’t send the food back. i tell you all this only to say: for us, this experience was truly, remarkably awful. i only wish i had read the reviews beforehand, maybe then we wouldn’t have left essentially $20 poorer per person and still hungry.

the soup was okay, JUST okay. the tea was the Only thing that was good. but that meat… honestly, it ruined my appetite for the rest of the night. i have no idea what’s going on in this kitchen, maybe it’s just canned meat (or half jell-o) but i definitely will...

While walking around the popular strip of Gatlingburg, we stumbled upon this place! I didn’t have a chance to look at the google reviews! Wow it is pretty low from the google rating after I was trying to give it a review! But you gotta be aware where you are and if this establishment is catered toward tourists or locals? Well, for a tourist establishment, I went thru the menu and knew exactly what I wanted to order for the family. When we got there the restaurant was slightly empty, however after we received our dishes, all of the sudden the restaurant was packed! The deco of the place feels like a take out restaurant. To be honest, we tried many Asian foods around many places, and it is not that bad! We ordered slice fried fishes with black bean sauce, combination green curry, tomato with beefs and tofu with broccoli and mushrooms. Everything turned out pretty decent for a tourist establishment. We even ordered extra white rice to finish rest of the food. Even though an order of white rice was $3.5 but the owner asked if that was okay with us! $3.5 for white rice is kind of steep but vs the other Thai restaurant, The Baht, charging $5 for 3/4 bowl of white rice, hmmm this place was whole plate of white rice. Our party all liked the fish with black bean sauce dish, it was finished pretty quickly. Check out the pictures, it does not deserve such of low rating! Also this restaurant has been around since 1980s, so think about this, if it is so bad wouldn’t it be out of business already? So I think my theory of great google rating restaurant might or might not always be a hit! But low google rating might not be as bad! So give it a try when you are in...

We were 5 families (19 people) who went there 2 days ago and this was my worst Chinese restaurant experience of all. Food was really bad and service, don't even ask. THey treated us like we were there for some food donations. One of our orders was 2 plates of Fried rice and it was super salty. So we asked them to return and get us something that was less salty. Point was we served some of it in the plates and then figured it was terribly salty. They took all the plates with food and just returned back with one plate....with slightly less salty fried rice. We were anyways hungry and didn't want to return again, so when we realized they served only one plate, we asked tehm for the second plate....then the lady there started yelling at us in half broken English that we ate one plate already and were simply asking for more. We tried explaining but she was like, you ate all of it and asking again? Order more and pay for it... ANother terrible thing is, for a plain glass of water, they charge $.50 cents....never seen it elsewhere. She got over $200 payment but was yelling at us for a plate of friend rice, which she actually forgot to bring. Commonsense is, if why one wants to eat extra without paying, why would they go for the terrible fried rice...we could've bluffed for some chicken or shrimp right....usually they give fried rice free with any curry you order at a chinese place..this one, they charge for fried rice ...only white is provided for free.

Next, the toilet was terrible. THe mens room toilet had an open bucket under the urinal for collecting the leaked urine :( disgusting and smelly....so my advice is stay away from this...