China Tea Room

The food is average. The sesame chicken is hit or miss. Sometimes tons of dark meat sometimes half dark half medium meat. If you ask for white meat chicken they just give you the chicken from the sweet and sour dish and just a huge side of sesame, peanut whatever kind of sauce. I guess it’s family run so the kids that ring me out are usually pretty chill and efficient.

I actually live in the neighborhood behind this place and so it’s super convenient! We’ve been ordering at least once a month for almost 2 years now and always really enjoy our meal! Prices are totally reasonable, food is fresh and hot, and delivery is pretty quick! I HIGHLY recommend their Hibachi Chicken Dinner with fried rice, you WONT be disappointed! Super delicious!

The food is alright. Kinda mediocre though. Had sesame chicken, crab Rangoon, and a spring roll. All was alright. Likely to return due to convenience and price.

Quick spot for lunch, but nothing fancy.
The food is pretty good and service is quick. If only they’d make the place look a bit more like their fancy website — I was a little mislead, thinking this was going to be more of a sit-​down, waiter service style restaurant, but overall still a nice lunch location.
Best Tip about this place: They have real Chinese television on at their location — no english subtitles either.

About what you’d expect from a strip mall Chinese restaurant. Average Chinese food, but consistent. Family run restaurant.

This place is quick. The food is not as consistent as I’d like. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s so so. I do wish the telephone operators to perk up a little bit, I mean– words are free — I’m not paying by the word so please use them freely and lead a friendly conversation as I’m ordering to give you my money :-)

I order here several times a month. Their entrees are delicious but their rice needs work. I feel like the rice is undercooked every time I order their dinner combo so I just avoid eating much of it.

For a few years they’ve been really good on their delivery, but I’m getting tired of their lack of customer consideration.
Nobody ever answers the phone like they want, or care about, your business. They sound bored and uninterested. But the food is usually good and delivery is usually pretty quick. However, they never tell you on the phone when to expect your food or even how much it’s going to be. All the other places we call for delivery are considerate enough to let you know when to expect your food and how much to expect to pay.
Recently we ordered some delivery — I asked when I should expect the food and I was told 45 minutes. An hour later I called to get an update — it had been raining all day and the guy who took my order seemed really unsure about how to spell my street name, even though they’ve been here several times before. I was told they were busy and the delivery should be here in fifteen minutes.
Twenty minutes after that call, I called back to see what’s going on. If they’re lost, they’re lost, you know? Maybe I can help get the guy here. I’m told that they’re busy and it’s been raining, so… you know? No, I don’t know. I know it was raining when I placed the order, so if you’re that busy, then tell me it’s going to be an hour and not 45 minutes. If your guy is lost, then tell me, or call me and let me know he’s lost. My family is waiting an hour and 20 minutes at this point.
At this point it doesn’t make sense for them to even show up. It’s embarrassing for them to even walk up to my door with, what I presume, is going to be cold food. If they made my food an hour ago, then it’s been in this guy’s car since then and I don’t want it. Or did they make it an hour ago? Did they lose my order and not tell me? Has the delivery guy been out delivering this whole time and he’s just hopelessly behind on deliveries? I decided to wait to see when — IF — he would show up.
We made a pizza.
Two hours and ten minutes after the initial order there is a ring at the door. And then the guy just starts leaning on the door bell. I barely have time to get up from the table and walk down the hall and he’s rung the bell five or six times. Yeah, that’s annoying — you’re the guy who’s over an hour late and now you’re being just being a jerk.
I opened the door with a slice of pizza in my hand. He tried to hand me my food while telling me how much it’s going to be… wait, where have you been? We made pizza! Is the food even warm? Yes, it’s fresh and warm … so when did you make it? An hour ago? Two hours ago? Twenty minutes ago? He doesn’t know. Did you get lost? No? Well we’re only five miles from the restaurant — where have you been? I didn’t get any good answers — not even an apology. But I did get a steep, steep discount on my (somewhat) warm food.
If you had to wait two hours for your food to come out in the restaurant, what would you do? Wait … what do you mean you wouldn’t wait two hours for your food to come out in a restaurant? You’d want an apology or some kind of feasible explanation, wouldn’t you? I got neither of those things.
What almost certainly happened is the order was lost or sent to someone else —– so it had to be made again. That’s fine with me because I want fresh food, but don’t try to BS me in some lame fashion about the weather or something else. Be straight with me so I can make dinner plans —- start playing games with me and I’ll start looking at other options and then I’ll come on Unilocal and tell everyone what a lame business you run.

