China Wok — Restaurant in Winter Garden

I've been waiting to try China Wok in Winter Garden (on Vineland Rd., not to be confused with another restaurant of the same name, elsewhere in Winter Garden), especially after having read so many positive reviews.

It's a tiny walk-up counter location, with a few small tables/chairs. It looked clean, including Clorox bleach wipes containers on each table?! Why?

I'm someone who likes to order by picture if I haven't been somewhere before... unfortunately, the only photos of the food were faded, washed out pictures above the counter (menus are simply printed), which looked like they were about 30 years old.

I ordered Won Ton soup, House Special Fried Rice (pork, chicken, shrimp, veggies) and the Happy Family Special (chicken, jumbo shrimp, scallops, beef, pork, and a few veggies, in house "special" brown sauce).

I specifically told the nice lady I like hot, fresh, not rewarmed food. She assured me nothing was rewarmed. I decided to eat in.

The Won Ton soup came out (they served all my food in to-go containers, which was fine with me, because I told them I was going to take the leftovers with me). It was hot, the won tons were very good, and seemed fresh. The broth was... flavorful, but completely boring. Just clear broth (maybe I had confused this soup with War Won Ton I'd had other places, that might be on me, I didn't ask).

Then came out the house special fried rice. I learned, upon ordering that they used THREE types of rice - white steamed, "brown" rice, which costs more, if requested, and then there is a "different brown rice," which is used specifically for the fried rice (I wasn't aware there were different types of brown rice," but okay... I had ordered it as it normally comes).

It was hot, and the proteins in it seemed quite fresh, but the rice did not seem freshly cooked at all... it was dry, and definitely seemed rewarmed. In fact, I had seen the nice lady bring out a baggie of pre-measured food, and dump it in the hot wok (very near to me at the counter), which I'm guessing was pre-made fried rice, which was reheated, and they added freshly cooked meats to. I realize that restaurants don't make every dish fresh for every customer, especially staple dishes, but... she promised me they didn't use any rewarmed dishes. The flavor was decent, but the stale rice taste was a turn-off.

The main Happy Family dish came out, and the entire thing was hot, very fresh, with freshly cooked meats and veggies, and it tasted really good, with a tangy brown sauce... more flavor than most similar dishes have elsewhere.

Unfortunately, as I was eating, the nice asked me how it was, and I asked if any of their dishes had MSG, because I wanted to consider take-out in the future for my family, but everyone else in my family, but me, was sensitive to MSG. She said ALL of their dishes have MSG in them - ALL OF THEM! (Ok, fairness disclaimer again - I thought I had read that this restaurant did not use MSG at all, but I asked while eating because the flavors were more intense than many other places. My mistake, because I try not to eat MSG at all, even if I have no particular sensitivities to it... at least I thought).

The lady told me, "Any Chinese restaurant that tells customers they don't use MSG is lying... they all do!" I questioned that a restaurant would lie and risk making their customers with allergies sick... she just repeated , "They all do." This was quite disappointing - I don't like to consume MSG. My fault for not asking sooner.

I ended up paying the price overnight... I just felt horrible. No allergic type reaction, but between the high sodium and what I am believing is the high dosing of MSG, it just didn't agree with me. I literally threw away all my leftovers the next morning. NOT a good experience overall.

Still giving 2 stars for the flavor, and if others don't care about getting dosed with MSG when there are so many other places that don't use it, but still...

Been happily coming here for as long as I've lived in Florida, definitely over 5 years. And always told friends and family to come here. However that ends today, our overcooked food was unbelievably chewy and you could not eat it without fighting with the toughness (not crispiness, distinctly different and easy to distinguish). I called the owner to explain this problem and asked for NO REFUND OR REPLACEMENT, just wanted to let them know so they can be careful for the future. Their response was that perhaps it was just too crispy for MY taste. Blaming the customer is the worst thing to do. Stating that all other customers want it cooked 4 - 5 times so it's extra crispy has nothing to do with me and too bad it wasn't crispy, but rubbery instead. I want to be able to eat my food not spend endless time trying to chew through it. No admission of fault by the business or an apology which is what would have been appropriate for wasting my hard earned money and time, just blaming the customer for "my taste" issues. It's a shame when a business can't own up when...

I just stopped in 20 mins ago. I ordered beef with mixed vegetables, 2 eggrolls and wonton. I am going to say I took 2 bites of meat that tasted like I was swallowing fat not even meat, egg rolls were toast, rice was black and burnt and tasted like it was left over from this weekend and my wontons were raw as dough. Needless to say I asked for white rice to hopefully eat at least the vegetables and the white rice was not good either. Wasted $12 and 30 mins. I left everything there and ate the egg rolls only. I hopped in my truck and a man in a red shirt flew out the back door like he was about assault me if I stopped. I never said a word to them inside and drove away never to return.

Sadly there is no such thing as good Chinese food anymore. P S.....The plastic fork was so cheap it folded trying to poke meat , rice and veggies for christ sake.

I would leave 1 star but chose not to in the hopes they...