China Harbor Restaurant

Been coming for years. Everything is always great. It is a buffet so u go on slow nights you willsee items that sit. but the place is rarely slow.
Cheapest and best lunch buffet in south austin.
I still think the owner should invest in several flat screens. The tube tv is starting to discolor.
Come on boss man. Get new TVs

All the food here is either really fatty or over salted and our waitress was a bit rude with the way she spoke to us and other people. For example, I guess there’s certain booths where you can’t place a high chair so she asked us to move to a table even though the host was the one who sat us there. We moved nonetheless and not ten minutes later another family comes in and gets told the same but the family wasn’t being as understanding as we were. She then pointed at us and said that we did it so they needed to do it too. Although, I understand to a certain extent because she clearly knew very little English so maybe that can be why it sounds rude when she tried to explain something so I stayed quiet when she put us on the spot. Anyways, back to the food. The only thing that I could even eat was the lo mein. Everything fried was nothing but batter in the inside and everything else had either to much salt or flavorless.

How is this place still open? I’ve been there twice and never again. Very dirty, overcrowded and I have yet to see one customer wash their hands after using the bathroom (aside from myself). The food is not good at all even though there is a huge variety. It’s all crap, I’m sorry and I came out feeling disgusting both times. Don’t do it!

This place is not very good at all, even for a buffet. We stopped in Saturday afternoon and the selection of dishes was limited at best, the taste of each vegetable was bland to not at all, and half the food was lukewarm to cool before I even got back to my seat to eat it. Not my first time here, but it might be my last. I’ve braved the drive in the past because my wife likes crawfish and shrimp dishes, but I’ll just try to do a better at finding substitutes for her so I never have to return to this place.
The person seating us and the person who took care of the drinks and removing the plates were very nice and polite. I really have to problem with the serving staff at all. The place just seems overly dark inside and just not that clean feeling. The prices were reasonable for the dishes available, but because of the reasons stated above … I can’t even give this place the two stars I want to for my wife and the staff.
Sorry, I gotta go!

If it were possible I would give this place no Stars. The food on the buffet was not appetizing in appearance. There was little to nothing that was not breaded fried or over sauced. The wait staff never approached the table to get an order for anything to drink. The food items that I did get off the buffet were overcooked look like they had been there for several hours and had little to no flavor. There’s no chance that I could ever recommend this restaurant to anyone who has ever truly enjoyed or tasted good Chinese food the atmosphere was dark iffy for cleanliness on the floors and things like that overall a lousy experience.
Even though I ate very little not even four slices of vegetable sushi the taste was bad it wasn’t cold. I paid full price to get out of the building. When I told the staff at the counter to check out that I had not been served by their wait person. I told them that I had issues with the food and that I just wanted to pay and be able to leave. At first the woman said she would only charge me 5.99, she charged me almost 9.00. I explained that I had issues with the quality, presentation, taste and temperature of the food. I was told nobody else complained about the food.
Will never go near this place.

I love this place everything is good! Tender meats great taste and always great service why pay a higher price when you can come here! Paid high prices other places and wasn’t as satisfied !

The food was good, the only positive thing I have to say about this place.
Fruit (watermelon and honeydew) were not ripe and hard as a rock. Kids running up and down the tables, staring at us and we even witnessed a kid picking marshmallows out of the little bin for them. Basically the staff needs to control it’s customers better.

You have to keep everything in perspective, when writing a review. When I can have all you can eat for less than What-​A-​Burger or any other fast food on this corner I’ll take it. The food is acceptable not exceptional. The service at the table not friendly but never did a drink glass at a table of 8 guys who had been working in 100 degree heat go empty. This review is based in value for your $. It would foolish not enjoy a 6.99 all you can eat buffet in lu of fast food in this area.

Was doing ok until I witnessed this male worker who was wearing a bowtie walked into the service area where drinks are prepared and pick up a glass and stick his nose in it sniffing it and then put it back on the stack and sniffed another glass and put it back till he found a glass that was clean enough for him. Interesting he thinks it ok to serve a customer out of a glass he had poked his nose in and think it is dirty. I wont be coming here any more.

My favorite place to go eat Chinese. My family takes me out to eat Chinese for my birthday every year. Use to work there a few years back too. Manager there is really awesome. Makes you want to come back

Wish I could give zero stars this place is dirty and nasty food either under cooked or over cooked. Whole family got sick after eating here. Told management and they called us liars said the crab legs being spoiled isn’t their fault they buy it already cooked. I’m sry that’s not an excuse to serve bad food. Then the bathroom was dirty and discusting showed them pictures we took and they acted stupid saying ur sure that’s our bathroom… Really wow. this place should be shut down!!!

