Ming Dynasty — Restaurant in Santa Maria

I've discovered Santa Maria's freshest, best tasting, Chinese food buffet! Tucked in a small shopping mall you might miss it, but it's well worth finding! First of all, the food just looks plain good. Colorful, fresh looking and steaming hot in smaller bowls that are refilled every few minutes. The servers were busy bringing food in and out of the busy kitchen. First things I dove into was super bright, salt and peppered green beans. These by themselves were so delicious I could have eaten a plate piled high with just these. Secondly, I piled a plate of sauteed, baby mushrooms. Finally, I had a crispy side of fresh sauteed cabbage with slivered carrots and bamboo shoots. For the meat, there was great looking and tasting beef and broccoli (the beef was plump, tender, and juicy)! Then I had very good Kung Pao chicken and some crispy breaded orange beef. There are numerous seafood dishes including very fresh tasting shrimp prepared in various ways including sauteed with vegetables, fried, and tempura battered. There was a bowl of good-looking snow crab legs that I saw several people partake in. I enjoyed the butterflied tempura shrimp! I also had a good serving of the chow mien and found it was light and fresh. There is a table of Chinese soups and rice dishes and a pretty unmolested looking salad bar also. There is a small, but nice-looking desert bar with very good Chinese style fruit and coffee flavored Sponge cake. It was so light and mildly sweet, I had to have 4 pieces! There is also a soft serve machine and melted chocolate fountain that was fun to look at watch kids go up check out. The servers were nice and came by to see if I liked the food and told me to get more! Overall, so surprising to stumble upon such good tasting Chinese food! It's my new favorite place for...

I ate at this restaurant many years ago and I thought it was fine for what it was. I wish I could say the same now, but no. First of all the floor was dirty and the booth where we sat had seen better days. The seat cushion was completely worn out and I felt like I was sitting on the floor, which was dirty. The table itself was sticky. We should've taken the hint and left but decided to not judge a book by it's cover. The food is a step down from Panda Express, which in my opinion is bad. At least at Panda Express the rice and the food are hot. Because I was hungry my initial response to the chicken and broccoli was, well this is tasty. I went back for a second helping and realized, no it's not. I guess if you have never eaten real Chinese food, like in Monterey Park, you might think the dishes here were tasty. No. I wish I had something nice to say but unfortunately I don't. The sweet and sour sauce was a shade of neon pink I have never encountered in real life. The teriyaki chicken was burnt and tough. I had the chow main and it was blaah. The garlic green beans was almost ok but in the end didn't make it....

The service was ok the food was bland. I thought it would be ok but there isn't anything here to distinguish them from any other buffet elsewhere. They charge a high rate for third class food. Meaning if you cooked this in your kitchen it would have tasted better. There was a lot of things that had a weird smell like the jello smelled like dirty water. The floor and table clothes were so stained and gross. I was happy the plates were clean which is the only reason we stayed. It was a small Buffett for sure. I don't think we should have paid $73 for two adults and two children I could have eaten at Mikados sushi for less and had ten times...