As far as Chinese places in this area, I think this is one of the best. Their food is less greasy than wang and king and they are very fast and affordable. Had way better Chinese food in Florida and the UK to be honest but for around here this place can’t be beat… (:

Five stars to the food. Sesame chicken (ask for it spicy and extra crispy) has a different (and better) flavor than anywhere across 9 states. I think there is a subtle peanut-​buttery-​ness to it. When I go to Charlotte (used to live there), this is where I want to eat.
The place has looked better in the past. It’s dirty looking inside, but I don’t care. Crispy Szechuan Beef, the Sesame Chicken family of dishes (Chicken Honey Walnuts, General Tso, Sesame Beef are all in the same sauce with tiny variations), the brown sauce and I love that the veggies still have a crisp to them after being cooked.

Chinese food good. I think they should just stick to Chinese food leave asian food alone. Do not Order Hibachi from this place didn’t taste like it to me.

I moved away from Charlotte/​Steele Creek five years ago. I ate at China Tea Room the very first weekend they opened, and my family frequented this neighborhood restaurant countless times until we moved. We were always impressed by the Tea Room’s consistent great flavors, as well as the way they kept the facility clean and in good repair. If I had to take a guess, it would probably be 20 times a year for however many years it was, definitely over 100 visits.
I also ate a farewell meal there just a few days before I left in 2007 just to try to remember the great flavors we had all enjoyed for so long. So while visiting Charlotte recently, I knew I had to come back and see how things were going.
On the downside, the condition of the restaurant has deteriorated significantly. The floor was dirty, the tables hadn’t been cleaned, and the pictures of the food over the counter looked terribly dingy.
But I wasn’t going to be swayed by the condition if only I could enjoy some great flavors again. I ordered the special of the day, hibachi salmon, and my guest ordered one of our family’s favorites, chicken & broccoli. My hibachi salmon was excellent. It was cooked perfectly, with moist flesh in a thin sauce with onions and great peppery flavor. The side of thinly sliced zucchini was also tasty. I tried out my guest’s chicken & broccoli, and it was as great as it had been 5 years ago as well.
One thing I look for in all Asian food is a light hand on the sauce, with a delicateness of flavor where each ingredient shines through, and the sauce doesn’t overwhelm the dish but rather pulls all the flavors together. China Tea Room has nailed this quality since the first weekend, while I struggle to find it in countless other Chinese takeout places I’ve tried all over the country.
As disappointing as the appearance of the Tea Room was, it was great to know they’re still turning out great Asian flavors. I sincerely hope they’ll invest some attention to these issue so customers will continue to support it. The flavors are too good to see this excellent Chinese takeout place fail.
Atmosphere: 2
Service: 4
Food: 4
Value: 4

I am originally from up north where the chinese food is typically much better so I may be different then someone from charlotte having chinese and never tasted anything better but this place is really bad. There entrees are pretty much unedible. The only things they have that are ok is there appetizer stuff. Basically anything pre made and fried like crab rangoons etc. However, even this stuff is sub par. I seriously do not recommend this place at all.

Full disclosure… I used to go here all of the time until they got a bad health rating. I put them on about a six month hiatus before I worked up the nerve to go there again. In that time I ate at many hole in the wall Chinese places. None of them really won me over.
So I went back to Tea Room and all I can say is wow. It’s not that they have changed from before. Rather it is how much better they tasted than all of the other strip mall type Chinese spots. That hiatus gave me perspective. Are they PF Chang’s? No. But when you get that craving for some cheap Chinese that is just plain solid? Tea Room won’t steer you wrong. I go probably three times every month.

Another decent Chinese restaurant, but on the other side of town from where I usually hang. Great Chicken wings, it must be something in the grease they use to fry them, but man its good, obviously the wings are greasy, and they have a slight yellow tinge, but scrumptious none the less. The fries rice here is bangin, get the «House Special Fried Rice» it has tons of goodies inside, like shrimp, chicken, and pork pieces all mixed into savory rice. They also have an amazing Pu-​Pu Platter (What a great name for a dish). The shrimp lo mien was alright, better than Panda’s Den, but not quite as good as the Cherry House. The China Tea Room is just up the street from Carowinds, so if you are hungry after a day at the amusement park, there are more choices than gas stations and Wendy’s, head down Carowind’s Blvd towards Tryon and check out this little Chinese gem hidden in plain sight in the strip mall. It’s tiny so keep your eyes open once you turn onto S Tryon. They are very inexpensive as well, with large portions.