China King — Restaurant in Oklahoma City

My mother recently had a desire for Chinese food and asked if I'd be interested in going to China King. Naturally, I said "yes" and offered to take her to dinner. Now, before sharing my experience with all of you, let me say what I imagine most customers expect as a restaurant going experience.

Personable staff: If I, personally, take the time to visit a restaurant, I like to be greeted and treated as though my business is appreciated.

Variety: I like options regarding buffets. The very meaning of buffet is a meal that consist of several dishes from which guests serve themselves. So the more I can choose from, the better. Say it with me, "Variety is a good thing!"

Service: I either like my beverages readily available through dispensers or refilled emptied. In addition, as I finish cleaning my plate and/or drinking my beverage, I like my dirty dishes removed. There's nothing worse than a dirty table left unattended.

Cleanliness: Speaks for itself. Nobody wants to endure dirty tables and booths. Restaurants that take pride in their cleanliness leaves me the impression that they also take pride in their food.

That said, when my mother and I first entered China King, we were met by 2 staff members, 1 of which escorted us to our table. Both staff members lacked personableness, as we were not greeted with much more than just smiles all the way to our table. However, I will say that the table and seating area appeared to be nice and clean. Seconds after being seated, a waiter came to take our beverage orders. He asked how we were doing, which was pleasant. I could see it in my mother's eyes, she really appreciates such pleasantries. We ordered our drinks and were off to the buffet.

This was the highlight of my experience. The buffet area was clean and filled with such delicacies, such as broccoli with beef and fried fish to roast beef and fried chicken; veggies, pasta and more! I won't say the food was amazing, but it definitely left a positive impression. My first helping consisted of fried fish, broccoli with beef, honey chicken, green beans and a fried donut. I believe my mother ate a bit more on the lighter side (mostly veggies), but I can say with certainty that we both enjoyed our meals.

After having finished my first helping and beverage, I prepared to go back for seconds and left my glass at the end of the table. I waited a moment while conversing with my mother to see if anyone would come by to offer a refill. I received no such service. My mother finished her beverage, soon thereafter, yet we still received no offer of a refill. Yet I saw the waiter and another waitress walking around from time to time. My mother and I went back to the buffet for seconds. I'd hoped that perhaps the staff had kept track of our beverage orders and would have refilled them before our return. However, this was not the case. My mother and I returned to our seating and our empty glasses, and then started on our second helpings. It was not long before my mother stated, "I'm thirsty", which signaled to me that this treatment had gone on long enough. I waved down the waiter and asked for a refill, to which he tended to right away, as well as collected our dirty dishes. However, it should not have come to that. I also asked for the bill.

I left a tip, according to his service. The cleanliness and variety of food at China King were a joy. However, customer service could use improvement, hence the 3-star rating. It's not perfect, so don't expect perfection. I'll sum up my overall experience in one word, "average". If you're looking to enjoy a decent meal out with the family, it's not the best choice, but its not the...

We used to love this place, not after this experience. The smell of the restaurant was bad. Should have left right away. Food is horrible. Cold food from the time you fill your plate. How can you mess up deserts well they did. The deserts tasted terrible. When you walk in they give you a glove to wear when you go to fill a plate. We wore ours but others choose not to.

Waitress said it is because someone complained that it was too hot so they had to turn the air conditioning up and that is why the food was cold. She said to grab from the bottom where it was hot.

I asked to talk to manger, the lady that came was rude off the bat before I even started talking and she lied so many times. First said she was the manager. Then she said she was not. Second said she has never had a complaint. Third then said she was the owner. Then she said the waitress was lying, no one said it was hot in the restaurant. While I was trying to talk to her she walked away and yelled at the waitress.

All of these times I caught her in a lie. When I called her out on it she said she was told to call 911 if there was a complaint. Well if you never had any complaints why would you have been told to call 911???? Also I asked her what was the purpose of calling 911? She said I refused to pay. I told her I never said that and had my card in my hand to pay. There was a State Trouper in the restaurant trying to eat. So if there was any real need for a police officer everyone was already covered.

After we payed I asked for the contact information for the owner, at first she said no. So I asked her to give the owner my contact information she laughed and then she said she was the owner. So who knows what the truth is. She magically became a manager, a worker with no power to deal with complaints, a manager that had never had a complaint to the owner. Either she is magically getting promoted and demoted or she has a lying issue. She said she has regulars that love the food and she didn’t care.

I wouldn’t feed my dog the food here. Zero stars, place should be investigated for Health Department in my opinion.

Update contacted health department. My son and his girlfriend have been ill since eating here. I have had stomach cramps and...

Not good. Very limited selection. Stay away from this place. I’m new to the OKC area and had not experienced something like this where I’m from.The woman at the register charged me extra just because she wanted to! The to-go buffet is $12.99 today. Okay, fine. I bought two (one for me and my mom). It should have come to $28.22 but she charged me $30.59. When I politely and calmly asked why the extra charge, she got defensive and started telling me about tax. I told her the tax is 8.63% in Oklahoma and that the amount she charged didn’t add up. She continued to get upset and waved me away saying she didn’t care if it was wrong. I asked why she didn’t just fix the issue instead of overcharging customers, and told her she was wrong for doing that. I just left and she followed me outside, still fussing and trying to defend her error! I turned on my video and recorded her fussing outside. Then she admitted that it wasn’t the tax; she charged me extra because she thought our to-go boxes were too full! They weren’t overflowing or bursting at the seams or unable to be closed. They were full, but I was able to close them with ease. She had no leg to stand on. Still outside fussing and trying to defend her wrong, she kept inching closer to me and I kept backing up and kept the video recording -I didn’t need her trying to say I did anything to her. When I told her I was going to share the video on social media, she told me not to come back and that if I didn’t leave she’d call the police! But SHE followed ME outside after I left the issue alone and had already exited the restaurant! Do they do that to everyone?? Do they judge everyone’s boxes and determine who should pay extra even though the food is not weighed?? Or do they just do that to certain people? This is case-by-case discrimination. They charge you extra if/when they want to, and you’ll never know if you don’t pay attention. I wasn’t upset about being overcharged; I just wanted her to correct the issue and not get belligerent over it. I would have shared the video but the file is too...