China Star Dim Sum Lounge and Bar

Best Chinese food around! This place is so authentic the waitress wrote our orders down in Chinese lol. I’ve been here several times and am very impressed. Great quality food, service, and overall dining experience.

Lousy, even by Lowell standards. The hot and sour soup was so thick and gelatinous my spoon just sat on top of it. Disgusting. Roast pork Egg foo young was filled with some unnamed clear tasteless vegetable, no roast pork. Just terrible.

Enjoyed some tasty dim sum with my son this weekend. Plenty left over for him to snack on!
With such a large dining room, they need more parking spaces.

It’s an ok place besides china town. Decent price for food we eat. Eat once in while. Few time, the food was overpower with flavored and others time it’s ok place. Crowded tables, couldn’t move around much, not much selection.

What were we thinking going to a dim sum place on Mother’s Day? Surprisingly, we were seated within 15 mins. They didn’t ask for type of tea so expect only Jasmine. Food was good but dim sums were snatched up pretty fast. No problem, flag down any waiter and he/​she can put in the order for you. Piping hot dim sums were served pretty quickly. The second order took a long time though, I think they made the egg tarts (sweet eggy cream filled pastry) from scratch? We waited for more than 30 mins and man, those egg tarts were worth the wait. The buttery tarts were fluffy and crispy, with molten fillings coming down the corner of my mouth in every bite. Prices were a little high based on the location but if you don’t want to stress about parking in Ctown, this is a good option.
Do not order the fried shrimp ball though. The order was covered with mostly batter. Very greasy so I pulled them apart and ate the shrimp portion only. Kind of defeat the purpose of ordering a fried item

my first time at china star dim sum.
parking was great. service was excellent. food was good, however i thought it was a little more expensive than other dim sum restaurants… some of the dishes were not hot and needed to be sent back. no problem. water refilled often. tea was hot. went early afternoon, so, it was not too busy. bathroom needs to a little TLC. rugs need a little steam cleaning. many of the servers spoke english, so, let me it a little easier to ask food questions. i think if they cleaned up the restaurant, it would be a big plus for the business. i will try it again !

This place is just as good as dim sum you would find in Boston. You can pick your table and is served tea and water right away (very considerate about refilling). They have everything you would want to eat. If you are not familiar with dim sum, they will happily give you a menu with pictures and labels. My favorite items are the shrimp/​pork/​beef noodle crepes, BBQ pork buns and from the kitchen: pea pod stems and calamari.
I really enjoy their food. I am hesitant to give them five stars because they can be very pushy. When placing orders from the kitchen our servers (you get help from all of them) kept on forcing pricy suggestions like the… Clams! Tilapia! Lobster! NAHHH. I know what I want to eat, thanks very much.

Typical gross greasy salty nasty Chinese food. With so many better Asian restaurants in the surrounding towns this is totally not worth a trip. The atmosphere is awkward AF too… don’t go… you’ll gag

Growing up south of San Francisco, good food representing the many cultures of Asia was in great supply. Mexican food has been such a disappointment in New England, I thought Dim Sum wouldn’t be too far behind. I was wrong. The China Star was fab. Steamed, friend, seafood, pork, beef — all were delightful What I also liked is that my hubbie and I were among they very few non-​Asians in the place. This is the kind of place I love — like a welcome guest in the home of a friend from another culture. Alas, we’ve moved to PA so I hope to find a new Dim Sum place!

Food was just incredible for take out! The gravy on the egg foo young was so good & everything was so fresh! Egg rolls weren’t heavy or loaded with oil… the crab rangoon, one of the best I’ve had! The beef was juicy & flavorful. The chicken wings, perfectly seasoned & cooked. The only thing I didn’t love were the spareribs on the bone… little meat, fatty & over cooked.
We got so much food though that for only one thing to be bad… I’m not complaining! Especially for take out! The rest of the food was so perfect!
I can’t wait to go back!

Excellent dim sum! As good as Boston Chinatown. Late afternoon they even made to order.

Good for late night drinks, though sometimes they make the drinks very poorly. Food portions are huge for low prices that’s a plus! Staff isn’t bilingual or polite but I just try to get my order placed as fast as possible.
The bar & the dinning aren’t separated & after waiting an unreal amount of time for my drink once, I noticed it sitting on the end of the bar waiting for someone to deliver it. (While the staff all sat at a back table talking, like they usually do.) So I got up & went to the bar to get the drink I paid for & was told I couldn’t take it to the table it had to be served. So when I sat down & the bartender (nice girl) ordered my waitress to bring my drink, she did & my frozen daiquiri was melted & tasted extremely watered down. & when I requested another one be made, I noticed at the end of the night I was charged for the remake.
ALWAYS check your receipts! & your bank statements if you pay with card! SKETCHY!

