China Chef — Restaurant in Winter Park

Been a customer for well over 2 decades. The owners and staff are friendly, service is good, and while I used to go for dinner many years ago, I just go for the lunch buffet and not regularly as before. It's a better than average buffet for the area, offering your American-style Chinese favs. Fresh, mostly hot, filling and good value. The hot tea is tasty! Get there early for buffet; some days it's packed, begins about 11am and winds down after 2pm. If they run out of something, politely ask for more. Lastly, the decor is pretty aged and needs a remodel, but appears clean. It's probably one of the longest running strip mall Chinese restaunts in East Orlando.

Edit: Over the pandemic, I've ordered from here occasionally (if my first choice is too busy or not open on a certain day). I've since stopped eating at China Chef, because the quality of food was not to my or my family's liking. On a couple occasions (take out), the beef had a very off, unpleasant taste, which I could not eat. I often give restaurants a second chance, but after that, I'm done. Of all the Chinese restaurants that are on the East Side of Orlando, I only favor and recommend two now that I'm very familiar with. It's unfortunate that they all be consistent. in quality and taste, but that's just how it is. I do hope this restaurant...

Terrible service. We placed our order and was given a delivery estimate of 55 minutes, which isn't terrible for lunch time. Our food arrived 20 minutes late. We had to contact the restaurant to see where our driver was. When the driver did arrive, he sped through the neighborhood and was swerving like crazy. He drove past our building, parked, then randomly started running around the complex, looking at the buildings for our address (the condos/apartments are clearly marked on the outside). I actually had to go outside and flag him down. He made zero apology and acted like he was in a hurry. When we opened our food, everything was soaked in General Tso's sauce, top to bottom. The container at the bottom containing the General Tso was smashed and the leaking. The bag itself (paper) was soaked all the way to the top. The General Tso sauce had the consistency of jelly with a small amount of tofu. The egg fried rice had no egg in it. The pork and vegetable lo mein were oily. Not greasy, oily. Oil literally dripped off the food as we attempted to eat it. The flavor was okay, but the presentation of all of the food with the exception of the lack luster fried rice was disgusting. We will never order...

This by far was NOT the best Chinese food I've had, but it worked in a pinch and we were really hungry.

The complimentary appetizer of fried wonton strips with a sweet dipping sauce was stale.

The Pu Pu platter was really oily/greasy with a lingering taste of not so fresh oil.

Mixed veggies with tofu was in a heavy sauce and not flavorful at all, but the veggies were cooked perfectly.... Soft with a bit of crisp still left.

The waitress was super sweet and very accommodating to any requests. Tea was good and soups were okay.

As I walked back to the restroom, I got a glance of what the chef was eating and wow..it looked great..light and fresh...veggies..fish.. I have no doubt that his food tasted terrific. Unfortunately there was nothing like it on the menu. I say it is time for this place to toss some of the outdated, greasy, fried, heavy sauced traditional Americanized Chinese food and cook for others what they cook for themselves! I'd guess the restaurant with only 2 patrons while we were there could attract a lot...