New China Palace Restaurant — Restaurant in Oak Ridge

Service was poor, and fell far short of the expectation that I have of any sit-down restaurant.

The hot and sour soup was mostly broth that had already begun to jellify by the time it reached our table, with spilled soup dripping down the side of the cup. The flavor of the soup was inconsistent for each of three cups served to our table, suggesting that the pot had settled. While I am usually a great fan of black pepper, there was so much in this dish as to cloak other flavors, much more than I've ever had in multiple other states for that same dish.

The server forgot to bring out the crab rangoon until we reminded him when the main dish arrived. Even then, it took quite a while before that appeared, clearly having sat under a heat lamp for some time. The crab rangoon was dry, missing any hint of cheese or moisture on the inside, tasting instead as if it was filled with cheap chunk whitefish with imitation crab coloring.

The lo mein was the most edible dish, even that being at best so-so. It was unusually oily in texture and taste.

Another dish ordered, the phoenix shrimp, was missing ingredients listed in the menu, having only one carrot sliver we could find in the entire dish, and almost no sauce to speak of.

The last dish ordered, the sauce, described as a garlic sauce, which I usually enjoy, was so poorly done that none of us at the table were willing to eat more than one serving.

The tea served is a jasmine green tea, which is harder to do poorly than most teas. It was served brewed at a medium strength, a minimum of bitterness. The server attempted to serve all of us cups pre-poured, despite the fact that some at our table prefer to wait on our first cup until after the main dish is served.

This was the third time we have tried this restaurant over the past year, and while the first two times were better, none of the three visits demonstrated a high quality in...

The owner is a cheap person and he will con you for your money. The cooks barely wash their hands even after taking out the trash. The waitress does their make up in the morning in the kitchen. They barely clean the place causing the floors to be nasty and the nasty floors gets on everything else. You know the plates you eat on. Yeah those plates are literally put on a shelf down below near the floor so dirty gets on the plates from people walking around. And even if something is clean really well. It gets put with all the dirty stuff. There are also white buckets (in the picture) where they put all the cut meat in cook it later. Those same buckets are washed but then get put on a dirty, nasty greasy pole to dry on. So basically all your meat has touch this nasty pole. I know all of this before I was employed there as a dish washer. They even had me do some kind of construction work with a power saw with no safety gear in the middle of the day in the kitchen. Did I mention I was there dish washer!!! And it was all for some stupid table so it can roll on wheels. Even my job was annoying. I wasn't allowed to wash dishes in the dishwasher unless the rack was full and I can only run it one time just to save on water. So if your plate is dirty I'm sorry. But then again you won't notice because the food will be covering the plate. So basically the owner cut corners to be cheap and might as well be posioning his customers. So be careful if...

While the decor is a little dated, the atmosphere was actually rather nice over all. My only real complaint was that the food took a but longer than I would have liked to come out, but I was already fairly hungry when we arrived at the restaurant. They were moderately busy at the time, but the servers were polite and attentive, so I believe the timing was more of a kitchen issue than anything else.

As for the food, we had the Hot and Sour soup and Crab Rangoon for appetizers. The soup was the best I've had in town, and the rangoon actually tasted like crab instead of just cream cheese.

For dinner I had the Uncle Joe's Chicken, which has baby corn, zucchini, and bell peppers. My dining partners had Cashew Chicken and Sesame Chicken. The fried rice was delicious, as were the Uncle Joe's and Cashew Chicken. I also tried the Sesame Chicken. I wasn't sure what to make of the lemon-honey sauce with it, but considering the person that ordered it loved it I believe it's more an issue of personal taste there.

The food was brought out with the entree itself on it's own plate, and the fried rice in a large communal bowl. We actually rather enjoyed this aspect of the experience, since it lends to a more family-like atmosphere and encourages sharing and tasting. Definitely looking to return soon!

Edit: Be sure to check out the reviews on Urbanspoon and...