China Cafe III — Restaurant in Greensboro

We are always looking for very good Americanized Chinese food - you know, decent egg roll, fried rice, egg foo young, hot & sour soup, chicken wings, Szechuan Beef or Chicken, and so forth. There just are not many places in Greensboro that CONSISTENTLY serve up good versions of these kinds of dishes. Golden Dragon is usually pretty good but the service aspects keep me from going there. Golden Wok is solid but it is a hassel getting in and out of that location.

This place offered some nice food for a while, but then the place changed hands, and the food and service suffered badly, to say the least. We were encouraged to try it again now that there is new ownership (since June) that seems on the right track. But alas, we cannot join those who praise the culinary efforts here. This food is ordinary at best, with the majority of the dishes split between the rather unusual, and the just not good.

The appetizers were the best of breed, well mostly -the Chicken Wings were excellent, everything you'd want in Chinese wing; the Shrimp Egg Roll was equally nice, and contained shrimp that could be recognized as such; the Pork Dumplings were not at all to our liking, with an herb or spice that simply overpowered everything, awful stuff; and the Hot & Sour Soup was very good, loaded with flavor & an enjoyable amount of heat.

After the apps, everything kinda went to hell. The Black Pepper Chicken was a bizarre version - heavily breaded, no sauce, no onion, no pepper, no flavor, no re-order. The Szechuan Beef would not have been bad had we ordered Pepper Steak, but we didn't order Pepper Steak - no spice, no heat, and there was broccoli in it, MEH! Re-order not an option.

The Orange Beef was equally unimpressive - doughy, with no spice or heat. The Pork Egg Foo Young, itself, was not bad, but the "gravy" was too sweet, smothered the taste of everything else. The Shrimp Chow Mein was not at all bad in taste, but had few shrimp, and was mostly cabbage - the noodles were nice though. The Fried Rice was the first we've encountered that was just rice - no vegetables, no meat, no egg, no flavor.

The menu here is very broad, maybe too broad. The offer a full array of the usual Chinese dishes, as well as a small number of Japanese ones, including Miso Soup, Tempura, Gyoza, and a few Hibachi choices.

The folks here are friendly, and the prices are reasonable, but there's just not nearly enough good, or even ordinary, to make a...

Here's the deal. The food was excellent. Management changed a couple of months ago, and this food leaves much to be desired. I hadn't eaten here in quite a while, so on my lunch break I thought carry out was a good idea. WRONG. I ordered a chicken lo mein lunch special, which comes with white or fried rice and an egg roll. Turns out, the type of rice isn't really an option, you get fried rice. (side note: the lunch buffet is gone, as are most of the daytime customers).

The lo mein must have been cooked in fish sauce. And I really hate fish sauce. I wanted to like it, I mean, it looked like lo mein, but the noodles were tough and the chicken had a weird texture. I think I saw one green onion and a few strands of carrots, though, which is better than the rest...

My eggroll had only cabbage in it. Cabbage. Not even carrot to add color, just deep fried cabbage wrapped in a wonton.

The fried rice was not fried rice. I think it might have been Spanish rice with a few kernels of corn in it. Literally, maybe 5. There was no hint of egg or warmth to the rice whatsoever, and it had that chewy texture like maybe it had been in the fridge for a few days then tossed in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Even the fortune cookie was bad (both the fortune and the flavor).

On a bright note, the people who work there are super nice, it's cheap and portions are massive. If you can...

The woman that is at the front taking orders (owner), for me, she is very unethical, no education and/or manner. Her customer service is of the worst quality ever. I have never been so mistreated in a Chinese restaurant before and I have gone to plenty of them.

Because of her 4 attempts to pass my card, she blocked it and irresponsibly will tell you that the card was declined because it did not have funds in front of everyone. The card had funds, it only needed to be verified the purchase by me because all her previous attempts to run the card (4 times). On top of one giving a tip to the driver they charge you $2.00 extra dollars for delivery. Because I end up paying cash the driver did not gave me the change back. He just walk out with a $5 tip an order that was less than $15 if you take the $2.00 delivery fee.

There are better places to eat Chinese food than this place and the owners have respect for the customers, great customer service, less waiting time, and manners. Plus their employees are happy to see you and serve you. I will NOT order anything from China Cafe (Spring Garden, Greensboro, NC) again. Today the lost a good...