China Star — Restaurant in Lake Mary

I am appalled by the experience we had as patrons of this business. So naturally, I came to yelp to share my cautionary tale. My boyfriend and I are self-proclaimed foodies and have frequented a wide variety of establishments in the greater Central Florida area, but never have I been treated with such disrespect and combativeness as I was at China Star. Please, order at your own risk. I will never spend my hard-earned money here again and I recommend that you follow suit. Here’s why:

Last weekend, much to our delight, my boyfriend and I realized that China Star delivered to our home! We previously thought Lee’s Palace was the only place for Chinese delivery in our area and were happy to have a second option. We ordered online with ease and the food arrived ahead of the estimated delivery time. So far, so good! The issue began when we realized that the soups included with our combination platters were not in the bag. I’ll be honest—the only reason I wanted Chinese delivery was to get my hands on a hot bowl of wonton, so I was super disappointed. I called the restaurant to allow them to right this wrong and was absolutely disgusted by the behavior that ensued.

I explained our predicament to the gentleman (I use that term VERY LOOSELY) who answered the phone, I presume the owner by the way in which he spoke with authority on the subject. He explained that they did not give us soups because we did not indicate on the online order which type of soup we wanted. He stated that it was our fault because we didn’t choose an option for soup (SPOILER ALERT: There is NO option to choose a soup on the order form – photos attached for proof). I politely asked him why they didn’t call us and he was outraged by the suggestion—"WE NO CALL CUSTOMER!” I responded that I did not understand why they wouldn’t call us, but that’s fine, could they just send someone over with the soups now? With an abundance of attitude, he responded that it would take 45 mins to an hour, clearly trying to dissuade me from requesting my soups, which we paid for. I told him that it would be fine and we would wait. I think this upset him even more and he went on a tirade about how if it was the restaurants fault they would have them to us in 5 minutes, but it wasn’t their fault, it was ours because we don’t know how to order correctly (read: you stupid people don’t deserve soup). Attempting to reason with him, I asked him if the soup was included with the price of the meal and he confirmed that it was, so I said that we wanted the soups that we paid for. He conceded that they would credit us on a future order for the soups. Perhaps if I’d accepted, that would have been the end of things, but I’ve been in this situation before where the restaurant offers you a credit with nothing in writing and when you try to cash it in, they suddenly don’t know what you’re talking about. Furthermore, this person had been YELLING at me and berating me for the past 5 minutes, so frankly, I had no desire to place a future order. I told him as much. Very calmly and politely I said, “sir, I do not want to order from you in the future if this is how you treat your customers. Please deliver our soups or you can credit them back to the card that we paid with today.” HE LOST IT. I am paraphrasing, but it was something along these lines: “EXCUSE ME, NO. NO, YOU DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO. I DON’T CARE IF YOU DON’T ORDER HERE AGAIN!!!” followed by a continuous stream of yelling, again, about how it is our fault because we can’t figure out the right way to order. I quietly interrupted 2-3 times with, “sir, please stop yelling at me.” The look on my boyfriend’s face was priceless as he watched me calmly get screamed at on the phone and called out “there was no option for soup!” in the background. After several minutes of abuse from this business owner, I said, “you know what? You can keep my money and you can keep the soups but I will be writing a review about your business and how you treated me.” So here I am...

if they allowed to place 0 on this review thats what they would get. I call 4 times to make an order, they keep me waiting around 20 minutes while i could hear then taking other people orders. After all of that and many calls and the lady and the man speaking on the phone would say, can you wait? I told them no am tired of waiting...for around 20 minutes . I told them the order was for deliver and they told me on the last try , they were busy and they at the moment would not make any deliver. Why to make me wait for 20 minutes, and passing the phone like a hot potato to tell me they can not take the order....It was my FIRST TIME tring to order there for my Birthday, and I promise would be the last time too. She say they were having problems with the System.. but I could hear them on the phone taking orders for the people that was just getting in.and other phione calls...Hell, NO WAY from my pocket...

Ever since they let their manager go this place has been terrible. It used to be my go to chinese take-out place for 5 years or so. Now they take forever to deliver and are almost always late. They put almosy zero effort into getting orders correct. For example, my last order they didn't include soup, egg rolls, or krab rangoon. They brought it after a quick call, but one of us ended up getting violently ill after eating it. Thank God I didn't eat it! Another time my lemon chicken dinner meal was literally just a crusted chicken patty sliced with a lemon wedge. The orange chicken was in such thick sauce and covered in orange peels not just zest. I'm sad to write this review, truly. This was my go to place and now I guess I'm not eating chinese food anymore....