China Republic — Restaurant in Rancho Cucamonga

China Republic is a beautifully-decorated restaurant offering a variety of specialty dishes in Rancho Cucamonga.

I’ve dined here 4 times now and can give a fair review based on my experiences here.

LOCATION China Republic is conveniently located on Foothill Blvd. just east of the 15 freeway. It is easy to find as the restaurant faces the main street and is close to the freeway.

PARKING There are plenty of parking spaces around the plaza. Just be careful walking across to the restaurant, as some cars tend to zoom fast near the plaza entrance.

INSIDE I love the simple decor here. Love the contrast of the white and espresso brown columns, and accents of blue. It just has a very desirable atmosphere as it’s different from most Chinese restaurants around the Inland Empire. It is also very spacious and there are plenty of sections, including rooms to rent for private parties, a bar area, and the regular dinning area.

FOOD & SPECIAL DIETARY ACCOMMODATIONS Each time I visited, the servers were very attentive with our food allergies and were able to omit nuts, as well as offer suggestions that would suit our dietary needs. That was very much appreciated.

SPECIAL EVENT During my last visit here, I coordinated a family event for about 30 people in their private room. Our guests were coming from different cities, including the birthday celebrant from out-of-state. The service was wonderful during dinner and all of our guests enjoyed the food.

FOOD Some of the dishes we enjoyed were the following: Eggplant with Garlic Sauce - Very good! The eggplant wasn’t too mushy and had a good appearance. Beef Steak French Style - A family favorite. We loved the tender beef and how buttery it was! Pork Chop with Spicy Salt - What a treat! I usually don’t go for fried pork chop but they really know how to make this well. Thinly sliced yet crispy and not dry. Beef Chow Fun - This was okay; it tasted like any other chow fun I’ve had. Honey Glazed Walnut Shrimp - I didn’t try this but it seemed to be popular with our guests. Young Chow Fried Rice - I didn’t get to try this either but the kids liked this. Shu Mai (Dim Sum) - Skip. I’ve had better. Hot Braised String Beans - One of my favorite side dishes and this one did not disappoint. The beans were perfectly blistered and delicious! Singapore Style Noodle Soup - I didn’t get to try this since it had seafood.

WHEELCHAIRS / WALKERS / STROLLERS The restaurant is very spacious and should be easy to get around for those that need the space.

Overall, each visit was pleasant and the service for our last private event here turned out well. Thank you,...

Dear China Republic Management,

I’m writing to express my extreme disappointment with my visit tonight, which turned out to be a regrettable experience and a complete waste of $200, including a 15% tip for two people. This was my fourth visit to your restaurant, but unfortunately, it will also be my last.

I had brought my mom for our Christmas dinner, looking forward to sharing my favorite dishes with her, but the evening fell short in nearly every way. Upon arrival, there was no one at the front desk to greet us, and I had to flag down a server just to get seated. Our assigned waiter seemed disinterested and disappeared after serving our appetizers. Thankfully, Sean, another server, stepped in and provided attentive service, which I greatly appreciated.

The food, however, did not meet the standards I’ve come to expect. We ordered the egg drop soup, wontons, Empress Martini, truffle steak, fried rice, lo-mein, and orange chicken. While the steak was satisfactory, the rest of the dishes lacked freshness, were overly greasy, and arrived at less-than-ideal temperatures. Within 10 minutes, the food was cold enough to warrant reheating. The Empress Martini, priced at $17, wasn’t even filled properly—it should at least meet the standard of presentation and value.

To make matters worse, the restaurant was conducting inventory and stocking alcohol at the front bar, leaving boxes and bottles strewn about in full view of diners. The lack of cleanliness was glaring: when I leaned back on the booth, my arms were covered in dust. I even showed this to the manager, pointing out the dust, the inventory mess, the poor service, and the overall disappointing experience. He thanked me for the feedback but seemed entirely unfazed, walking away without any attempt to address or remedy the situation.

I don’t want to assume this reaction was due to cultural differences or because I’m Latin and don’t speak Chinese, but I couldn’t help but feel dismissed. As a manager, there should have been more urgency to acknowledge and resolve these issues.

This evening was a massive letdown. I regret not choosing a more reliable establishment, like Fleming’s at Victoria Gardens, for such a special occasion.

Attached is a photo showing the dust on the booth as evidence of the poor cleanliness standards I...

Ate here yesterday. I'm not sure if we gave off an air of being young (we range in age from 20-30) and therefore not good tippers or what have you, but the service here today was nothing like I've ever experienced before. Immediately upon being seated (at a table right in the middle of the room, smack next to the kitchen, so you would think we would be seen quite clearly) the shenanigans started. It took about 10 min for anyone to ask us if we had been helped, which is fine they are busy I get that. But immediately upon receiving drinks and ordering an appetizer, they took away our menus (??) when we asked for them back, as we hadn't ordered yet, our waiter went "oh" and plopped down 1 for 7 people. Our 1 cousin was in charge of ordering so this was fine but if we hadn't been family, I imagine this wouldn't have been quite enough. We flag down our waiter and put in for the scallion pancakes (tasty by the way) and are still deciding on dumplings but I guess he decides we are done, and again takes the menu out of my cousin's hands places it on the table next to us and walks away. It was bizarre. We look at each other in confusion, wondering what the heck is happening here. When he brings us the pancakes, we again ask for the menu back, to which he replies "oh, you want to order MORE food?" So far we have ordered cucumber salad, drinks, and scallion pancakes...so yeah I think we would probably want to get a few more things. He brings us the menu and we decide we had better hurry up and gtfo, as we had clearly offended him somehow. The rest of the meal was pretty uneventful. Special shoutout to the food runner, I didn't catch his name but he kinda looked like Zach LaVine, was very polite and a big redeeming factor So in conclusion, it was very weird. I guess dress nice (we had just gotten down the mountain from a trip so probably looked kinda rough-tights and t shirts) and maybe you'll have a...