In Austin, the buffet scene is sad. I had yet to find a decent one in the 2 years I’ve lived here. We came here on a recommendation.
It is cheap.
It is clean.
Wait staff is more attentive than most buffets.
The selection of food is crazy big.
I can’t give any buffet more than 3 stars, simply because it is what it is. This was a good experience and we’ll come back.

This place is HORRIBLE! The food taste like it’s been sitting out all day. It gave me food poisoning. An we were sitting close to the buffet, there was this little girl that was playing with the meat! She was playing in the meat as if it was sand she was there for a GOOD WHILE. So we stayed watching her because the manager was right there next to her. Still not noticing, another little girl (whom was watching the little girl play with the meat the whole time too) told her mom. The lady told the manager & the manager took the container of meat out the holder but after a few seconds after the lady left the manager put the meat back!!! Gross! After that we just stopped eating cause who knows about the rest of the food!

We have been goomg here for years but after our most recent visit I know we will NOT return. While dining one of us used the facilities and one of the ladies that was preparing the seafood was there at the same time and left without washing her hands I know we are all thinking oh well they could have washed before they began cooking but who knows. Then we saw another customer lick the ice cream scoop and when we asked them to wash it and remove the affected ice cream they looked at us like we were crazy. When I complained to the manager they said that the staff «didn’t understand» I told him that he should make sure they understand the basic rules of cleanliness. If you do decide to dine good luck

Was there today. Far more better than any Chinese buffet i uv ever been too. Everything was good for the price I paid.
U get authentic Chinese food with some Mexican and american food as well. Exactly what i needed.
I recommend this place

I came here because my girl likes the Chinese buffet place we used to go to before we moved to Austin. The food is cheap, but not good. The atmosphere is a bit annoying.
It’s overcrowded because of the cost/​quantity of the food. I would have gone to a more expensive place to have a more pleasant experience if I would have known what I was walking into. This restaurant is a really cheap «get your grub on type of place». There’s a lot of chubby little kids with no manners running around and parents who have no scruples to control their children.
As crowded as the place was, only about half of the tables were being used. This is because, for some reason, they have about double the tables that they have space for, and they squeeze all the tables tightly together. It’s truly, mystifyingly stupid how they’ve obstructed all paths to the food line, by jamming twice as many tables, into the dining room, as necessary — and of course the dining room host tries to group all guest parties as tightly together as possible. Make sure to insist to sit at the table you prefer.
The one bright spot is that our server was very attentive and sweet. The service quality was great, but doesn’t make up for bad product, and bad atmosphere.

Been here many time but first time to give it a review. Came here for lunch to get my Chi-​fix. Looking at the buffet I see Menudo and think WTF?! Over the years I have grown accustomed to seeing French-​fries, chicken nuggets and pizza. I get it, catering to the kids. But it then became enchiladas and NOW Menudo. So I figured I might as well give it a shot being as how I am a fan of the «hot bowl» of tripe and hominy. Well, my WTF quickly changed to OMG. Great texture and flavor. But then I had my Oprah-​esque «ahaa moment». It’s a traditional Mexican dish and who do you see working in the kitchen of most Asian restaurants? Mexicans, mi gente, la raza… my peeps.
I consume the bowl in short order, savoring the sabroso pigs feet and all. Now off to try the Americanized, Spanish-​American Chinese food. How more cultural can it get?
I get my usual bits and pieces of beef and chicken all glazed with over abundant quantities of brown sodium-​laden sauce. Top it off with some «I am» sauce (soy-​get it?)
Food is mediocre as usual but filling. The place is in need of a good cleaning as always. I have been in the kitchen once. Take my word for it. You DON’T want to see it.
3 stars but I keep coming back. How do you say gluttony in Spanish?

This place is real hit or miss, for the money it at times can be worth it, but more often than not it’s a very disappointing place. The quality of the food is usually very low their sushi is something I wouldn’t feed to my dog. I have tried this place a couple times and I am. not sure if I will return.

At some point, I could swear that someone mentioned China Harbor was good. Better than Buffet Palace, in fact. So when we were living in our home through a kitchen remodel (aka eating out for every meal), we decided to check out China Harbor.
It’s pretty rare for me to write a two star review without something awful happening (think terrible service, restaurant fire, etc.), but unfortunately I can’t give China Harbor more than two stars. The food just wasn’t good, the selection was poor, and the placed seemed very sad and dirty.
Sorry :(

The chinese waiter that serve our table was friendly, food are decent nice. Sushi a lil bit tasteless tho. Hot sour soup taste different too.
However, I am highly satisfied with the seafood dishes that we had. Variation of dishes, nice environment and very friendly staffs.
:)