Taste of China

This place used to be awesome when Mai used to own it. She remembered her regulars and I used to love the food. They sold back in 08 – 09 and since then this place has gone downhill quickly. Awful food. Yuck.

Absolutely awful.
I like to think that I love Chinese food. I went in here a few days ago wanting to try something new. The chicken was incorrectly made, I asked for orange chicken and got some sort of honey sesame chicken that was SO sticky and hard. It tasted stail and I had to return it, I told them that I wanted the Orange chicken, at that pint they took it to the back and I heard the, yelling at each other in a foreign language. Then, the cook brought it out again and I took it to go. I think at this point they took it seriously, becuase when I looked at it, y car they had taken the SAME chicken fro, before and smothered it in so much orange sauce, that it was literally a soup at this point. And the rice was drowning in it.
All in all, terrible. Not returning!

Doesn’t even look or taste like Chinese food.

I wonder if some of the negative reviews aren’t for the other Taste of China in the area. The Lake Mary one is NOT a chain and is owned by a very nice Chinese couple who take great pride in their food. It is my favorite Chinese restaurant, but it is not the New York style generic experience many might be looking for. Many of the dishes they carry are fairly authentic Chinese and so they might be too spicy or not sweet enough for your pallet. They have always been accommodating if I’ve asked them to add more spice or less to a dish.
The egg rolls are hand made in the shop and vegetarian. Normally, egg rolls are purchased frozen and contain pork or shrimp. These are basically a bit of cabbage and some other veggies rolled up and fried to perfection. They might taste bland if you’re not expecting vegetarian, but I feel they are the best egg rolls I have ever had.
Taste of China only uses White Meat Chicken breasts in their dishes, so again, some people might find the lack of fat on the chicken bland compared to most restaurants that use a mix of white and dark meat. They also don’t seem to velvetize most of the chicken. Which is a process that makes chicken softer and changes the texture.
My favorite dish is the Mandarin Chicken. It is breaded white meat chicken breast, fried, and covered in a light sauce of scallions, garlic, and chili pepper. I order extra hot, extra garlic and the flavor is top notch.
The fried rice side dish here is just fried rice. There are no extras like veggies or pork floating around in it. I prefer this. They do have fried rice with anything you want in it for an extra charge.
The final dish I order frequently is Hot and Sour soup. It’s very chunky. Chock full of mushroom slices, bamboo shoots, egg white and carrots. You can see the chili oil catch on the side of the styrofoam container. It is quite spicy, but very delicious and not as viscous as some Chinese staples like egg drop.

Ordered chicken lo mein… smelled very fishy. Tasted horrible and dripping with oil. Fast forward a few hours and I was sick as a dog.
We used to love this place but the quality has gone done hill!

I just ordered 2 orders of Sesame chicken and rice. What I got was Sweet and Sour chicken which was definitely not what I ordered. Person who took order was in a hurry and kind of rude and obviously not paying attention. Very disappointed.

coming from San Francisco I had low expectations trying this place out — it still didn’t meet them. too bad.

«Best Chinese food» ever my fat ass. Egg rolls are skimpy and uninspired. Double-​cooked pork was a nasty, gelatinous mess. Meh, indeed.
You know what they have that I do love, though? Those deep fried crispy strips of crab rangoon wraps that they sell in sandwich baggies for like a buck. Those shits are the bomb.
And they’ve been here forever, so, obviously, many disagree with me or just got their munchies on and can’t help themselves.

The General Tso Chicken is the most wonderful recipe (NOT SWEET) it’s freaking amazing! It’s the only place I can find the real authentic way! when I am in Florida I will drive hours to get it! The Crab Rangoon is awesome too — everything is really top notch.

Best Chinese Food in Lake Mary. The lady owner always remembers me, and that’s quite surprising. I’m a once a month, or every other month regular, but that seems to me like it would be so intermittent that you couldn’t possibly remember the customer. I’m impressed.
The food is always top notch. I get General Tso’s, and they remind you here that their version is NOT sweet. It is spicy, the way it was intended to be served in China. I like it so much better here than at the places who try to make it sweet.
They also make a VERY interesting (in a good way) Bourbon Chicken. The sauce they use is sweet, but not overly sweet. It’s much different than the mall-​style Bourbon Chicken, which has its own merits.
Sodas here are by the can, but if you’re eating in, they have a container of cold water for your use as well.
Did I mention lunch specials for around 5 bucks?

Under new ownership earlier this year. They have a lot of very good unique recipies. The rice is B+, but some of the recipies are A+ like a sweet and spicy eggplant and recipe which appears to be comprised of at least an entire eggplant. Many of the meals to me to weigh more than couple of pounds providing a filling lunch and either dinner or subsquent lunch. There is a slight language barrier but I’m just glad I don’t have to order in a different language as I’d probably learn the food is so good.

My favorite Chinese take out. The owners are nice and remember their regulars and what they eat. I always vary, so I’m hard to guess. My lunch crew usually orders the General Tso’s and Sesame Chicken, and this is their place because of the all white meat nuggets. I like that I can substitute tofu for chicken in dishes like Mandarin Chicken.