Food has always been very good here. The inside layout is a little quirky where the bar isn’t separated from the rest of the restaurant. That being said, this place does many things very well. Of the 20 or so dishes once had here I’ve never been disappointed.

I really hate to give such a low star rating because the dim sum was absolutely delicious.
However, our bill was MUCH higher than anticipated. When we started to walk up to the counter (with the bill) to pay, we were basically chased down by a waitress who said she needed to take it. A little strange, because all of the parties around us who were paying went up to the counter without issue.
So we pay the bill, leaving the restaurant’s copy of the receipt on the table. My husband got up with our copy of the receipt in his hand– and we were informed by another waitress that we were not allowed to take OUR RECEIPT with us. This policy– if it even is a policy– is extremely suspicious and is not indicative of honest business practices.
I’m not sure if we were charged more than we should have been, but I can say we were definitely treated differently than other customers when it came time to pay the bill. The whole experience has left a very bad taste in my mouth and unfortunately we will never return to China Star, nor recommend it to any of our friends or family members.

Best Dim Sum in the area. Food is great and good for big groups.

Favorite chinese joint in town. Everything seems like its made fresh. Dim sum is great here and late night cravings are even better!

Been here five times, we do the hourlong drive down from NH. (My dim sum experiences to weigh this restaurant against include those in Boston and DC, and Nom Wah in NYC.)
We are never disappointed in the selection and service, and we have found the following helpful:
1. Be pleasant and respectful. This place can get really busy at peak times, and we all know what anyone /​we can get like when we’re pushing hard. So be happy. The waitstaff, especially the women navigating and serving via carts, have always tried to answer questions, and when unable will get someone who can. And they do smile and laugh when you’re sweet, do be sweet.
2. Get in on Saturday or Sunday between 11:30 — 1:30 for plenty of selection. Even when it’s packed there’s been adequate parking — try that in Beantown! (We’ve come in at 2:30 once and there seemed to be much, much fewer dishes available, and they looked somewhat tired, so try our recommended times.)
3. Go in a group of at least four persons, preferably six is nice in our minds. Going with more persons gets a larger table, more carts circling, more selections, more tempting morsels to savor.
4. My only complaint is no soup dumplings. That’s it. /​/​Pluses are: everything we’ve eaten we’ve loved; high quality dishes are comparable to Boston C-​town in presentation, taste, and prices (Nom Wah is somewhat better, but we are still talking really good dim sum here.) Small, medium, large and speciality plates are all delicious. I like tendon and tripe, squid, shu mai, those crazy delicious bean curd skin wrapped shrimp filled rolls, beef balls, steamed pork rib with black bean, BUNS — they have that covered and lots more. All the regular Dim Sum dishs are here — you know what they are — and they’re ALL good. If the waitstaff asks if you want sauce on a dish, tell her yes. Fried offerings are rarely greasy in our experience. Ask for items off the regular menu if you like, they happily oblige, as they do when you ask for more chili garlic sauce than the dab they give you.
5) They charge for tea — just saying. This is pretty standard.
6) Don’t look for the world’s best bathroom. Nom Wah in NYC doesn’t have that, either.

I like the food here. It is not as good as ones in Chinese Town IMHO, but pretty decent. However, their service is pretty bad. Ladies pushing the cart keeps pushing me to pick the food that I absolutely have no interest. It gets very annoying.
A couple of time there were instanced that server was looking over my shoulder when I tried to sign the credit card bill. It made me really nervous and uncomfortable. One time, she even had balls to tell me with «Oh, that’s where you sign your name.» I was so angry and told her «Hey, go away!!!». Man, that was really annoying and disturbing.

Excellent place for lunch or dinner. If you prefer to stay local and not venture to Boston, I’d say try having Dim Sum here. If you want dinner, family style dining here is excellent. Jumbo shrimp, salted pepper calamari, and salted pork chops are my favorites. Oh and don’t forget the drinks: flaming volcano, blue hawaiian, and their scorpion bowls are great. You won’t be disappointed.

I come here all the time and they don’t disappoint. They special make something I order that’s not on the menu. Box choy in oyster sauce. My favorite! The food portions are HUGE!
I think the women thats always at the take out/​hostess stand is extremely friendly. The establishment is beautiful and I think the service is great.